118 HOME AND GARDEN 



there is sure to arise some need for a special tool, and 

 unless one has the luck to buy some good workman's 

 old tools there is nothing for it but to make them. 

 The more important tool shops sell blank lengths of good 

 steel. The chaser buys these, and first shapes the tool 

 and then hardens and tempers it. Tempering requires 

 a good deal of practice. Chisels, gouges, and all tools 

 for wood except saws are hard, and those for working 

 metal necessarily soft, except files, which are very hard. 

 But files are made of good steel, and when they are 

 worn out are useful to " let down " and make into soft 

 tools such as cold chisels. Some of the most delicate 

 tools of the file tribe that are used in getting up small 

 castings in gold and silver are only to be had in Paris ; 

 their tiny teeth are hardly to be seen with the naked eye. 

 The workshop has a large range of drawers occu- 

 pying the greater space of one wall. Here are stores 

 of materials ; woods for inlay : box, ebony, lignum- 

 vitee, satinwood, and others ; sheets of horn, ivory, bone, 

 and tortoiseshell, slips of mother-o'-pearl and paliotus 

 shell, and all the many materials and appliances 

 wanted for various kinds of decorative work ; model- 

 ling wax and tools, hard wax mixtures of various 

 colours for rubbing into subjects engraved on wood, 

 bone, and ivory ; collecticns of ornamental hinges, keys, 

 handles, and various small fittings, both ancient and 

 modern, frequently coming into use; drawings, pat- 

 terns, and stencils ; patterns and small pieces of various 

 fabrics for reference in work of house decoration ; several 



