ROD-MAKING. 453 



mallet, a pair of pliers, a blowpipe, a lump of borax, a strip 

 of thin silver solder, and a lump of charcoal — most of these 

 articles can be had at hardware-stores. The silver solder 

 may be found at the stores where watchmakers' and jewellers' 

 materials are sold. The mandrel is a cylindrical piece of cast 

 steel, and should be the size that you want the inside of the 

 ferule. 



To take the width of a piece of brass required for a ferule, 

 wrap a piece of stiff paper around the mandrel so as to lap, 

 and pass a knife along it lengthwise as straight as you can, 

 which cuts the paper the exact size. This is moistened and 

 laid on the sheet-brass for a pattern, and the brass cut to the 

 size of the paper with a pair of shears. The brass is then 

 bent over the mandrel by the proper use of a wooden mallet 

 and the vice, and the edges brought nearly together (not to 

 overlap), and the knife-file passed between to take off any 

 inequality in the edges, and to insure their coming in contact 

 the whole length of the ferule, when bound by the annealed 

 wire. The vice should be used in bringing the edges in 

 contact, and the ferule bound in the middle and at both ends 

 with wire, while it is held in the jaws of the vice ; to do this 

 effectually, the ends of the wire after lapping the ferule are 

 twisted with the pliers. 



To make the flux for your solder, wet a piece of borax and 

 rub it on a piece of rough slate, grinding off the surface of 

 the borax until the mixed water and borax assumes the 

 appearance and consistency of cream. Apply it to the seam 

 inside of the ferule with a small camel's-hair brush, and then 

 cut a thin strip of silver solder (the thirty-second part of an 

 inch is wide enough), and of the required length, straighten it, 

 smear it with the diluted borax, lay it on the seam inside of 

 tie 'ferule, and place the ferule with the seam downwards in 

 a groove, made just large enough in a piece of charcoal to 



