MATERIALS FOR FLY- M AKING. 105 



ration, is very generally used for fly-making, and 

 it works freest when not too new, and after 

 good thumbing before a fire. But wax of 

 an improved kind may be made as follows : 

 Take equal quantities, by weight, of bees' wax 

 and the best yellow resin, and melt them together 

 in a pipkin. When thoroughly dissolved, pour 

 the mixture into cold water, and, after a few 

 minutes, take it out and work it with the fingers 

 till it assumes a silvery appearance. Then take 

 a piece of shoemaker's wax which has been used 

 for a little time, and in quantity equal to this 

 compound, and, with the hand, incorporate the 

 two together before a small fire. If transparent 

 wax, which will not materially alter the colour of 

 the silk waxed with it, be required, the shoe- 

 maker's wax must be omitted; the only ingre- 

 dients necessary, and their proportions, being two 

 parts of resin and one part of bees' wax. But 

 this latter sort is quite unnecessary, and it is far 

 inferior to the other. 



SCISSORS. 



These should be long in the blades, with fine 

 and sharp points, and should cut very keenly at 

 the extremity the part most used ; and the 



