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07 31st, 2009| 
COINS AND MEDALS
Coins should not be cleaned unless it is absolutely necessary. They loose a lot of value through faulty cleaning, and it is just as important to know when to clean as to know how. Get a book out of your library on coin collecting and study it before cleaning any coins, if you know little of the subject.
Gold Coins. Wash very dirty coins in soap and water using a stiff bristled brush very carefully. Dry gold coins with a soft cloth or soft leather.
Silver Coins. If silver coins are not in exceptionally good condition and arc rather worn, removing the ingrained dirt will often make them look a lot worse! If they are tarnished to a blue or green colour, this gets damaged by too much washing and brushing up, and most collectors prefer to leave well alone. Silver coins which arc in really good condition but have uneven toning or are just plain filthy, should be treated either with carbon tetrachloride or trichlorethylene (see Solvent_). This is dabbed (not rubbed) on very gently, and immediately afterwards the coins are washed in running water. On really ugly toning use Goddard’s Silver Dip but do not wash the coins afterwards or they will look too highly polished. Don’t rub coins with the polishing cloths provided with cleaners. Ammonia in ten per cent solution will also remove stains, the coins being washed immediately after application; otherwise a whitish skin will appear which will ruin all your careful work.
Copper coins. Verdigris on copper coins is often caused by cigarette ash dropping on to them, and although this is hard to remove it can sometimes be done by soaking the bad part iun olive oil and scratching the verdigris off with a bone needle. Don’t use steel needles for they scratch the surface of the coin. Don’t use solvents on copper coins, just clean them with a stiff bristle brush used quite dry.
Copper, silver and bronze coins and medals can also be cleaned by immersion for a very short time in a solution of five per cent nitric acid. Do this with great care for the acid will etch metal, particularly copper. Take the pieces out after one or two seconds and wash them immediately under a running tap. If only a part of the coin is corroded, protect the rest of it from the acid with a coat of wax or grease before immersion in the acid, and then wash it thoroughly. Polish coins with a little lanolin grease or Renaissance wax polish. I
DETERGENTS
Detergents are the modern substitute for soap, and are perfectly suitable for many cleaning jobs as they so readily remove greasy dirt. However, some of the commercial brands sold as washing powders, or as liquid washers, have added ingredients of some kind : scent, colour or ‘whiteners’. While clung, glass and pottery can be cleaned quite safely with these, they are often not suitable for cleaning other Materials, and where detergent is recommended it is best to use a pure detergent such as the following:
Teepol
Boots Liquor Sulphestrol Lissapol N.
Detergent can be mixed with other chemicals to make an emulsion which will spread and penetrate easier that way-for instance carbon tetrachloride and benzene mixed with one per cent Lissapol N for cleaning some kinds of stonework.
ENAMEL
Enamel is a type of glass with added colours in the form of metallic oxides. This is fused to the surface of metal objects.
Enamel on metal may be of three different types: painted on to an enamelbackground; Cloisorui6, which is done by soldering fine wire to the metal surface to shape the designs, and then infilling with enamel; or Clianipl8ve where the
same effect is achieved by cutting shallow cells into the
surface of die metal to take the enamel. In atypes, an
object is then fired to fuse the glass and enamel.
Enamels should be kept away from direct heat, as the glass will expand at a different rate from its metal base and stresses will be set up which may result in the enamel lifting or crazing. Enamel on metal which doesn’t like damp, such as copper, must be kept dry otherwise corrosion may form on the metal and lift the enamel.
To restore enamels, use ordinary artist’s oil colours, and where chunks are broken off, a good imitation can be made by adding colour to Araldite, or to a thick solution of celluloid in amyl acetate, or to Durofix.
Having retouched the colour, enamelled objects can then be lacquered with Frigilene, or painted with thin acrylic, which will reseal any lifting pieces. Once the lacquer has soaked right in and dried, so that it has filled any cracks and cemented down loose pieces, wipe the surface of the enamel very carefully with a piece of cotton wool wrung out in acetone. Be careful that no liquid acetone runs into joins etc., or it will undo the repair work that has just been done. If enamel has at some time been repaired with animal glue, it may have gone slightly mouldy. Wipe the joins with Santobrite before continuing with retouching and lacquering.
Don’t try to refire enamel, it just won’t work.
