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07 31st, 2009| 
FANS
All kinds of materials were used to make the hand fans so popular with our grandmothers, and many of them are very pretty things, well worth repairing.
Fans were made of ostrich feathers set in ivory or ebony; or of bone, ivory, or ebony, or of paper and silk, mother of pearl, or lace. Sonic fans have a ribbon tie running through the sticks which controls the spread, and this ribbon may be torn or very dirty. It is simple to replace the ribbon, but it will probably be threaded in such a way that the fan may be opened and shut easily without pulling or looping. Take a careful note, when removing the old ribbon, of the way the threading is done so that you can put it together properly To clean fans made of ivory, bone, tortoiseshell, ebony etc. treat as described under Ivory and Tortoiseshell.
Broken sticks present a problem if they are made of these materials, and very careful sticking with epoxy resin is the best way if you have all the pieces. A strengthening piece may be added, either of matching material if available or of clear plastic. Replace broken wooden sticks by making a careful copy. Remove the D-shaped ring at the bottom which holds the sticks together if a whole new stick is to be inserted. The straight part of the 1) is a pin through the sticks, and this will have to be taken out (see Fig. 16). If it is riveted through, file back the sides of the rivet at one end until the pin slips out. Put die new stick in its correct place. The pin should be hammered a little to lengthen it so that it can be riveted over when replaced.
Clean fans made of fabric by brushing with Fuller’s Earth. Immersion in any kind of liquid is usually inadvisable because there will be glue about which can all too easily be loosened. Painted colours on fans may not be fast and will run, or be lifted, so take care. Remove spots carefully with dry cleaning fluids such as carbon tetrachloride, or blot out grease spots as described in the section on Needlework, remembering once again that heat will melt any glue.
Mend torn paper fans as described in the section on Books, or put in whole new pieces of paper as detailed in the section on Prints and Watercolours, and revarnish with Winsor & Newton’s Water Colour Varnish if necessary. Sometimes a heavier varnish will have to be used, and Picture Mastic Varnish or Copal will match this.
Generally speaking, fans are delicate objects which need a lot of care and delicate work, as each one must be treated on its merits according to the material from which it is made.
Let the repaired piece cool down completely and then soak it in water to remove the gummed strips. There will be some spots of adhesive along the join squeezed out when the jour was made and deliberately not wiped away. Rub the spots very carefully with glass paper and break them down before removing them with a scalpel or a razor blade. This cleaning is quite a delicate operation and if done without abrasion may result in lifting little chips of china or
glaze.
If the crack was also c’., Red and Aralditc with colouring was used, tidy the filled chips with fine glass paper, and over-paint or glaze if necessary.
Moulding aped Modelling whole pieces of a pot or a
figure are missing, the gap can be filled by rebuilding the piece with epoxy resin composition filler. But it isn’t quite so simple as that! Perfectly satisfactory pieces for plates, vases, bowls, statuettes etc. can be moulded or modelled and simply stuck into place provided the piece is not going into domestic use, but such mends are not strong
g enough
to withstand hard wear for very long unless they are sup- ported by metal cores or pins. It is easy to mould or model a jug handle without a core, but unlikely that it will last very long if the jug is used. If the new handle has a core it will be very strong indeed. The making of cores and pins is described in a later section, and here I shall talk about moulding and modelling without supports. The techniques involved are almost identical when supports are incorporated. The job requires only a few cheap tools until the moment when you get involved in metal work and drilling for supports. And many people, once they reach this stage, just take the work to an expert restorer rather than buy drills and bits etc.
Before mending a piece such as a bowl or plate or vase, without using a core, scratch or file the broken edges so that the new piece of moulding will lock into the edge as it sets. The danger is that your new pieces may not adhere too well to the smooth and thin edge of a break without some kind of roughness in which to get a grip, as the problems of adhesion are not quite the same as those of sticking two edges, of porcelain or pottery together.
Next, a backing is necessary. This means a surface up against which you can press the filler to remake the piece. If the object is a flat plate, with : flat surface, the same gummed strip as is used for binding can just be stuck on the outside surface of the piece completely covering the broken area. As it dries it stretches tight and makes a good smooth surface up against which to press the filler. This gummed paper cannot be used on a curved surface because it pulls taut and flat across the curve as it dries. Therefore the mould will
wihave to be made with a flexible material which will take a curve. Plasticine does the job well, but it never sets hard and can be pushed out of shape rather easily. Wedge plasticine before use—this is a potter’s term meaning quite simply banging it until it has no air bubbles in it. A mallet or a wooden rolling pin make good bashers for plasticine.
If you use plasticine for the mould and Araldite for the filler you will have to get some cellulose acetate to use as a parting agent as the two react upon each other and must be separated by coating the surface of the plasticine which will come into contact with die filler.
There are other moulding materials. The dental impression compound Paribar is more expensive, but is quite excellent for the work, and is worth the extra money for it can be used again and again, needs no parting agent, and has other uses. Paribar is softened in hot water before use and resets fairly hard but is flexible enough to be extricated from quite deeply cut castings.
Making Moulds. Imagine that you have to replace a curved piece with a fluted surface, from the edge of a bowl. The whole of the edge of the bowl is fluted in the same way so you take an impression of a matching piece of the pattern oil a sound section of the edge. ‘Wet the surface of the bowl and press a slab of plasticine (about half an inch thick) on to a section just a little larger than the missing piece. Carry the plasticine up over the rim of the bowl so that it will be marked but don’t bend it too far round the rim if there is any ridge or it may be difficult to remove the plasticine without bending it. Press the plasticine well and truly until you are satisfied that you have made a perfect impression. Lift it carefully off and place it over the hole on the outside of the bowl in exactly the right place so that the pattern is continuous. Press it lightly so that the broken edges of the china mark the plasticine, then remove the plasticise, and paint the area inside the edge marks with cellulose acetate parting agent, then replace it over the hole. It will stick to the dry china round the edges of the break. Bend over the top sections of plasticine away from the hole, round the rim of the bowl to keep die mould in place. A few strips of Sellotape across it and on to the china will help. Don’t use gummed strip, for this will dry out and flatten the mould. The Scllotapc may give slightly but will help to avoid the disaster of the mould coming off the pot in the middle of die filling operation which follows.
