BEDROOM CHINA
There is still quite a lot of this about and it’s quite pretty. The most obvious use for old chamber pots, slop pails, washbasins, foot baths, ewers, etc. is for flowers, or to hold flower pots. This china has been used for soup tureens, punch bowls etc. mid provided there are no cracks or chips in the china, I suppose there is no reason why not, but personally the idea does not appeal. Like other pottery it can be mended (see China Mending), and a bit of careful re-touching with a paint brush and enamel can brighten things up a bit.
BEESWAX
Beeswax is the natural wax made by the bees when building honeycombs, mid it can be bought at chemists and sonic hardware stores. It is sold as fine grade, white beeswax, or as natural wax which has an orange brown colour. Ofcourse if you keep bees you will have your own. I once left a bowl of natural beeswax from my own bees on a larder shelf. In due course, at a moment of family crisis, a visitor tried to fry some bacon and eggs in it, mistaking it for dripping. The kitchen smelt wonderful for days, but otherwise it was a waste not only of the beeswax, but of the bacon and eggs!
Beeswax by itself is too hard to use as a polish, and various blends can be made. Beeswax melts at about 65 deg. C. and do take care when making polish as the ingredients arc inflammable. Keep an oldsaucepan for the job and have suitable containers with good lids ready for the polish. I keep my old furniture polish tins and re-use them again and again. Use real turpentine, not turpentine substitute.
3 parts white beeswax 8 parts real turpentine
Melt the wax slowly over a low flame, together with the turpentine. Use a double saucepan if possible, or suspend the container in another saucepan with water in it. Colour the polish with stain if you wish. The stain should be added immediately the concoction is removed from the heat, and mixed in well. Put the polish into a tin and close it tightly. Use it just like any other polish when cold; apply with a soft rag and rub hard.
Recipe z. J lb. beeswax real turpentine
Melt the wax in a saucepan over a low flame, adding well
turpentine and mixing until the whole is the consistency of thick custard. Paint the mixture on to the wood with a rag while it is still warm and leave it to dry. Then polish as hard and as long as youlike. This method is best for natural wood surfaces which will absorb a lot of the polish, but not for surfaces which already have a polish on them.
Recipe 3. 8 ozs. beeswax 2 ozs. resin
real turpentine
Melt the resin, beeswax and a little turpentine in a double saucepan over a low flame. When it is all blended together remove it from the meat and allow it to cool, but before it has set stir in enough turpentine to make a soft polish, about I pt. Acid colouring if required.
This is a leather dressing similar to that used by the British MUSCU111.
7 ozs. anhydrous lanolin
I fluid oz. cedarwood oil
I oz. white beeswax
ti fluid ozs. hexane
Hexane is highly inflammable so do not make this mixture up near an open flame, or use the dressing near an open flame. Dissolve the beeswax in the hexane (no heat is required), add the lanoline and blend well, and lastly add the cedarwood oil.
Recipe 5. furniture cream
3 ozs. white wax
8 ozs. real turpentine 8 ozs. warm water liquid ammonia
Melt the white wax over a low flame. Remove the saucepan from the flame and add the turpentine and the warm water and blend it all together. Add the ammonia drop by drop stirring all the time until the mixture is a thick cream. This old recipe for polish should be used with care as ammonia is a solvent for some varnishes but is excellent on wood which does not have an artificial surface of varnish or French polish.
Recipe 6.
pt. real turpentine pt. soft water
2 ozs. beeswax (natural) I oz. white wax
2 squares camphor
i oz. Castile soap
i teaspoonful ammonia
Shred the waxes and the camphor into the turpentine. Shred the soap into the water and simmer tuitil the volume is reduced by half. Cool and add the turpentine and wax mixture. Blend well together and add the ammonia and shake thoroughly. This is a good cleansing furniture polish.
Recipe 7. z ozs. white beeswax
benzene
Flake the beeswax and then add the benzene and stir until the wax has dissolved. This is a useful dressing for preserving wickerwork and canc.
Recipe 8. wax adhesive
5 parts beeswax
5 parts resin
i part real turpentine
Heat all together gently in a double saucepan until the ingredients blend.
Simple beeswax polishes as in Recipe r make an excellent protective coating for bronze, alabaster, iron, steel, marble and slate, as well as for all kinds of wooden furniture and objects.
Various other polishes which do not contain wax are described in the section oil Polishes.
