Palette knife

“ Cleaning Knives.—Mutton fat made hot, and put on a leather or buff-board, with emery-dust—not powder, as that is too sharp—well rubbed in with an old brush, is the best way of giving a knife as good a polish and edge as any razor.
3791. To restore the Color to Mahogany.—Wash well with soap and water, and then polish daily with the following oil: Take half an ounce of alkanet root, cut small, and add to a pint of linseed oil; when this has stood for a week, add half an ounce of powdered gum-arabic, and an ounce of shellac varnish; let them stand in a bottle by the fire for a week, then strain. ”

“ On such panels it is advisable to apply the lead with a bristle brush, applying the lead to the surface a little heavier in body than ordinary paint, and then shortly going over it with a broad blade putty knife, pressing the pigment into the wood and removing the surplus.
Knifing lead deserves to be used and applied with circumspect care and skill if the best and most durable results would be achieved. ”

“ Such knives were by no means an uncommon decoration of the table at the period when this was designed: it is now a branch of art utilised until all trace of design has gone from it; for we cannot accept [9] the slight scroll work and contour of a modern silver knife-handle as a piece of art-workmanship, when we remember the beautiful objects of the kind produced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, gorgeous in design and colour, and occasionally enriched by jewels or amber. ”

“ GUN SLING. Cutlery.
Knives.
Tools.
Do not be induced to encumber yourself with one of those ornamented, highly polished, useless abominations popularly known as hunting knives; they are worse than useless, and only serve to exasperate the owner. For general rough and ready work, nothing is better than a strong well-made butcher’s knife. The blade should be continued through the handle, which is formed by pinning two cheeks of hard wood or horn together. The hand grip should be long, and the steel sufficiently soft to be cut by a common hand saw file ”

“ Descended from his flint knife is the abounding variety of steel cutting tools all the way from the razor, concave on both sides, to the axe, doubly convex. As the arts have become more specialized, as artificial power has been introduced, the contrasts of the form of one tool with another have grown more and more striking. The bar which slices metal is stout of build, and rectangular in section, while a lancet is little wider or thicker than a [90] blade of grass. The knives which divide leather, rubber, and rope, differ much from one another ”

“ The housewife’s best method of sharpening or rather keeping the edges straight and keenly cutting is the steel. When the knife really gets dull it should be ground. The use of the stone or carborundum by the ordinary operator often wears the steel. However, if the use of the grinder or the stone or the carborundum is really known, time and money will be saved in the sharpening process. Sharp knives save temper, save food to a great degree, and therefore if you can’t sharpen knives yourself send them out to be taken care of once or twice a year. ”

“ These knives are usually about eighteen inches long, with a broad, sharp, murderous blade. The handles are of tortoise or ivory, often carved richly, or inlaid with figures of the Virgin, the Saviour, or the crucifix. The knife is kept open by a curious little wheel, between blade and handle, and is used indiscriminately, to slice a melon or lay bare a quarrelsome neighbor’s heart. ”

“ In grinding the colours upon the stone, and managing them upon the pallette, care should be taken not to use an iron knife, the steel or iron that grinds off, in mixing with the colours spoils their brightness and vivacity; flake-white and white-lead, yellow-oker, lacque and light-red, suffer greatly by it, it gives them a dull and dirty cast; Naples-yellow suffers most of all from it; its vivacity is entirely destroyed by the iron’s touching it. Horn, ivory, or tortoise shell knives, or [Pg 54] wooden spatulas are fitter for all manner of painting; they will affect no colours ”

“ In nearly all cases the blade of the knife requires different treatment from the handle. If it be of unplated steel it must be thoroughly polished every time it is used. If it be of silver, or be silver-plated, a careful washing with soap and water, and a thorough drying, will be all the daily care that is required,—a thorough cleaning about once a week sufficing to keep the blade perfectly clean. ”

“ It is very sharp at the point, and the fact of being made from the finest Razor Steel, Hand Forged, Nickel Plated, makes it a very durable knife for Carpenters, Farmers, or Wood-Workers. Price 75 cents.
“GOOD LUCK” KNIFE.
Given for new subscriptions amounting to 50 cents and 15 cents cash additional.
This is our Good Luck Knife; the cheapest and best ever made. It has two strong, hand-forged, razor steel blades; German silver bolsters; is brass lined; cocoa handle, round corners. This is a genuine “Boys” Knife, but is made from better material than most of the boys’ knives. ”

“ This mistake is sometimes made in using the oilstone, by rubbing the tool on both sides instead of on one only. All the grinding and sharpening must be done on the bevelled side. As the plane iron is only a thin chisel, the sharpening of the latter tool is performed as in the case of the plane iron, and the same care should be taken to keep the bevel clean cut.
A good grindstone is a shop necessity, and, one might add, a household necessity, because every household uses knives, and the dull knife is an altogether too common nuisance. ”

“ The surface is then puttied with a putty made of white keg lead, dry white lead and whiting, equal parts by bulk, and japan. The putty used for knifing in is made softer than that used for stopping holes and cavities. The putty is given one day to harden. Then a filling composed of keg lead, 1 part; whiting, 1 part; flour of pumice stone, 1/5 part; made into a stiff glazing pigment with japan and a small percentage of turpentine, is brushed over the surface, a second workman following with a broad putty knife and skillfully removing the superfluous filler. ”

“ I have seen flint knives in outline very like Fig. 240 in the museums at Cracow, Moscow, and Kiev. Some are highly polished by friction and may have served as sickles.
It is difficult to assign any definite use to the British form of knife, but as the curvature is evidently intentional, and as probably it was more difficult to chip out such curved blades than it would have been to make them straight, there must have been some advantage resulting from the form. As both edges of the blade are sharp, it is hard to say whether the convex or concave edge was the principal object. ”