Paribar can be used in exactly the same way to make a mould especially where there is a deeply indented pattern in the china. The Paribar goes hard, but it can be softened with swabs of boiling water and removed from die filler section without breaking it when the job is done. No parting agent is needed so that the Paribar can be put directly on to the break and left there.
Filler Composition and Filling. Now to mix up sonic filler (see Fillers and Cements). Araldite two-tube epoxy resin is first mixed together and then titanium dioxide (or other whitener) is added until the mixture has a nice doughy consistency. This mixture is a bit sticky and clings to tools and fingers. Keep a little dish of the powder handy, and another dish of Methylated spirits. Dip your fingers in the powder, and the tools in the Meths from time to time, and you won’t get so stuck up. When dried out this filler looks exactly like biscuit, or unglazed baked china and takes overpainting very well. It also sticks directly to the edges of the break and you should have no trouble in making a perfect join. It isn’t the easiest of jobs to make and handle this filler, but the result is so good that it is worth practicing to get the mixture of the right colour and consistency.
Kaolin mixed with Araldite in the same way makes a very stiff, not quite so sticky, more translucent and buff coloured filler, but it has the disadvantage of not sticking quite so well to the edges of broken china as does the first mixture.
Isopon polyester resin filler is a paste which is mixed with a hardener. It is excellent for filling big holes as it dries quickly, but this means also that you must be able to work quickly. When using Isopon make all inside mould of the break as well, and having filled the mould, put the second inside mould oil to the filler from the inside to get a smooth interior surface, pressing it down well. Isopon requires no parting agents. Although it will stick to itself so that it call be built up in layers, it will not stick to china, so when the moulds arc removed, the new Isopon piece will come away and will have to be stuck in just like an ordinary broken piece. It can be rubbed and filed to finish it off It cannot be used as an adhesive.
Bondapaste is another excellent filler which hardens quickly and does not have to be baked, nor does it require powder additions to make it opaque. It does not dry white, but this is immaterial if you are going to overpaint it any-way. It can be used as an adhesive or cement and when used as a filler it stays in place without further adhesives. It can be filed, carved and abraded within a quarter of an hour of use, so is a very time-saving material, once one is experienced enough to shape it quickly.
The exact consistency of any filler is difficult to describe and can only be discovered by trial and error. If it is too hard it will push the plasticise out of place as you press it into the mould. If it is too runny it will tend to run into the lower part of the mould in whichever place you are holding it, and will not make a piece of even thickness. If the mould is made of Paribar then a stiffer nix of filler can be used.
The mixture is worked into the aperture with a round ended tool. Boxwood potter’s modelling tools are excellent but many things make good modelling tools. Some workers like to prop the pot up as they work, others hold the pot in one hand so that the break with its mould is cupped and held in position while the filler is worked in. Great care must be taken to make sure that the filler goes into all the corners and crevices right up to the edges, with no air bubbles trapped underneath. Smooth the inside surface with the tool and with thumbs and fingers until it is as like the surrounding inside surface as your eye can judge. Setthe pot aside for an hour, if the filler is Araldite, by which time it will have set to a rubbery consistency and can be worked further if necessary. If a quicker setting filler has been used, once it has set hard it can be carved, filed and abraded until it is absolutely perfect, and it is then ready for overpainting.
To speed up the setting of a mend done with Araldite, bake the pot for half an hour at zoo deg. F. If there are any small cracks or pits in the surface fill them with a thin mixture of filler, using a water-colour brush.
Chips. The mending of chips, big and small, which do not go right through a piece, involves work which is halfway between the filling of apertures as described above, and modelling
which is described in the next section.
Quite simply, you make up a mixture of any of the above mentioned fillers into a fairly stiff mixture and press it into the previously cleaned and dried area of the chip and smooth it until it looks right. Don’t get air bubbles under the filling. Wheel chips—large chips on the edge of a piece—should first have a thin layer of adhesive, to help bind the filler in place. The art of filling chips is to get a good blend along the edges and to get the filling neither too proud nor too shallow, and in getting the composition in so that no air bubbles remain behind to raise it in due course. If you suspect that a little air is trapped, prick the filler with a pin and press it down again and fill tip the pin hole.
Allow the filler to dry out over a hot radiator and then, when it is hard, rub it down with glass paper until you are satisfied that the chip, after overpainting, will be indistinguishable. Pick up the piece and squint at it at eye level in all possible planes, and rely on the sensitive tips of your fingers run across the mend to detect any irregularities. If even at this late stage the chip is not properly filled, more composition can be added for it will stick to itself, and the process repeated until you are satisfied.
Modelling. When neither straightforward sticking, nor press moulding can be used to mend an object, try modelling. It is impossible to make a mould for a missing piece which is not a repetition of another part of the object, as described previously. The missing piece just has to be built up from scratch and the result depends on the artistic ability of the restorer. Large modelled sections will have to have metal supports—dowels, or pins, or strips—and the techniques will be described later on. I am still concerned with the techniques which do not include drilling.
When a part of a plate, or a vase, or perhaps a lid knob must be remodelled, take a piece of rather doughy filler composition and roll it either flat for a flat section, or into a ball for a knob, or into a sausage for a handle, in an approximate size and shape for the job. Then press it firmly to the edge of the broken part, and model it with Boxwood tools, fingers and any suitable home made tools that you may fancy. Whenever epoxy resin mixtures are being used, dip the tools in methylated spirit to avoid sticking.
