3070. To Make Boots Water-Tight

3070.    To Make Boots Water-Tight. In a pint of best winter-strained lard oil, dissolve a piece of paraffine the size of a hickory nut, aiding the solution with a gentle heat, say 130° or 140° Fahr. The readiest way to get pure paraffine is to take a piece of paraffine candle. Rub this solution on your boots about once a month ; they can be blacked in the meantime. If the oil should make the leather too stiff, decrease the proportion of paraffine, and vice versa. A gentleman who has tried this says: - I have used this for 8 years past, and boots have lasted me two winters, the uppers always remaining soft, and never cracking. I have tried bees' wax, resin, tar, etc., but never found any other preparation half so good.

3071. Sportsmen's Waterproof Composition for Boots

3071. Sportsmen's Waterproof Composition for Boots. Dissolve by heat 1 ounce pure bottle India-rubber shavings in 1 quart neat's foot oil, and add 2 ounces tallow. This makes a fine waterproof composition for boots, and is recommended to sportsmen.

3072. Polish for Patent Leather Goods

3072.      Polish for Patent Leather Goods. Take 1/2 pound molasses or sugar, 1 ounce gum-arabic, and 2 pounds ivory black; boil them well together, then let the vessel stand until quite cooled, and the contents are settled; after which, bottle off. This is an excellent reviver, and may be used as a blacking in the ordinary way, no brushes for polishing being required.

3073. Glycerine Composition for Leather

3073.      Glycerine Composition for Leather. As is well known, glycerine has found extensive application in tanning, as it has been discovered that it adds materially to the elasticity and strength of the leather. Especially has it been found of great value in protecting leather bands of machinery from cracking and drying. The partially tanned leather is immersed for considerable time in a bath of glycerine, by which the pores are filled and such an elasticity and softness is imparted that objects manufactured from it are much less liable to break. In order to prepare a neutral gutta-percha composition with glycerine, take 3 to 4 pounds lampblack, 1/2 pound burnt bones (burnt ivory), cover up in a suitable vessel with 5 pounds glycerine and 5 pounds common syrup, and stir well until the whole is intimately mixed and free from lumps. 4 or 5 ounces of gutta-percha, finely cut, are to be put into a kettle, and after melting must be mixed with 20 ounces of sweet oil and dissolved, and 2 ounces of stearine added. While still warm the guttapercha solution must be incorporated with the syrup and lampblack, and after this is done, 10 ounces of Senegal gum dissolved in 11/2 pounds of water is also added. In order to impart an agreeable odor to the mass a small quantity of rosemary or lavender oil may be introduced. In using, the glycerine gutta-percha paste must be diluted with 3 or 4 parts of water. It gives a fine lustre, and, as it contains no acid, it does not injure the leather, but makes it soft and elastic and adds very much to its durability.