FABRICS
All textiles come wider this heading, and generally the cleaning treatments depend upon whether dyes have been used or whether the fabric has simply been bleached or whitened. Cotton and linen have usually been bleached, and go very yellow with age. If the fabric is in good condition use very dilute domestic bleach to rewhiten it, then thoroughly rinse the article in several changes of clean water. Reckitt’s Blue may be added to the last rinse. Delicate articles made of muslin or lace, which are in a fragile state, cannot be given such rough treatment. A powdering of French chalk or Fuller’s Earth, later brushed off, will remove some stains and grease marks. If the article is attached to a cushion for instance, this may be the only way of dealing with it. Lace which can be detached should be placed in distilled water for a while to loosen the dirt, then put into fresh water containing a little pure liquid detergent and soaked again. Paddle it gently up and down in the water if the dirt is stubborn. After careful rinsing, spread the lace on to white blotting paper and pin it flat, and put it in a warm place to dry. It is important to pin lace properly in shape or it may distort during drying.
Muslin garments such as old doll’s clothes or old baby clothes are best washed very carefully in a mild solution of detergent, and should not be rubbed, but gently paddled up and down. It is most important to rinse the garment two or three dines in clean distilled or rain water. The garment should be rolled in absorbent paper and ironed
flat when it is nearly dry.
Coloured fabrics which are not colour fast can be cleaned with carbon tetrachloride. Heavy embossed material will be considerably brightened by brushing with a mixture of four parts benzol and one part methylated spirit.
Test for colour fastness by laying the fabric over white blotting paper, and then patting it carefully with a swab of damp cotton wool. If the colour runs it will show on the blotting paper underneath. If the material is old, the dyes are probably vegetable in origin, and likely to run, so should only be washed in cold water.
To remove large stains on this fabric, place the piece on clean blotting paper and then drop a solvent into the centre of the stain, which will spread out and go through on to the blotting paper carrying die stain with it.
To remove stains on textiles, provided the stain can be identified, try the following treatments, always with care and a minimum of rubbing.
Alcoholic Drinks: Wash in warm suds. Sponge with surgical or methylated spirit.
Beer: Soak in a hot solution of z teaspoonfuls of sodium sesquicarbonate (water softener) to z pints of water, and rinse out well.
Blood: Fresh stains. Soak immediately in a solution of i teaspoonful of salt and i teaspoonful ammonia to i pint of warm water. Then wash out in warm suds, and rinse. Old stains. Try soaking in ammonia solution, r tablespoonful to i pint of water.
Or try a solution of j teaspoonful of ammonia with i part of zo volume hydrogen peroxide with 4 parts of cold water.
Soak for just half an hour if the fabric is coloured, as long as necessary for white or colour fast materials.
On cottons and linens, but not on silks or wool, oxalic acid solution, 2 level teaspoonfuls of crystals in 2 pints of cold water, mixed in a china or glass container, can be dabbed on and removed by rinsing within ten minutes.
Silk or wool should be soaked in a solution of salt and water.
Coffee: If washing does not remove it, try hydrogen peroxide as for blood.
Cosmetics: Clean with carbon tetrachloride. Lipstick can sometimes be lifted from washable fabrics by smearing with vaseline and then washing in warm suds.
Egg Stains: If they won’t wash out, soak in a solution of salt and water, or try one of the proprietary digestive types of stain removers, such as Big S., Biotex or Radiant.
Fruit and Berry Stains: If they won’t wash out they can be removed by working a few drops of glycerine into the stain, leaving it overnight and then damping with a few drops of white vinegar, and then washing out with warm water after two minutes. Cherry, pear, peach, plum and other stubborn fruit stains in cotton or linen can be bleached out with hydrogen peroxide solution as for blood. Soak the stained spot for a few minutes and then wash it out in scsquicarbonate, J teaspoonful to I pint of water.
Glue: Must be removed with solvent. Acetone or nail varnish remover will probably shift it.
Grease: Such as butter or candlewaX. Wash in water with a little ammonia added. Put fabric under blotting papre and iron. Sponge with carbon tetrachloride.
Indelible Pencil: Sponge with methylated spirit.
hik: Ballpoint ink can be removed with methylated spirit. Indian ink must be sponged with methylatedspirit and then rubbed with glycerine. Repeat the treatment until the stain lifts and then wash with detergent and water. Old Indian ink stains are there for ever! Writing ink, the same treatment.