Modelling becomes really interesting when a porcelain object such as a figure or perhaps a vase festooned with flowers and leaves has pieces chipped out or broken off and lost. To remake flowers and leaves is not at all difficult. Any woman who has ever made an apple pie with a decorated crust knows the technique. The pastry, in this case filler composition in a nice doughy mixture, is rolled out to the thickness of the petal or leaf required and then pieces are cut out of it in the flat. A small sharp knife or scalpel can be used as a cutter, shapes having been first marked out with a darning needle or a fine graver. Or, if the leaf or petal pattern is to be repetitive, a cutter can be made out of strip brass or copper foil, beret to make the appropriate shapes. Make a template or pattern out of plywood, using a fretsaw (see Fig. 8). Tack this pattern to your work bench with a central nail and then hammer a copper foil strip round it with a small hammer until it is exactly the same shape. If the template is pinned with a central nail it can be pivoted round as the cutter is being made so that all pieces can be reached.
The cutting of different species of flowers, daisies, roses, apple blossom etc. is hard to describe exactly. It is a matter of careful observation of thepetals which are to be matched, and of measurements with calipers and dividers, if your eye is not good enough. Petals are cut out in flat shapes and bent over slightly at the edges, and rolled into concave shapes etc. Once your petals and leaves arc made they are then fixed to each other and to the main piece, and there is no great difficulty about this unless the anchorage point is very small indeed, especially if you arc using a good adhesive filler composition such as Araldite and titanium dioxide. it is often possible to add an extra leaf, or to put in
small
a smasupport of composition disguised in some way as part of the decoration, which will hold the modelled part in place. Most people have a collection of tools for modelling which they have made specially to get into different corners ; sewing needles, bent knitting needles, scalpels, spatulas, rifflers, spikes and blades of all kinds, even old hacksaw blades, conic in usefid.
When pieces of an object are missing for which no pressed mould can be made, it is still possible to make a mould out of plasticise which approximates pretty closely the missing piece, and to put this on to the whole in such a way that the aperture can be filled with composition in exactly the same way as a pressed mould is filled. Then the new piece must be rubbed and shaped to final perfection after the setting or baking process has been completed; but
this can be a slow job.
There are problems when it comes to modelling difficult things like faces; it rather depends upon how clever you are, but there is yet one more way, which involves modelling. It is a much more complex and tricky job, but it can save such a lot of time and trouble in the long run, -aid once again may enable you to get away with it without resorting to pinning and dowelling.
Make a model, in plasticine, of the missing part. Actually this is easy if you have a talent for modelling, terribly difficult if you haven’t. Say for instance that half a leg and a foot are missing from a figurine. Using calipers and dividers, measure the other leg and foot exactly, so that at any rate lie won’t have a size six left boot and a size ten right boot. Then model a plasticine leg to the right diniensions and in the kind of position in which it looks as if it ought to be, and keep trying your model in the space until it satisfies you. Plasticine doesn’t harden so take as long as you like over making the model.
Having made your plasticine model, a mould must be made from it and a cast or pressing taken from the mould. The finished cast can simply be stuck into position (or dowelled or pinned if necessary).
Take a sheet of glass, and a large lump of plasticise. Roll the plasticise out into a very thick strip and lay it on edge on the glass (see Fig. 9) in a square or a circle plenty big enough to hold the model, horizontally. Then fix the model, horizontally, halfway up one side of the container that you have just made. A peg carefully inserted into the end of the model and pushed out through the container side should hold it into position. Then prepare some plaster of Paris. Into another container which can be handled easily and has a pouring lip, put enough water to half fill the mould container, and sift plaster of Paris powder into it until the mixture is the consistency of thick cream, stirring with the hand to break up lumps. Then pour the plaster of Paris mixture into the mould until it is halfway up the model. Leave the whole thing to set. Then cut two wide grooves or shallow holes out of the plaster.
sure that it is really well drenched and that no tiny part has escaped swabbing. This acts as a parting agent between the two halves of the plaster mould. Make another mix of plaster as before and pour this nito the mould until the model is well covered. When this has set, remove the plasticine case and case the two sections of the casting apart. Take out the original plasticine model and you should have a perfect mould in two halves. This mould will have two locking pieces where you cut the grooves or shallow holes so that when the two halves are put together again they will locate exactly, and at the end where the model was attached to the side wall of the plasticine container, there will be a hole.
Now you have a mould which can be used to make a casting or pressing of your original model. Smear a film of silicone grease all over the pattern sections of the mould to prevent the filler sticking to the plaster of Paris, and then make up enough filler composition to fill the two halves of the mould. This filler should be soft enough to flow freely into the mould sections. When the two sections are filled, bring them together and bind them tightly with wire. Ram the composition well home, through the hole. Leave the mould, with the hole at the top, for two hours to set, and then, if you are using epoxy resin, bake it for half an hour at 2oo deg F.
Undo the wire binding and take off the plaster. If you have not used a parting agent, the plaster can be cut out and broken away and the last of it scrubbed off the model. Stick or dowel the finished model to the whole, having
made sure that the edges fit perfectly by filing and abrading. bradin,
Any discrepancy in fit which is too big to be put right by filing, can be filled with some filler composition.
Moulds can also be made from pieces of porcelain similar to the piece you are trying to replace, and then pressings made from these can be carved, filed, abraded, and built up to fit exactly.
Instead of plaster of Paris, rubberised solution such as Qualitex can be poured around your model. The advantage of using this material is that the mould is flexible and will come off difficult undercut models without damaging them. Rubberised solutions, therefore, are best for making moulds from models which must not be damaged in any way. The technique is much the same as that described above. A plasticine container is built up round half the part to be copied, and the solution is poured in.
The process is repeated on the other half and you then have the complete mould in two sections. Details vary with each job.
Faces on statuettes are very alike, and differ only iun detail of hair and headdress. There is no reason why, if you collect figures, you should not make a series of moulds or masks from any statuettes that come your way, and so build up a stock of faces iii reserve for the day when they may be needed.
