12 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
finds its bearing under the forefinger in- 
stead of the palm of the hand. Sharp 
<?arving on the knob should always be dis- 
<30uraged, for it only hurts the hand, but 
the neck of the knob may receive the car- 
ver's attention. We shall avoid reference 
to fancy sticks with metal heads of gold, 
or silver, or silver plated brass, and to 
those clever contrivances, which store a 
multiun in parvo of tools in the head of 
the stick; also leaving out of our con- 
sideration, the loaded stick with its half- 
leaden head, and that barbarous relic of 
the dark ages, known as the sword-stick— 
these we will leave in professional hands. 
Elm sticks with the rough bark left on 
(Fig. 6) must be neatly trimmed naked 
around the neck of the knob, and at the 
bottom of the stick just above the ferrule, 
loose bark should also be neatly trimmed 
with a sharp knife, and the whole lightly 
gone over with medium glass-paper. The 
stick should then receive a dressing of 
boiled linseed oil, and be left to dry. 
When dry, it will be well to go over the 
smooth parts with a little polish, and 
finally give one or two coats of hard spirit, 
or of copal varnish. Holly, ash, hazel, 
cherry, apple, birch, etc., should have 
part of their bark only taken off with a 
sharp knife, leaving all knots smoothly 
trimmed, rounded, and clean. The sticks 
should be then lightly glass-papered, and 
when smooth, dressed with boiled linseed 
oil, dried, polished, and varnished. Oak 
sticks look best when carefully barked in 
hot water, cleared of the loose bark by 
Tubbing with canvas, dried, dressed with 
boiled linseed oil, again dried, then pol- 
ished and varnished with oak varnish. 
Blackthorn sticks should be only partly 
barked, the knots smoothly trimmed, 
then glass-papered quite smooth, dressed 
and varnished as directed for other sticks. 
Sticks may be stained black after they 
have been glass-papered, and before they 
are dressed with oil, by first brushing 
them over with a hot and strong decoc- 
tion of logwood and nut-galls, and when 
this has well-dried, brushing over them 
some vinegar or acetic acid in which a 
quantity of proto-sulphate of iron, some 
iron rust, or some old rusty nails have been 
steeped some two or three days previously. 
A brown or mahogany tint may be given 
by adding some dragon's blood to the 
polish, and a yellow tint may be obtained 
by adding yellow ochre. Some persons 
use ink for a black stain, and others put 
drop black in the varnish, but the black 
stain above mentioned is preferable to all 
others. The sticks are to be polished and 
varnished after the stain is dry. The bot- 
tom ends of walking-sticks should be 
guarded from excessive wear by a neat 
brass ferrule, but these are more cheaply 
bought than made. They should be se- 
cured to the stick by two small screws, 
one on each side of the stick, to prevent 
them from coming off when they get loose 
in dry weather. 
Amateur Brass Work. 
O doubt many of our expert 
amateur readers would like to 
work in other materials than 
wood or iron, but are deterred 
from doing so by not knowing how 
to take advantage of the facilities of- 
fered by brass, bronze, stone, and other 
like materials. It is easy to see how 
wood may be converted into various uses 
and forms, but to the uninitiated the diffi- 
culties of employing brass for artistic pur- 
poses and yet be within the range of the 
amateur, are frequently magnified into 
insurmountable obstacles. Brass, how- 
ever, and many other materials, may be 
worked with nearly as great facility as the 
softer substances, and in future numbers 
of the Young Scientist we intend showing 
how many artistic and useful things may 
be made by the amateur from the sterner 
materials. 
The illustration shown herewith will 
give an idea how a metal grille or guard 
for a panel in a cabinet — to take the place 
of wood or glass— can be made quite 
readily out of narrow strips of any sheet 
metal, by simply bending with the fingers 
and a small pair of pliers. 
Soft brass would be best for the amateur 
to try his hand on first, as it is tractable 
and easily worked. 
The design should first be laid out full 
size on a board, when it will be found an 
easy matter to bend the strips of metal 