Mildew: This is difficult to remove. Washing thoroughly in sodium sesquicarbonate may help.
Nail Varnish: Remove with amyl acetate or nail varnish remover.
Paint: Emulsion paint; soften it from underneath with amyl acetate, then rub off, and work in a paste of soap and water and wash well. Oil paint, dried; carbon tetrachloride or benzene on the underside till the paint has softened, then wash out as above.
Rust and Ironiyiould: Try oxalic acid treatment as for blood. Rust remover can be used in extreme cases, but must be tried with care and washed out thoroughly.
Shellac: Soften with methylated spirit.
Shoe Polish: Bleach out with hydrogen peroxide.
CHINA AND GLASS
China restoration is always delicate work, requiring care, accuracy and knowledge of technique. How much knowledge depends entirely on how ambitious you arc. Most people, if they Fail in simple efforts to stick china together, take it to a professional restorer if the piece is of any value. It also depends on what is going to happen to a piece after it is mended. If it is to stand peacefully on a shelf, then the repair need not be so strong as it would have to be for domestic use. Some people try to restore a piece to the state where only a very close scrutiny will reveal the mend. It is technically possible to fool even ultra violet light. Others feel that there is no shame in a few cracks in old china. Like so many skills connected with making and mending things, china restoring can develop from the ability simply to stick broken pieces together, to the most complex dowelling and pinning and moulding and modelling and casting and painting. It can start by being a chore and end by being an art, which like any art develops into pride in craftsmanship, and pleasure in achievement. Maybe the kind of painstaking repair I am thinking of comes outside die scope of a book on restoring junk, but I shall include an outline of some of the methods and materials and tools needed just in case you do decide to venture further than a little bit of glucing.
Some technical colleges run classes on china restoration, but they arc few and far between, although this is one of the best ways to gain expert knowledge and experience. The study of books on die subject and plenty of practice should make you reasonably efficient if you are not totally ham-fisted !
There arc so many objects in so many shapes and sizes made of so in-uiy materials; so many ‘pots’ that it is difficult to detail all the techniques, and each job must be treated on its merits. The first and easiest method is to mend by sticking. Sticking things together used to be more difficult than it is now, because die old adhesives were nothing like so easy to use or so heat-and-water-resistant, so free from shrinkage, or attacks by fungus, so clean, so invisible, or so strong. The invention of cellulose glues and epoxy resin adhesives has completely revolutionised sticking, and made it possible to mend things with adhesive alone where riveting, dowelling, or pinning would once have been essential.
As a general rule, a piece of china, be it a plate, a pot, a Statuette, or a vase, can be mended by sticking alone if the two faces come together properly and neatly and if they can be made to stay in position while the adhesive is setting.
If a part such as a curved handle, or the limb of a figurine, is broken, perhaps in more than one place, and there are pieces missing; or if the surfaces to be joined are chipped and do not fit, or there arc whole sections missing; then more ambitious methods will have to be used. Whole sections can be remade by modelling with epoxy resins just as the sculptor models, or by making plaster moulds and taking castings. Large missing parts can be moulded or modelled incorporating wire supporting frameworks fixed to die whole piece.
Broken parts are refixed together and to the whole, provided they are thick enough to carry drilled holes, either by pinning—which means inserting a metal pin into a hole drilled after the pieces have been stuck—or by dowelling, which is the joining of pieces by drilling matching holes in each and cementing in a single dowel. Any or all of these methods might be necessary at the same time in one single object (see Fig. io).
Lastly, broken pieces can be riveted together. The ugliness of this technique, strong though it is, means that it has largely been superseded by other methods since the discovery of die better adhesives, and is really only used for extreme strength and utility rather than for restoration and beauty.
Cleaning. Before any porcelain or pottery may be mended it must be cleaned. Normally all that is needed is a wash in warm soapy water. If die piece is already clean, then wipe it with a piece of silk dipped in methylated spirits. Keep any old pieces of real silk for china restoration work, as silk does not leave little bits of lint or fluff caught on jagged edges.
Remove stains from china with very dilute hydrochloric acid, but test first in case the acid etches the glaze. A cloth dipped in either bicarbonate of soda or common salt will remove coffee stains.