BIRD-CAGES
Large Victorian bird-cages still turn tip in junk shops. I owned and used one, but unfortunately my Siamese cat discovered that the metal rods were not particularly strong, and after I came home from the cinema one night to find a pathetic heap of blue feathers on the floor, a smug cat, and a bent cage, I reverted to modem steel cages and kept the old one as a relic. Many old cages are somehow reminiscent of the Crystal Palace, and are made of dozens of metal rods, either rusted or covered in filth and old paint. The only real answer is to clean each rod separately with emery paper, or steel wool dipped in paint stripper. It’s
hard work on the fingers and is a good job for the long winter evenings, as it can be done while watching television. Solder broken rods (see Soldering). Having cleaned the cage repaint it, or lacquer it with clear metal lacquer. The application of paint or lacquer by brushing is a tedious job on such an object; spraying might be easier, but to be sure of covering all sides of the rods; dipping is the best answer. If the cage can be taken into sections each section should be dealt with separately, otherwise you are going to need a huge container and an awful lot of paint or lacquer to dip the object effectively.
BLEACHING
Colour or stains can be removed by bleaching. Sunlight will bleach, but it is chemical bleaching which is described in this section. Because the action of bleach is irrevocable take care. It is all too easy to remove not only the stain and the colour but the underlying material; and it is a cardinal rule to use bleach well diluted and to strengthen it gradually if necessary. Always try out bleach on a part of the material where it can do least damage, before making any general applications.
Hydrogen peroxide, and Milton are good bleaches. To bleach very fragile articles which cannot be rubbed, soak a Plaster of Paris slab with hydrogen peroxide and then place the object to be bleached just above the slab, within a quarter of an inch. Do this in an empty drawer or a small cupboard to confine and concentrate the vapours.
Household bleaches such as Doinestos, Brobat, and Parazone are fine for bleaching certain articles, but are strong and may need dilution and they should not be mixed with any other type of cleaner lest you succeed in making chlorine gas which is highly toxic.
Ch bromine T, which is white powder to mix with distilled water, makes a bleach for prints.
Raw wood is bleached, either after stripping down or to remove stains, by swabbing with ordinary domestic bleach. Adjust the strength of the solution according to the degree of lightness required.
gen in water, freeing the oxygen, and this means that it has strong bleaching properties. It is possible to make an apparatus for bleaching prints etc., but I must point out that chlorine gas is dangerous stuff and the greatest care should be taken when using it as a bleach, and all children and animals should be miles away.
The first necessity is a flat box large enough to take the biggest prints you intend to bleach (see Fig. 5). It must be well made with airtight joints. A sheet of thick glass should be used as a lid, for it enables you to see what is going on, and it must fit tile top of the box snugly. If you are doing a proper job, make a frame top and hinge it for the box to drop in on to a narrow ledge, and putty the glass into the frame. Fix a handle to tile lid so that it can be lifted lip easily. Bore a hole in the side of the box and cement a piece of glass tubing to take the gas pipe. Having made your box, test it with a puff or two of cigarette smoke to make sure it is gas tight.
Get a gallon cider jar with a well fitting rubber cork with a hole in it to take a short length of glass tube. Join the tube in the cork to the tube in the side of the box with a rubber tube. Place another sheet of glass in the bottom of the box, damp the print which is to be bleached and lay it in the box. Close the lid. Put two ounces of bleaching powder (chloride of lime) into the jar, pour in a cupful of accumulator acid, and close the jar at once. If this job can be done in the open air, all the better. If there is any leakage of gas, keep away until it has dispersed. When the print is sufficiently bleached, just open the lid and let the air blow away the gas, always being careful not to inhale.
The amount of gas which will be made by the quantities given here is not enough to give a dangerous concentration, but nevertheless it is not to be fooled with. Don’t do this job in a room with birds, fish, cats, dogs or children in it. Or even white mice.
BONE AND IVORY
Small bone and ivory objects—card cases, chessmen, statuettes, fans, needles, inlays and small carvings turn up from time to time in bad condition and in need of cleaning. Impregnate really badly broken or chipped or cracked pieces with melted paraffin wax, which will hold the piece together and preserve it. Warm the object first over a radiator or in an airing cupboard, and put it right into the runny wax. Lift it out after a few minutes and wipe off the surplus.
Ivory goes yellow with age especially if it is not exposed to light. Sometimes this colour is pleasant and is best left alone, but things like knife handles, piano keys or fan sticks do look better white. Make up a bleaching paste of whiting and 20 volume hydrogen peroxide and coat the piece with it. The paste must be stiff or the ivory will absorb too much liquid and swell. Stand the object out in the air and sunshine until the paste has dried, then wash it off and dry the piece thoroughly with a soft cloth. A little almond oil applied with a soft rag will leave a nice protective coating.