Incidentally, the principles of making casts, moulds, pressings etc. are generally similar for work in all kinds of materials, and many restorers of objects other than china, such as old guns and pistols, make their own metal castings. It is a skill which has so many applications, not only for restoration but for creation. Modem materials make exciting castings and pressings, and it is an art well worth studying for its own sake.
ABRASIVES
In order to remove rust, tarnish or corrosion from metal of all kinds, when soap and water, oil paraffin mixture, rust removers, metal polishes, etc. have failed or are unsuitable, abrasives are used. In order to get a mirror finish on metal the correct use of die right abrasive is essential. To all intents and purposes, as they get finer, abrasives become polishes. Damaged woodwork can be cleaned and tidied with abrasives, stains and blooms on varnish can be removed; and used in conjunction with paints and varnishes, abrasives help to get deep glossy finishes.
As a general rule, work is started with coarse abrasives and finished with fine abrasives.
There are many different kinds of abrasives, and each
user tends to prefer certain ones; it is not necessary to have
aof them in your workshop. Abrasives can be bought in
loose powder form, as cloth or paper, or in bar compositions for use with buffing tools.
For the purposes of this book it should be useful to describe briefly some of the abrasives and abrasive polishes available. In the various sections, abrasives are mentioned constantly iii respect of specific uses. When working with them, trial and error is the best guide, provided that trials are not carried out on such a big scale that the error becomes irrevocable. After a while an invaluable experience of abrasives and their uses will be built up. Abrasives such as sand and glasspaper, either in sheets or discs for power tools, are used for stripping down and smoothing wooden surfaces, and iii conjunction with paint removers or by themselves, to remove stubborn old paint and varnish. When using sheet sandpaper, glass-paper or emery paper, it call be folded round blocks of wood, or made into sticks by wrapping round pieces of dowelling etc. Discs for sanders on power tools are made in a multitude of grades and qualities, some very rough indeed. Spaced grit carbide discs are excellent for tough work, where scoring of underlying wood can be removed at a later date. Metal discs with tungsten spaced grit over them are almost indestructible and will remove practically anything, but are liable to do damage as well, and should be used with great care.
Sheets of sand or glasspaper are used on finishing power sanders which do not revolve, but work with a fast backwards and forwards action.
Wet and dry emery paper in various grades, so called because it can be used dry or soaked in water as a lubricant without dissolving into pulp, will help to impart a mirror finish to any object which is being painted or varnished. The object is rubbed down with wet anddry between coats until the surface feels perfectly smooth to the fingertips. The emery is used very wet and the lubricating effect of the water helps the emery to cut smoothly without scratching.
Steel wool in various grades is a very versatile material. In rough grades, in conjunction with strippers, it will help to shift paint and varnish. Used with metal polishes it will remove stubborn stuns on metals, and will help chemical rust removers to shift rust. Steel wool pads impregnated with soap are excellent for cleaning greasy metal or wood surfaces. Mirror finishes on wood call be rubbed down with fine steel wool, before waxing to achieve smooth shining but not over
glossy finishes. The uses of steel wool iY1 C011-
junction with wood finishing materials are many, and experience is invaluable. Grade oo or 000 is used for fine work. If you have a polishing lathe with interchangeable mops and brushes, or even if you set up a power drill to take small mops and bobs, you may wish to try liquid polishing compositions. These are equivalent to the bar compositions mentioned below and are intended to be sprayed on to the work as polishing is taking place. This requires special spray equipment so this method is usually only used commercially.
Emery powder, tripoli powder, rottenstone (a mineral found in Derbyshire and mixed with oil), jeweller’s rouge (powdered iron oxide), pumice powder (powdered volcanic lava), crocus powder, carboruriduni, and whiting are all abrasives commonly used in metal finishing, and can be bought in composition bars, either greasy or non greasy, for use with polishing mops and brushes. They are used moistened on soft rags, or on swabs made up on sticks, or on small brushes (old toothbrushes come in handy here).
Obviously care must be taken not to use too strong an abrasive for your particular job. Do not risk making deep scratches which will need even deeper abrasion to be removed, and as polishing proceeds, use finer and finer abrasives until a deep glowing finish is achieved.
ACIDS
Some acids make effective cleaners. They should always be handled with care; rubber gloves must be worn, and the bottles or containers must be carefully labelled, well stoppered, and kept out of the way of children. If you do spill acid on to yourself or your clothing, wash with plenty of clean water and then with water and bicarbonate of soda which is an alkali which will neutralise the acid. When diluting acid, alivays add acid to the water and not vice versa.
Hydrochloric acid. Also known as spirits of salt. Don’t let it get near stainless steel or other metals, except under control, for it will etch the metals. Nor should it touch nylon or any man-made fibres.
Acetic acid. Is the acid constituent of vinegar.
Oxalic acid. A poisonous acid which has many uses as a stain remover. In five per cent solution it will remove ink stains. Two teaspoonfuls of crystals in two pints of cold water will remove blood stains. In saturated solution it will remove black water marks on wood.
Citric acid. A ten per cent solution is sometimes used for stain removing.
Nitric acid. This is a strong fuming acid and if you get will
any on your skin it burn severely. Any slightest amount spilt should immediately be flushed and flooded with water. Skin should be held under a running cold tap. Very diluted, it is used for cleaning gilt and gilding. It can be used to darken soft soldering.
Oleic. Acid in an oily base.
Muriatic acid. Another name for hydrochloric acid. Accumulator acid. Diluted sulphuric acid used in the making of chlorine gas for bleaching.
ADHESIVES
The problems of getting one thing to stick to another have always loomed large for the restorer, especially when the two objects are not made of the same material. Luckily, new types of adhesive have been invented which will literally stick anything to anything. The strength of the stuck joints is also very important, and modern adhesives are so efficient that stuck joins can actually be stronger than any other kind of jour, and where, in the old days the glueing of joins of all kinds was used in conjunction with other fixing methods, dowelling etc., sticking alone is nowadays often sufficiently strong. Adhesives have become so strong as well as water and heat resistant, that it is really no longer necessary to rivet ceramics, and almost totally invisible stuck joints can be made in china. Adhesives mixed with colouring matters, pigments and powders, are used as Hers, thus becoming dual purpose materials (see under Cements and Fillers). Most modern adhesives have many uses and will stick a very wide variety of substances, but some are better than others for particular kinds of work.