To remove dirt along cracks which are not going to be repaired—cracks which are, and look dirty—make a pad of cotton wool and saturate it in a mild bleaching solution such as hydrogen peroxide and lay it along the crack for some days, renewing the solution as die pads dry out. When the treatment is completed, scrub the piece gently with a soft brush, and even more dirt may conic away. This method is useless on earthenware, but for this and for English porcelain, which is usually so porous that the dirt is well ingrained, soak the piece for up to a week in a solution of domestic bleach. This will remove most stubborn stains and won’t etch the glaze.
If china has been previously mended, the edges of the breaks may be very dirty, and sometimes glue remains which is invisible except under a magnifying glass. All edges must be cleaned, and you must be sure they fit together before going ahead with the next stages of the job. First of all soak the pieces in boiling water with pure detergent added. Remember, if there is another part of the object which has been mended and which you do not wish to do again, to keep it out of the water or it may melt apart. Glue, Seccotine, shellac and Durofix will come off in boiling water, and joins made with these adhesives will soften sufficiently to be parted. If this treatment does not tackle the old glue then you will have to get to work with the appropriate solvents (see Solvents). Methylated spirits will shift shellac that has resisted boiling water. Swabbing with cotton wool dipped in amyl acetate removes cellulose adhesives such as Durofix. Acetone removes cements, but may take some time about it. Dissolver is a new solvent which will shift many kinds of glues including Araldite, especially some of those used for glass repairs.
Literally to boil a piece in detergent and water is a last resort to remove stubborn adhesive without abrasion. Finally it may be necessary to pick away at the old adhesive with a scraper or even a needle. Obviously this has to be done with care.
If old rivets have to be removed, cut them in half with a needle file and pick out the bits using acetone to remove the cement if necessary.
The first two methods are done with just a few tools, but the moment you have to drill, more complex tools will be necessary, and this means more expense, and also more time spent on learning to handle the tools. China drilling is not difficult, but it takes a light hand and a steady one, and infinite care and patience.
A power drill, which is normal workshop equipment nowadays, can be used with the rightbits for a lot of drilling work provided it has both vertical and horizontal bench stands and operates at the right r.p.m. The ideal tool for most drilling is a dentist’s drill—in fact an electric motor with a. flexible drive and a hand-held drill at the end. But this is an expensive piece of equipment not justified unless a lot of work is to be done, so its use is not described here. A hand drill and appropriate bits will needed for starting holes, and for the awkward holes. A special twist drill with high gearing can be bought for work on china, and some people prefer this to the other types. It is good for dowelling and for work in substantial pieces, but is a little difficult to control on really delicate work.
Brass wire is used for pins and dowels, and unless you arc doing very complex work only one or two sizes will be needed. Other standard tools such as the hacksaw, and calipers you may already have. Small cramps and a pin vice are useful, and all shapes and sizes of small files and rasps, scalpels, and probes. Various materials will be needed for making moulds, supporting pieces while they dry, binding to aid adhesion etc. These I shall mention as they conic into use.
Sticking. There is some general information on adhesives wider that specific heading. Here I shall discuss the various methods used for mending china with adhesives.
Ordinary domestic two-tube Araldite (AV and HV roo) is suitable for all practical purposes for almost any work. It is best used in a well-warmed room, and pieces should always be warm when joined. Keep the tubes of Araldite warm before mixing. All this helps the adhesive to flow readily, and to grip. A cold unheated workshop is not a suitable place. Work in a heated room with a radiator with a flat top or heat conductive shelf above it so that pieces can be kept warm.
The second important point, already stressed several times, is that pieces must be clean and dry. Pieces that have been washed or boiled to clean them may take quite a long time to dry out, especially the unglazed edges of breaks. Damp, dirty surfaces just will not adhere.
Thirdly it is vital to grasp the basic principle of adhesion, whicl, is to bring the original faces as close together as is physically possible, with the thinnest practicable layer of adhesive between. The edges and surfaces of the break then lock together naturally. It is a misapprehension to suppose that thick layers of adhesive will make more successful joints. All the adhesive that is needed is enough to fill all the tiny gaps and crevises between the faces so that the two present smooth surfaces to each other with no air pockets, and they will adhere.
