6 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
the V tool on a spare bit of wood before trying 
it on your book-cover. The faults to be guarded 
against are cutting too deep, going off the line, 
not sweeping smoothly round the curves and 
punching to irregular depths, owing to varia- 
tions^ in the force with which the punch is 
struck. You can, if you please, mark the 
straight lines with a chisel and the curves by 
a gouge, holding them quite upright, and 
pressing them down with the hand. Many 
persons do diaper-carving in this way without 
using the V tool. In our next paper we shall 
take up the subject of fret-cutting and per- 
forated carving. 
To be continued. 
Engraving on Wood. 
BY SARAH E. FULLER. 
THE readers of the Young Scientist are 
no doubt familiar with the terms " Wood 
Cuts," or " Wood Engravings," and many 
probably know how they are made. But for 
the benefit of those who do not know, we will 
briefly describe them. 
Examine any wood engraving, and it will be 
found to be made up of lines, — black lines and 
white spaces. These lines and spaces are some- 
times so fine and small that they can hardly be 
seen without the use of a magnifier. Indeed 
the work is usually done with the aid of a 
glass, usually of low power. The white spaces 
are cut out of the wood, leaving the black lines 
in relief. No matter how fine the white line 
or dot, a fine tool has cut the minute chip out 
of the wood ; and larger tools have cut out the 
larger white lines and spaces, different sizes 
being used according to the judgment and skill 
of the engraver. 
All this will be more readily understood after 
a careful examination of the accompanying 
figures. In the first picture you will notice 
that the veins and network show white on a 
black ground. These have been cut out leav- 
ing all the black in relief. The second picture 
is the same subject ; here, as before, the parts 
which show white have been cut out, but this 
time the veins and delicate lines of the net- 
work are in relief. And Figure 3 is an example 
where nothing has been engraved — a block 
the same size as the two preceding examples, 
but no work upon it. 
Examine the illustrations of the YouNG Sci- 
entist and you will find them more interest- 
ing than before, for in order to make a good 
representation of any object, much thought 
and labor has been required. 
Fig. 1. 
As the name implies, a " wood cut " or " wood 
engraving," or " engraving on wood," is an en- 
graving which is cut on wood. For fine en- 
gravings, boxwood imported from Turkey i» 
used ; this wood grows in the interior of the 
Fiff. 2. 
country, and is brought to the seaports on the- 
backs of mules, in logs, the diameter of which 
seldom exceeds eight or ten inches. In our 
principal cities, there are dealers who make a. 
business of preparing these logs for the use of 
engravers, and any boy or girl who wants to- 
engrave, can have these prepared blocks sent 
by mail or express. 
Boxwood is chosen for fine engravings be- 
cause it has a close, even grain, permitting- 
lines to be cut, without breaking or chipping- 
out. When it is not essential that these lines 
shall be very fine, apple, pear, maple, cherry 
and mahogany woods are used. For large bill- 
posters pine boards are used, and tools espe- 
cially adapted for cutting with the grain of the 
wood ; but this form of wood engraving doe»- 
not properly belong to our subject. 