Why things stick together is quite involved and difficult to explain. Theoretically, if you can bring two stir-faces together so that they touch all over their surfaces, they may stick together without adhesives. Two sheets of glass will sometimes adhere in this way and become extremely difficult to part. Even two sheets of shiny paper will stick together. I know a trick with a penny, which consists of drawing a coin sharply down a varnished wall surface, and snapping it on with a thumb. The coin will stay there indefinitely if the wall surface is all right. I suppose most of the air is expelled from under the coin, and the rim makes a perfect seal with the varnished surface, and die outside air pressure keeps die coin in place. There was a pub in Potter Heighain in Norfolk, called the Falgate, where the whole surface of die bar surround was covered in coins put there in this way. In fact my father put up the first one. Much later they were all varnished in to preserve them, but eventually the bars in die pub were enlarged and down came die panelling and the pennies. Yet few people would believe that no adhesive was used to keep the pennies up and many of the coins were there for years.
It seems that the function of an adhesive is to make the respective surfaces so smooth that they adhere. When using normal adhesives, as little as is consistent with covering the whole surface should be used, as too much just keeps the surfaces apart, and does not john them together. The john should then be put under pressure and left undisturbed.
All surfaces which are to be stuck together must first be thoroughly cleaned of old grease and glue, or rust, and the adliesive makers’ instructions should be followed carefully. Glues made from gelatine or old type animal glues, can be removed by soaking with warm water. Resinous cements are dissolved by alcohol, celluloid cements can be removed with amyl acetate or acetone. Dissolver will shift modern epoxy resin glues. Once the surfaces are cleaned they should have a rub with sand or emery paper, to make sure all glue is gone, and to give a key for the cement.
Scotch glue. Scotch glue has always been the traditional glue to use for woodwork, and it is still the best glue for veneer work especially where the veneer has to be smoothed or `hammered’ into place with the rounded end of a ball-peen hammer. Scotch glue can be bought either in cake, pearl or powder form. The glue is put into a proper glue pot with water, and left to soak overnight, which makes it swell up and soften. The glue pot is in fact two pots, one within the other. The outside one holds water, the inside one the glue, just like a double saucepan. The pot is put on to simmer and the glue stirred frequently as it heats. Don’t ever boil glue, just get it hot enough to run off the brush when you hold it over the pot, without forming tears. Scotch glue is used hot and is brushed well into the surfaces. It helps to warm the wood before applying the glue. All joints made with Scotch glue should be well cramped or weighted, so that any surplus is squeezed out, and the surfaces brought as close together as possible. Scotch glue is useless for joints or mends which will be exposed to damp, as it will not hold, and in time will even grow fungus. Santobrite call be added to Scotch glue to prevent the formation of fungus. Heat also melts Scotch glue and releases joints.
Durofix. Durofix is a celluloid cement, and is extremely useful as it is transparent, so that it can be built up in layers to form a self-supporting film to repair glass etc. (although acrylic resins have supplanted it for large-scale jobs of this kind). Glass repaired with Durofix won’t stand domestic handling, but for ornamental use it is good enough. One big advantage of Durofix is that it is a one tube adhesive and does not have to be mixed with hardeners.
Et,o-stile. Made in several different types, this is a splendid impact adhesive. Evo-stik Impact Household Adhesive is excellent for joins where the two surfaces may be brought directly together and left without movement until set. Where joins have to be slid together (such as a mortice and tenon joint), this adhesive is not suitable. When using Evo-stik, a coat of the stuff is put oil each surface to be joined, and is left for at least a quarter of an hour. The surfaces are then brought together correctly (no sliding about to get things right), and an immediate bond is made which in time is extremely strong. In fact if you try to break the bond, you may break the wood instead.
Cascattdte is a powder glue which is mixed with water, is good for woodwork, as is
Aerolite which is a powder and a liquid hardener, mixed together in the right proportions for a very strong resin adhesive.
This brings me to the modern epoxy resin two-tube adhesives which are fantastically useful and versatile. There are quite a few makes, and it is not possible to list more than one or two of all the adhesives available in this section, but I think I have mentioned enough to cope with most
jobs.
Plastic Padding. This is a two-tube adhesive and filler, which has a silver metallic colour. It has the advantage of drying very quickly—in ten or fifteen minutes—so that it is useful
will
where speed is helpful. It stick pretty well anything to anything, but its silver colour precludes its use where the join will show, or will not be painted over.
Araldite. In the two-tube pack (A.V. too and H.V. 100), Araldite is suitable for joining any of the materials listed below. All objects to be glued should first be cleaned, the surfaces being thoroughly degreased, then abraded, then degreased again before the adhesive is applied. Also it is important to make sure that surfaces are dry before adhesive is applied, so give them a few minutes in front of a fan heater or on a radiator; or put large objects in an airing cupboard for a while. If there is any paint or old glue on a surface to be joined, it must be removed with a solvent. Dissolver will remove Araldite if it has been used before.
Mix your adhesive on a small piece of glass with a palette knife. Keep some methylated spirit handy for cleaning up, as it will dissolve Araldite while it is still soft. It is important that the contents of the tubes never mix except as and when you want them.
When using two-tube Araldite A.V. ioo and H.V. i oo, warm the two tubes a little before measuring out and mixing the adhesive and it will be thinner, and thus easier to use, but may take a little longer to set.
For china repair Araldite A.Y. 103 and Hardener H.Y. 951 are very suitable because the mixture is thinner; it grips very hard and doesn’t need much pressure to get a good join. Because itis thinner it can be got into small cracks, and it fills all the requirements of unobtrusive adhesion. It is not quite so resistant to water and steam as the two-tube Araldite, so should not be used for repairs to china which is going into domestic use.