Lastly, stuck joints need to have some pressure exerted upon then, while the adhesive is setting, either by clamping the pieces together, or by putting a weight on top of a flat piece, or more usually by binding the pieces together with gum strip (not Sellotape) in such a way that pressure is exerted on the join.
The methods of applying this binding
g differ slightly
with every mend. Always use gummed strip, and buy a big roll at least il” wide. Cut this down if necessary. Strips are stuck as nearly as possible at right angles across joins such as simple breaks in a plate or vase. When thc join is rather more difficult, such as a broken vase handle or lid, the strip is stuck on so that it will exert pressure at right angles to the join. The wet gummed strip is easy to put into position, and as it dries it shrinks, holds fast to the china and so exerts pressure on the join. When you reach the stage of placing the prepared pieces together, wet the cut strips of paper thoroughly but remove any surplus drips of water with a swab. They should be damp right through but not dripping wet, as moisture will prevent pieces from adhering if any gets on to the broken edges. Sometimes it is best to pre-stick the strip on to one piece of the work (after you have warmed the piece for glucing, or the gunimed strip will dry out completely) and then put the two edges together. Draw tile loose piece of strip down smoothly and tightly across the join. A little bit of practice at binding diffi llcult shapes will teach you how best these paper bandages can be applied. Remember always that as the strip dries and tightens it must pull across at right angles to the join, so bringing the pieces together and holding them there. Use very long strips if necessary. Make a cross of strips, stand a pot in the middle and bring the ends right up over the top to hold it together. Small
small
pieces of strip may be needed across very joins to exert pressure (see Fig. 7). A binding applied like a puttee round and round an object is almost useless except to keep things in place. The same binding techniques will be used when mending by dowelling and pinning, as described later, and a little thought and study will help you to work out the details for each job. Very occasionally it is not possible to bind, to clamp, or to weight pieces together because of a peculiar shape or a break in an odd place. Make supports out of plasticise or wire to push pieces together, or at any rate to hold them in position while the adhesive sets. No tension is applied to the joint so this way isn’t that satisfactory, but it is better than nothing. Don’t let plasticise come into direct contact with Araldite or any epoxy resin, as the two will react together.
Having cleaned your porcelain or china ready for mending, next check whether or not all the pieces arc there, whether or not they fit together perfectly, and then decide upon your method of restoration. Pieces made of thin China ai-c almost impossible to dowel or pill as there is no thickness to take drilled holes. Hollow figures may need to be dowelled in the hollow sections, or by pinning. But if there are sufficient clean, close fitting edges which will contact nicely, sticking alone may be all that is needed. Details of dowelling and pinning follow, but here I deal with sticking on its own. A piece which has been broken into several pieces should be very carefully checked for fit before applying adhesive. If necessary make tip a kind of jig-saw puzzle, using Sellotape and fit the whole thing together. Be careful not to work yourself into an impossible corner by putting the pieces together iii such a way that i lie last piece cannot be got into place. This can happen, for instance, in a bowl where the break consists of two or more pieces which arc wider at the lower end than they are at the rim end. If a piece is in several fragments it is sometimes easier to stick two or three pieces together to make one large piece, and then join this to the main piece. So do take a bit of thought, and be sure that you have solved the puzzle before taking any irrevocable steps (see Fig. io).
If, as well as being in several pieces, the pot has a Chunk missing, it will be necessary to mould a new piece, but first of all any sticking must be done mid finished, and the Moulding is later carried out as a separate operation.
Having cleaned the pieces, dried them and checked for fit, warm them thoroughly. Prepare a small amount of adhesive, no more than you need, and apply it with a knife to one edge of the two pieces to be joined. Usually it is best and easiest to apply the adhesive to the piece rather than to the whole. Put adhesive on both edges only if the fit is not perfect, or if the material of which the pot is made is very heavy thick porous earthenware, which will absorb a lot of adhesive.
Then bring the two edges together as firmly as you possibly can. Obviously you don’t want to break the china again, but exert as much pressure as you dare on the join so that the adhesive comes squeezing out. If you want to remove adhesive in order to get a clear look at the join through a magnifying glass to make sure it is properly aligned, moisten a water colour brush in a little methylated spirit and take off a little adhesive with that. Do not take it right down to the join as this will weaken it. Surplus adhesive should not be removed along the join until after it has all set. Any adhesive which has escaped on to other as yet unmende8 broken edges, or on to gilt or lustre glaze on the pot, must be removed at once with the paint brush. On the broken edges it will prevent proper matching if it dries into a little lump, and it will lift gilt or lustre when it is finally removed.
