374 
Scientific Intelligence.-— Arts, 
hardened and polished steel- wire, having its end made hemis- 
pherical, mounted into a handle of hard wood. This delicate 
instrument is ordinarily held by the small part of its handle, 
which is terminal, between the third and little fingers of the 
workman’s right hand, ready for use at each cutting-stroke, or 
shave made upon the wet leather by the knife, to renew its edge, 
first by raising it, then by passing the hemispherical end of the 
burnisher along it, and then to turn over and give it its proper 
direction for use, with the cylindrical part of it likewise passed 
lightly along it.— -The application of the burnisher to the edge 
of that useful and necessary ^instrument, the pen-knife, is equally 
advantageous as in the former case. If the blade be first whetted, 
with care, in the ordinary manner, and the edge then finished by 
a gentle and delicate stroke of the burnisher, carried along it so as 
to throw it forward a little from the back or convex side of the 
blade toward the concave side, a great improvement is effected ; 
and the edge, thus perfected, will endure for a considerable 
time. — Tech. Repos. Nov. <$• Dec. 1825. 
28. On the French mode of Treating Scythes by hammering 
them cold. — On Mr Gill’s mentioning Mr Turrell’s great im- 
provement in gravers (recorded in pages 196, 197, and 198. 
of this volume), to the person who furnished the notice re- 
specting the French method of treating scythes, inserted in the 
3d volume of the Technical Repository, namely, by placing the 
scythe flatways upon a portable anvil, fixed in the head of a 
stake driven into the earth, and hammering its edge dexterous- 
ly all along it with gentle strokes, he immediately noticed the 
very great analogy in the two methods, though applied in a dif- 
ferent manner, and to very different purposes. Mr Turrell’s 
great success in the improvement of that highly important im- 
plement the graver, fully warrants the conclusion, that the 
scythe may likewise be greatly improved by the condensing ef- 
fect of the blows of the hammer upon the flat sides of its edge. 
Thus the one improvement throws an additional light upon the 
other ; and we shall gladly learn the success of the application 
of this valuable practice of hammer-hardening in the cold , after 
the usual hardening and tempering processes, to such objects as 
it may, and no doubt will, -now be very shortly employed upon. 
— Gills Technical Repository, Nov. 1825. 