All adhesives nixed should be used within an hour as it begins to dry after that time and gets tacky. It is sensible to have a sticking session—collecting together and preparing all the mending jobs you have on hand to do at the same time. It is quite difficult to mix the exact small amount you need for one article and only too ofter, the whole family searches the house for things to mend to use up the adhesive. Left over mixed Araldite will keep in the freezing compartment of your refrigerator for several hours, even overnight, but do not try to keep it there indefinitely or you will end up throwing a useless little hard lump into the dustbin together with the container or sheet of glass to Which it has become firmly stuck.
It is quite simple to measure out the two-tube Araldite exactly because you can squeeze an equal length strip from each tube on to the glass. With the thinner types, measurement is by drops, oreven with two hypodermic syringes— although this would seem to be all expensive way of doing the job. Perhaps it is worth the investment if you are specialising in repairing things with Araldite!
Having mixed the adhesive, spread an even thin coat on each surface of the object, using a match or a rust free nail or a glass rod, and fit the two firmly together. Use gum strip to bind together a join while it dries (see section on Chita). Araldite takes twelve hours to set at room temperature, and three days to harden to maximum strength, but drying can be speeded up by heating, even by baking in a cool oven.
Drying time at 149 deg. C. (3oo deg. F.) 3o rains.
121 deg. C. (zso deg. F.) i hour
79 deg. C. (175 deg. F.) 3 hours
Do not dry at over Soo deg. F. as at that heat the two-tube Araldite resin darkens.
To join the following materials (all must be degreased before and after abrasion):
Brass: Abrade with emery
Ceramics and Porcelain: Abrade with carborundum and water slurry Copper: Abrade with emery
Glass: Abrade with carborundum
Gold: Abrade with fine emery or crocus paper
Lead, Tin and Solder: Abrade with fine emery
Leather: Degrease with great care. Abrade with glass paper Silver: Abrade with fine emery
Steel and Iron: Abrade with emery
Stone: Abrade with a wire brush
Wood: Abrade with glasspaper
Pastes. Special pastes such as Gripfix, and photographic mounting pastes are most useful for paper work as they do not cause cockling or staining. Some photographic mountains have first to be painted on with a soft brush, and then, when the paste has dried for some minutes, the picture or paper is ironed on to its mount with a warm iron over greaseproof paper.
Paste for paper and leather similar to paperhanger’s paste, proprietary brands of which can be bought, are made up as follows: Recipe i. lb. plain flour
oz. powdered alum
Mix with water to a cream, and then add a pint of cold water and heat in an enamel saucepan stirring all the time.
When using this paste for leather add a little thin Scotch glue. Keep this paste away from metal before use or it may pick up discolouring stains.
Recipe z. i teaspoonful plain flour z teaspoonfuls cornflour J teaspoonful alum
3 oz. water
Mix all ingredients together well so that there arc no lumps, bring to the boil in an enamel saucepan, stirring all the time, and boil for a minute or two till thick.
Copydex is an extremely useful white, rubber-based adhesive for all fabrics.
H.M.G. This heat and waterproof adhesive is good for some jobs because it is clear and quick drying, but it is not over strong. It can be handled for up to an hour, and goes totally hard in twenty-four hours. It does not slip, and is dissolved by acetone.
AMMONIA
Ammonia is a gaseous compound of nitrogen and hydrogen. It has the property in liquid form of turning grease into a soluble soap and so removing it. Used as a ten per cent solution in water it gets rid of dirt and grease, and some kinds of silver tarnish. It also makes glass and porcelain sparkle. It should never be used on bronze, and can lift varnish on wood. It is in fact, in a strong solution, quite a good varnish stripper (see Stripping).
Scrubbs Cloudy Ammonia is a ten per cent solution.
Ammonia solution is used for cleaning Ormolu (see Ormolu) and in a very dilute form, marble. A few drops added to beeswax and turpentine (see Beeswax) makes effective furniture polish.
ANTLERS
Antlers and horns, mounted on shaped boards—relics of our big-ganic—hunting grandfathers—are quite common junk objects. If it so happens that you do wish to restore such an object, clean the horns as suggested under Ivory and Bone. Fill any holes or chips with epoxy resin suitably coloured with kaolin powder and a little yellow ochre or brown dry powder pigment to match. Stick broken pieces back in place with Araldite, and put a wire core or pin in hollow broken horns, packed round with filler as described in the section on China Mending. The clean horns or antlers should be coated with a light wax polish to improve their looks. The backboard may need mending or completely stripping off, and repolishing.
Antlers which come complete with the deer’s head are more difficult to cope with if the head is in bad condition. A good brushing with Fullers Earth should clean the hair, but the repair of rotted or torn leather sections may be very tricky and take careful needlework. It may be necessary to re-stuff parts of the head. A good mothproofing is always advisable, so spray well with an aerosol niodiproofer, and an insecticide as well, if necessary.
Anyone who has spent much time looking in junk shops will know that sooner or later a particular decision will have to be made. Is one to insist on buying only the perfect piece, the flawless jewel, which has come down to our time unscathed by time—that enemy of both man and his handiwork? Or is one to be content with something less than perfection, that which is flawed—though not irreparably?
If you take the first course and happen to have a taste for the best in furniture, pictures, pottery, glass, silver, or whatever, you will nowadays need a very long purse indeed. The fine things of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have soared in price to levels which would not have been thought possible even only five years ago. In the meantime collectors have turned their attention to the once despised nineteenth century; and Victorians is now as eagerly accepted for sale by great auctioneers like Sotheby’s and Christie’s as anything of earlier date.