“ A word about the care of carving knives: a fine steel knife should not come in contact with intense heat, because it destroys its temper, and therefore impairs its cutting qualities. Table carving knives should not be used in the kitchen, either around the stove, or for cutting bread, meats, vegetables, etc.; a fine whetstone should be kept for sharpening, and the knife cleaned carefully to avoid dulling its edge, all of which is quite essential to successful carving. ”

“ Argument on the respective merits of knives is popular, and discussion seems endless. It is claimed for the bent gouge that it is superior to the straight instrument, because, the leverage being downwards on the handle, the tendency is to lift the cutting edge upwards and out of the bark, whereas with a straight gouge the tendency is to push the knife downwards into the bark. It is claimed, therefore, that the average [39] shavings taken off by the bent gouge should be thinner than those obtained by the use of the straight instrument. ”

“ The bronze objects, according to Dr. Forel (B. 462) , amount to 48, viz. 11 winged celts, two lance-heads, six knives, two sickles, 14 bracelets, two rings, five hair-pins, and six diverse objects. One of the knives, which is finely ornamented and one foot in length, has the peculiarity that the handle contains less tin than the blade (Fig. 17, No. 16) . Another knife was adapted for side-plates to be riveted on its handle (No. 11) ; while others were socketed and tanged (Nos. 17 and 18) . Some of the hatchets have a side loop, and others are devoid of it. ”

“ Section knives, during the process of sharpening, are subjected to three distinct processes: 1, Grinding; 2, Honing; 3, Stropping.
Grinding is one of the most important, though it is probable that it will rarely be undertaken by the microscopist himself. More knives and razors are spoiled in grinding than in any other way. We have now in our possession an excellent knife, which in an evil hour we entrusted to a New York cutler, and received it back utterly ruined, the temper being entirely taken out of the blades! ”

“ Grinding (fig. 2) is necessary because new knives are not usually sold in a form sharp enough for immediate use. The stone should be water, or oil-cooled to avoid overheating the knife. The blade should not be ground back more than 1⁄4 inch from the edge to form the proper bevel. The bevel should be the same on both sides of a skinning knife so that it may be used with either hand in removing the hide from a beef carcass. It is best to grind the knife by holding the knife edge against the stone at a right angle to prevent scarring the blade any farther back than the actual bevel. ”

“ Every microscopist that expects to do much at cutting sections must learn to hone his own knife or razor. Of the various hones in use the famous Turkey oilstone is said to be altogether the best. It is, however, very difficult to get it genuine and in sufficiently large pieces. We therefore use the German hone-slate, a softer, yellow stone of wonderful fineness and cutting power. The ordinary whetstones are altogether too coarse, and as for artificial stones and strops, they may do for coarse work and common razors for scraping, but they will not do for knives used for section-cutting. ”

“ For safe clearance the knife should be a few thousandths of an inch thinner at the top than the distance from its back to the line of its cutting edge.
The knife bolts should always be screwed up snug, so that the cutting edge of the knife will have the correct pitch in relation to the pile. The top or back edge of a knife should be held absolutely straight to get a firm thrust—bearing all along the knife-bar. Knives abutting against adjusting screws for this reason are not apt to give so good results as knives that abut against a solid shoulder all across the knife-bar. ”

“ Most larger skins need thinning with a special tool, though an experienced hand can manage to thin a heavy hide with a common draw knife.
An empty lard tub, a half barrel or a large earthenware jar to hold the tan liquor, a fleshing knife and a fleshing beam are necessary to begin with at least. Any smith can make a knife of an old, large file or rasp by working both sides to a blunt edge and drawing the upper end out in a tang for another handle. A piece of old scythe blade with cloth wrapped around the ends will do, or a dull draw knife, either. ”

“ When a case-knife is used instead of a can-top, it is held either at right angles to the surface worked or at an angle of about sixty degrees with the surface, the upper edge of the knife tilted away from the body (pl. 19, a) . In all vessels, bowls as well as ollas, the angle with the horizontal made by the mouth varies considerably, according to the part of the vessel being scraped. After the scraping proper is completed, one potter sometimes rubs the surface, including the rim and lip, with a little steel wool, which noticeably improves the smoothness. ”

“ Some spent all their money for knives owning as high as five or six at one time. Their interest centres in the number and sharpness of the blades. Each boy's knife must be sharper than those of others, and comparison of knives with respect to sharpness is common. The blades are tested by cutting into hard material, by seeing which can cut the largest shavings or chips from wood, or by trying to cut paper or a hair. ”

“ It should have a handle easy to grasp, a long, thin, sharp, pointed blade, and be of a size adapted to the article to be carved and to the person using it. A lady or a child will prefer a small knife. Be as particular to have the knife sharp as to have it bright and clean; and always sharpen it before announcing the dinner. It is very annoying for a person to be obliged to wait and sharpen the knife, or to turn the meat round to get it into the right position. Never allow a carving-knife to be used to cut bread, or for any other than its legitimate purpose. ”

“ On taking up these, each owner of the knives will imagine that his remains on the table and his neighbours’ are being used. Even if he suspected a substitution, that would not account for the trick.
Ingenious Variation.—One knife is laid on the cup with its handle outside to maintain the balance; a long knitting-needle, fastened to the knife-handle with a lump of sealing wax, while a leaden bullet at the other end and knife point serves as counterpoise. The glass table is used, and the Magician withdraws to a distance. All of a sudden though, the knife leaps off from the cup. ”