This section is from the book "The English And American Mechanic", by B. Frank Van Cleve. Also available from Amazon: The English And American Mechanic.
Dampen as soon as possible after exposure to the acid with spirits ammonia. It will destroy the effect immediately.
Never use a particle of soap on your silverware, as it dulls the lustre, giving the article more the appearance of powter than silver. When it wants cleaning rub it with a piece of soft leather and prepared chalk, the latter made into a kind of paste with pure water, for the reason that water not pure might contain gritty particles.
The best method of cleansing watchmakers' and jewelers' brushes is to wash them out in strong soda water. When the backs are wood you must favor that part as much as possible, for, being glued, the water might injure them.
Scratch the glass around the shape you desire with the corner of a file or graver: then, having bent a piece of wire in the same shape, heat it red hot and lay it upon the scratch, sink the glass into cold water just deep enough for the water to come almost upon a level with its upper surface. It will rarely ever fail to break perfectly true.
Use asphaltum varnish. One coat will make old rusty hands look as good as new, and it dries in a few minutes.
Japan, ½ pt.; boiled linseed oil, ½ pt.; turpentine, ½ pt.; starch, 6 oz. Mix well together and apply to the wood. On walnut wood add a little burned umber, on cherry a little Venetian red, to the above mixture.
In planing perpendicularly, it is necessary to swivel the bottom of the small head around, so it will stand about three-fourths of an inch inside of square, towards the piece you are to plane. This prevents breaking the tool when the bed runs back.
In cutting gears, they are reckoned on a certain number of teeth to the inch, measuring across the diameter to a certain line which is marked on the face or sides of the gear with a tool. This line is one-half the depth of the teeth from the outer diameter. That is, if the teeth Of the gear are two-tenths of an inch deep, this Hue would be one-tenth of an inch from the edge, and is called the pitch line.
Chalk, powdered, and pumice-stone, each 1 put; soda, parts. Mix with water. Wash the spots, then clean and wash off with soap and water.
Soft soap, 1 part; Fuller's earth, 2 parts; potash, 1 part Mix with boiling water. Lay it upon the spots, and let it remain for a few hours.
 
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