Personally I have never felt especially impressed by ‘condition’ for its own sake. If a piece is what the trade calls ‘right’—that is to say genuine of its own kind, if whatever imperfections it may have do not seriously detract from enjoyment of it, I do not see why it should not take its place in a collection. After all, for a piece of china or furniture to have survived for two hundred, a hundred, or even fifty years without acquiring some sort of blemish, or show some signs of age, is a quite remarkable thing: it has certainly not happened to me. One suspects too, that those who seek perfection of this kind may be interested not so much in the appreciation of a particular objet d’art, as in appreciation of their investment—and I have always thought that there were many pitfalls in that kind of collecting.
A few years ago there came up for sale a famous collection of teapots, representative of the finest work of all the famous English factories. The reverend gentleman who put it together, however, could not possibly have afforded to do so had he not been content to accept the odd chip, crack or restored part. But these imperfections in no way spoilt the beauty and interest of the collection, which, though unique of its kind, had much instructive value for the general collector.
For me, therefore, if a piece has been skilfully and sympathetically repaired, with awareness of period and of the peculiar nuances of the original work, there would always be a place for it on my shelves or walls. And if you tell me that a repair or a repainting can be detected by ultraviolet radiation, I reply that one does not normally look at works of art through apparatus of that kind.
Before they buy, however, I think that collectors should inform themselves as to what can or cannot be done with anything which has been damaged or broken. Some things are really beyond all hope: they could never be restored in such a way as to give one the same kind of xsthetic appeal as the original, and the place for it—if there is a place for it—may well be in a museum. But there are many things which can be rescued, and ought to be before they deteriorate any further.
This, I think, is the value of a book like this. In showing how repairs can be done it tells one what repairs can be done, whether we do them ourselves with loving care or whether we leave them to the expert. There are not so many fine works of art about that we can afford to let them disappear without an effort of some sort.
What is junk? Something which its last owner discarded as worthless? Any old piece of furniture, china, metalwork, any old picture, print or scrap which has no intrinsic value? These definitions have no meaning today when the trade in ‘junk’ has reached international proportions and when some of the prices paid for hideous bits of bric-a-brac put them far beyond the reach of most amateur collectors. Once, a poke around a second-hand shop produced all kinds of unusual and interesting things for shillings and even for pennies. Pounds didn’t enter into it. Once you could go to auction sales and come away with car loads of discarded ‘rubbish’ which no one else at the sale wanted and for which the dealers, least of all the dealers, never bothered to bid.
Not any more. At every sale, in every junkshop, there lurks the man or woman with that indefinable look, that odd searching expression which proclaims that he or she is
‘in the trade’ and wi buy akinds of unlikely things just to turn them into other unlikely things or to restore them
and sell them as totally genuine survivals from the past, and as always, when the dealers get interested the amateurs have to get up very early in the morning!
The reasons why we have come to value these things are strange, but fairly simple. As we invent new designs for furniture, pots and pans, clothes etc. and enjoy new styles and fashions, yesterday’s style and the day before yesterday’s become hideous to us. How ugly now seems the clothes and furniture, the carpets and curtains, the chairs and the pictures of the thirties. And how ugly, in the thirties, seemed the things we designed in the twenties. Yet now, in the sixties, the things of the twenties become attractive again, some of them, and the Victorian excesses which we hated in the thirties, positively delight us now. Why does this happen? Is it because our modem designs get more and more simple and functional, with fewer curves and fussy bits, more and more straight lines and flat surfaces, more and more synthetic finishes, and less and less craftsmanship or hand work of any kind is done. The horrors of photographic wood veneers, which only need a wipe with a damp cloth, the plastic ‘working surfaces which every knife marks, are preferred to beautiful natural veneers which need a bit of polishing to keep them beautiful, and to scrubbed wood which needs a bit of elbow grease to keep it clean. So I believe some of us are coming to value the things which man has made with his hands out of natural materials as an antidote to our machine-turned, moulded, plastic world. And I don’t believe that the plastic rubbish of today will ever become the treasured junk of tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. We have gone right over the top, and many people are determined to salve what is left of the artifacts of our grandfathers. The very ugliness of some of the things has the appeal of individuality at the least. It may be claimed that a lot of Victorian and Edwardian and even Georgian junk was mass produced in the sense that numbers of copies of the same objects were made, and that any casting or turning or moulding techniques that were available were fully used. Nevertheless the materials themselves ensured that hand finishing was almost always necessary, and the machines were worked by men and not by other macliiiies. Designs were made by the minds of men and not by computers.
Ingenious people go to great lengths to make modem objects out of old junk, sometimes by taking things back to an even more original condition than they ever were before, when they were first made. I’m thinking of the vogue for stripping down wooden objects and oiling or waxing so that the grain alone decorates them; objects that were always stained or painted when they were first produced. It is only quite recently that we have realised that natural pine wood call be just as beautiful as natural walnut, or oak or mahogany. Our immediate forefathers thought that pine in its natural state was very ugly and only fit to be covered up. Anyone who had ever visited all alpine country knew differently, but nevertheless we remained very traditional. Taking the subject a stage further, there was a time when natural oak furniture was looked upon as being purely rural and only used by the yokels in the kitchen, and nothing could be elegant but inlaid mahogany or veneer or ormolu. All kinds of objects get turned into lamps nowadays, and old picture frames make fine mirrors and trays. Pianos turn into cocktail cabinets—there is a use for everything and anything. Is this because the hand craftsmanship, or even the time, that it takes to make these things cannot be found these days except at great expense? Labour was cheap when the junk was being made, and now we are taking advantage, years after the makers are dead and gone, of their sweated labour, their underpaid craftsmanship, which are just not available any more.
Lastly, as I discovered when I became involved in the art of restoring old cottages for modern living, you and I, amateurs in the sense that our jobs probably have nothing whatsoever to do with restoring things, get a great kick, an artistic satisfaction, out of mending something that seemed broken beyond repair, out of recreating something useful or decorative or interesting from something old, ugly and dull. The artist, the creator in all of us, can thus find expression even when we lack original talent. It may be in something as elemental as getting a good polish on a piece of filthy old brass.
