THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
109 
Nos. 4 and 5 are neat and not over-elab- 
orate, and are within the range of most 
scroll-sawyers. The shield in No. 4 is 
composed of two thicknesses of stuff. The 
top piece may be carved and picked in 
with gold and color, or painted to suit 
taste. No. 6 is a very graceful piece of 
fretwork, and is well adapted for the 
panels or doors of an old-time sideboard. 
The shield might be a carving— in low re- 
lief—of suggestive design— fruit, fish or 
fowl, or the designs may be painted in 
low-tone colors. 
We have seen fretwork of this kind 
used on dining-room doors, where the 
original panels were flat and unrelieved. 
In this case the fretwork was surrounded 
by a band of stuff from one-half to one 
inch in width, and the same thickness as 
the fretwork or overlay. The work was 
then fitted in snugly between this frame, 
and either glued, cemented or bradded on 
to the panel. The whole was then painted 
over with suitable color, and, when dry, 
the fretwork was painted again in a much 
darker or lighter tint of the same color. 
The effect is pleasing and comfortable to 
the eye. 
In preparing these designs for special 
purposes several things must be taken 
into consideration to produce satisfactory 
results. First, the sweep of the saw. 
Some saws will not take in more than 
sixteen inches in length or width. This 
would limit the stuff to be cut to some- 
thing less than two feet in length, if 
the stuff is twelve or more inches in 
width. When this is the case, and more 
length of overlay is wanted than the 
saw will take in, the design must be made 
so that it will cut in parts in places where 
the least number of junctions occur, as 
X X X X X, Nos. 1, 2 and 3. When the de- 
signs are sawn out in sections after this 
manner, the parts may be nicely fitted 
together before they are fastened in 
place. 
When the panels are long, the designs 
might be doubled— that is, two pieces of 
the same design might be used, butt to 
butt, to fill the panel. 
1 Six pieces of any one of these de- 
signs may be cut at once with one of 
Barnes's $20 velocipede saws, if the stuff 
is not more than one-quarter of an inch 
thick. 
Overlay work is easily executed, and 
when judiciously and neatly done, gives 
good satisfaction for the labor expended. 
Amateur Wood-Carving. 
BY LEO PARSLEY. 
AYING, in a measure, explained 
in previous papers the uses of 
the various tools and appli- 
ances required by the amateur 
wood-carver, I will now proceed to give 
such directions for their use as will ena- 
ble the reader to commence operations. It 
may be readily understood that it is al- 
most impossible to give written instruc- 
tions for every detail of the wood-carver's 
art that would be clearly intelligible to 
every one ; I shall therefore give general 
directions only as to the treatment of the 
designs, leaving the treatment of small 
details, such as the number of petals in a 
rose, or the curl or twist to be given to a 
leaf, for instance, to the individual taste 
and skill of the amateur. 
The grand secret of success in wood- 
carving is to obtain a complete command 
over the tools, so as to make them obey 
the will of the operator, irrespective of 
difficulties in the shape of the grain of 
the wood, etc. To obtain this mastery 
over the tools, practice is the only remedy, 
and no matter how simple the design may 
be, it will be found that continued prac- 
tice is the only thing to accustom oneself 
to the use of the tools. 
The proper way to hold a carving-tool 
is to grasp it firmly with the left hand, so 
that the lower part of the hand comes to 
within an inch of the edge of the tool, and 
acts as a guide to it, the right hand grasp- 
ing the tool by the top of the handle, 
acts, so to speak, as the motive power. 
It will be found that with this method 
of holding the tool, more power can be 
exercised, and at the same time there will 
be less chance of those unlucky slips of 
the tool which so frequently mar the 
effect of a piece of work. 
There are various methods adopted in 
carving ; some workmen will only slightly 
" block out " the design in the wood, and 