H.M.G. adhesive can be used in conjunction with Araldite to make a fairly quick setting join, by putting H.M.G. on one surface of the join and Araldite on the other. The quicker drying H.M.G. binds with the Araldite and helps to hold the two pieces together while setting takes place.
Then the joins are bound with gummed strip as described above. The piece is put down and left to set. Epoxy resins, especially when the join has been properly strapped, will hold almost immediately, and the pieces will not move in relation to each other unless the joins are imperfect or unless the balance and weight of die pieces are such that gravity pulls them out of place. Plasticine supports, bowls of fine clean sand, bits of wood and wire, will all make supports and cradles. If the piece to be joined is some kind of figurine and not a plate or a bowl with flat or curved surfaces, parts sometimes have to be stuck on entirely by balance. The heads of small figures frequently get broken off, and ifyou intend to stick a head back without dowelling, the fit along the break will have to be perfect, and the figure itself must be held in a firm grip so that the head will balance in place while the adhesive sets. Bury the figure in a bowl of sand, with the broken edge set horizontally just above the level of the sand, and then balance the part on it. Move the buried section about until the broken-off piece balances perfectly upon it. Make sure all loose sand is brushed away from both edges, and then, using very fluid adhesive, anoint the broken edges. Carefully put the piece back into place, and allow it a few moments to adhere before delicately, and without moving the buried base, setting it perfectly into position.
It really is a matter of trial and error, and with a bit of ingenuity you can find a solution to every problem of sticking and binding and balancing.
The final process of sticking when using epoxy resin glues, is to harden the joins by baking. If an entire piece has to be moulded in, after some sticking has been done, it is still best to bake the first work for a short while before doing the moulding, just to make certain that the work which has been done is really firm. Baking can be omitted entirely if the piece can be left alone for a good long time to set.
Up to a point the heating of Araldite softens it, and if you leave a job for some hours before baking and a piece has slipped a little out of place, warm the join with boiling water swabs to soften the Araldite enough to move the piece back into position. Leave joins made with Araldite for a few hours before baking and then place the piece in the oven of an electric cooker or of a solid fuel cooker. Put an asbestos mat on the middle shelf and place the china carefully on that, and keep the oven at a temperature of Zoo deg. for about an hour. Over 3oo deg. the Araldite will darken and in any case the china may not stand it. If your oven has no thermometer, buy a small one. If it is impossible to keep the temperature of the oven steady,heat the oven, put in the piece, and switch the oven right off, leaving the piece there until the oven is cold.
Mending Cracks ivith Adhesive. So often articles crack without breaking. The cracks get dirty, and the piece when touched vibrates a little and does not ring true. It may, one feels, collapse into pieces at any moment. Cracks can be repaired quite effectively without completely breaking the pieces apart. Most forms of pottery and porcelain are to a small extent flexible, so carefully insert the edge of a razor blade and part the crack a little. Clean the crack as described above and make sure that the whole piece is thoroughly dry by standing it on a radiator until it is pretty warm. Heat the separate tubes of Aralditc to get them runny and make up a mix, with a little white colouring in it if there are any chips along the crack which need to be filled. Mix the Araldite on a warm surface and keep it warm while working. My own nightstore type electric radiators which have flat tops, are absolutely ideal for this work and I work directly on top of one. This is not recommended by the makers of nightstore radiators but who cares about that !
Prise the crack apart with the razor blade as far as is possible without breaking the piece completely. If the crack runs right to the rim or edge of the piece, slide the edges of the crack apart a little, one up and one down to expose some of the broken edge. Run the adhesive right into the crack, work it in with a finger if necessary, then move away from the radiator and press the edges tightly together. Wipe off any surplus adhesive with methylated spirits, but not that exactly along the crack. Put several pieces of gummed strip across the crack at right-angles on both sides of the piece, and leave the whole thing to dry (bake after an hour if you wish to) for half a day on the top of the radiator. This should set the adhesive perfectly.
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.