To clean bone and ivory which just needs dirt and dust removing from crevices, use methylated spirit on a duster, or on a soft brush. Never use water. If there are spots which won’t come off, try rubbing the spot with a little whiting and methylated spirit on a cotton wool swab on a cocktail stick.
Bone and ivory can be polished with tripoli, or rotten-stone or carborundum products, or with silica preparations and modern metal polishes.
Stick broken pieces of ivory together with Durofix or Araldite. Make sure the surfaces to be joined are clean, and bleach out any staining left by old glue as above.
BOOKS
The top edges of books get filthy and although loose dust can be removed with a soft brush or an old fashioned feather-duster, real dirt is hard to clear. Holding the book very tightly shut it so that only the top edges show, rub gently with fine sandpaper folded to the correct size. This could be rather too fierce for a valuable book, so try soft breadcrumbs, or all art eraser (see Fig. 6).
The edges of many old books are either gilded or painted, and it is quite easy to give these a new lease of life. Ordinary water colour paint mixed with size instead of water is brushed on. The book must be well cramped with the covers folded out of the way, and the exposed pages protected, or the paint may colour more than it is meant to.
To re-gild, kestoration Wax or Treasure Wax Gilt should be rubbed on the tightly closed edges with your finger, and then polished with a soft cloth to remove the surplus and make it shine.
Leather covers on books must be cleaned occasionally with a little leather polish such as Sheerwax, but remember that on most books the leather is almost paper thin, and cannot take too much rough handling. Very often old books are quite spoiled by r pieces of the leather being torn away to show the cardboard cover, or else the leather on the spine is split or perished. To mend these tears, cut out the bad parts, clean off the old glue and muck, gently lift and stick the new piece of leather into position, being careful to tuck the new edges under the old. The leather for this job should be as thin as possible, and do pare die tucked in edges carefully, so that the joins do not make a nasty bulge. For any decoration that has to be done, see the section on Leather.
Print on book titles and authors’ names with Indian Ink or Reeves Transfer Foil, which is used rather like carbon paper. You will probably find that it needs a little practice to make a neat job of the lettering, especially on the curved spine.
If a book has the side cover torn away from the spine, Sellotape X will make a strong lengdiwiscjoin, with a small gap left between the two edges, so that there is enough play left, when the book is closed. Sheets of coloured paper cut to size and pasted over the end page and the cardboard cover look neat. Scccotine or paperhanger’s paste are useful adhesives for binding and paper work.
Stained and damp pages are dealt with in the same way as prints (see section on cleaning prints), but this can be rather difficult without taking the book to pieces. When the odd page is dirty or stained, particularly at the begin- ning or end, a little gentle dabbing with carbon tetrachloride, petrol or benzine should remove most greasy marks and fingerprints. Wax is best dealt with by placing a piece of blotting paper under the spot, and ironing lightly with a hot iron.
If a book should happen to be dropped in the bath, dry it by putting tissue paper or sheets of blotting paper between the leaves, through half the book. Then put an even weight on the book and leave it in a dry place, perhaps in the draught of a fan heater or a hair dryer, but do not put it too near a radiator or fire. The current of air is necessary to carry away moisture. Treat the second half of the book the same way when the first has dried.
Mend torn pages with white paste (see recipe under Adhesives), as other glues will show either too grey or brown. On frayed or ragged overlapping edges, put a little paste on one surface, and place the torn sheet exactly over it. If a comer or edge of a sheet is missing, cut another piece of paper, similar in texture and colour, slightly larger than the missing portion, and stick it on to the torn piece. A tidier job is made by trimming the torn piece first. When a page is torn across the print, mend it by sticking the thinnest possible Japanese paper over the top. If the print is large and the lines well spaced, cut little strips of matching paper, and stick them in between the print, although this is horribly fiddly. The edge of a torn page should always be reinforced so that it will not tear again in the same place. Whole pages tom out of books are best repaired with long strips of matching paper pasted down the length of the tears. ScIlotape X can be used, but if there are quite a lot of pages out, it will make clumsy joins, and ordinary sellotape is not good as the edges of it stay sticky and pick up bits of dirt and dust, making a grey mark.
Insect infestation in books is dealt with under Inscas.
Restoring Old Books, Bird Cages, Bone and Ivory.
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