Most of us are magpies at heart, and the collecting instinct which stimulates toddlers to collect little piles of stones, shells and sticks and string, the child to collect stamps or dolls and the teenager to collect gramophone records, stimulates the adult to collect whatever he or she can afford and finds pleasing. I know a man whose large Edwardian house (and lie needs one) is full of musical boxes, everything from tiny little singing birds to huge great mahogany things which come to coniplicated life and give out fantastic sounds in response to the necessary stimuli. Another man will collect powder flasks, buttons or little boxes, or flatirons, or porcelain. Most collectors begin by acquiring a piece of junk almost accidentally, perhaps by inheritance, or bought in with an odd lot, or just because it caught the eye, and that is the nucleus of a collection.
People can be divided into two groups; those who will take everything to the ‘expert’ to be restored or cleaned, and those who will go to great lengths to do the work themselves. I think that the true junk collector comes into the second category. The greater part of the fun for him is in the restoring—in being able to say, modestly: ‘yes, I mended that chair—it had three broken legs and six coats of paint, but the waxed natural wood does look rather nice, doesn’t it?’
There are limitations, of course, oil what can be done; limitations imposed by the necessity for expensive tools or materials, or processes which need equipment not usually found in even a well-equipped workshop (electro-plating tanks for instance). The one limitation that never seems to apply is that of knowledge, either of techniques or of materials.
Here another distinction has to be made. Properly speaking, restoration implies the recreating of an object so that it is exactly as it was when it was made. In the wider sense great arguments go on between the people and societies interested in the preservation of ancient things, and those who wish to restore them for actual use. To the purist, for instance, it is wrong when restoring a cottage to make structural alterations which are necessary to make it habitable in modern terms. To the purist it is wrong to restore an old piece of furniture by altering its original purpose, terrible to cut a whatnot in half and make two tables from it, even though it was useless as a whatnot. If a thing has intrinsic beauty then surely it is wrong to alter it out of recognition. There is a safeguard here in the sense that if you pay a lot of money for an antique you are unlikely to chop it about. Oil die other hand you might undervalue some inherited piece and destroy it by altering it.
How far is one justified in building up missing pieces of objectswith modern epoxy resins instead of restoring the missing part as nearly as possible with its original material? Museums do it all the time and are prepared to rebuild and remake shamelessly with modern materials to restore objects, although they make no secret of this. It is of course inipossible to lay down rules for these things. In any case the antique and jtuik trades are so full of fakes, composite objects, and reproductions with never any guarantee of authenticity, that it doesn’t matter a great deal, I suppose, how authentic your restoration work on junk is. The only thing that matters, it seems to me, is that the reproduction or reconstruction or restoration produces something which as nearly resembles the original as one’s capacities and the materials available allow. Never try to pass off any kind of restoration as original.
While in this book I have tried to include as many hints and ideas as possible, I have slued away from `tricks of the trade’. There are too many tricksters about
already.
Of course, with many perishable objects such as prints, preservation and protection against the ravages of the future is as important as restoration, and there seems to me to be no harm in using the most modem methods and materials available.
One or two general points must be made. First, that there is no substitute, really, for elbow grease, and this is in many cases the restorer’s most useful material, substance or technique! It may be easy to slosh acids and solvents around, but the damage they do may well outweigh the time they save. Second, many chemicals used are poisonous or corrosive, and the greatest care must be taken when using them to wear protective clothing, gloves etc. Such materials should be confined to the workshop and never used in the kitchen. All bottles and jars must be carefully labelled, and poisons should be kept under lock and key. A fire extinguisher must be part of every workshop’s equipment and a bucket of sand for extra fire protection isn’t out of place. Plenty of fresh water should be available, and a sink is almost essential. Electrical equipment must be used properly and wall plugs etc. should be professionally installed and maintained. Never use electric tools with two-pin plugs. Use three-pin plugs which include an earth. Never unplug electrical equipment without first switching off the main. Never use electrical equipment with wet or even damp hands.
Lastly, I must point out that although all the recipes and suggestions in this book are tried and tested, the success of each and every one depends to some extent upon the user. It is like cooking. Give two people the same recipe book and materials and ask them to cook the same dish and the results will invariably differ.
Because of the enormous variety of materials involved, and because it is not possible for the writer to know exactly what it is that the reader is intending to treat, there can be no absolute certainty that methods and treatments will work exactly as planned. The contents of this book are meant as a guide, to be intelligently used. I have left out some techniques that call for the use of highly toxic chemicals (with the exception of the bleaching box), and I have left out or only briefly described techniques which do require practical instruction, althoughi the borderline between skills which can be self-taught and developed by practice and those which have to be imparted on the spot by an expert, is impossible to define. It depends so much on the capacity and talent of the individual.
But it is junk you will be handling; it won’t be world-shattering if you do make mistakes. ‘There is so much pleasure in doing a good job that it is always worth a try. If you fail, well, that is too bad. If you succeed, that is wonderful, and oh, so satisfying.
Thanks. To write a book of this kind without picking other people’s brains is impossible, for one cannot bc.ui expert on everything; in fact the junk restorer must be a jack of all trades. Thanks are due, therefore, to all those who let me ask them questions about their working methods, and who gave me so much useful information. Thanks also to Ginette Leach whose help with the making and checking of the book was invaluable.
Using the book. The text is not divided into chapters, but set out with subjects in alphabetical order. I suggest that you look first in the indices for references to any specific subject, or material. There are two indices: the first refers specifically to materials and tools, and includes page references and names of suppliers and sources of the materials, so that in effect it replaces appendices; the second refers to the subject headings and methods, and is intended to lead you directly to the subject itself where you can find full details on cleaning and restoration.
Where various things come into the same general category they have been grouped together in that category rather than scattered through the book in alphabetical order. For instance the section headed Stone includes subsections of various kinds of stone. The sections on China, Furniture, and Metal are also comprehensive. This seems to me to be a more convenient way of arranging things than exact alphabetical order would have been.
