200 
TURNING. 
his foot, and takes a gouge, of a proper size, in his right- 
hand, and holds it by the handle a little inclined, keeping 
the back of the hand lowermost: he grasps the blade of the 
tool with his left-hand, the back of which is to be turned 
upwards, and he holds it as near the end as possible on the 
front side of the rest; then leaning the gouge on the rest, 
he is to present the edge of it a little higher than the hori¬ 
zontal diameter of the piece, so as to form a kind of tangent 
to its circumference: see fig. 21. This is the best position 
for cutting, and the tool must be held very firmly, to pre¬ 
vent the edge being depressed by the motion of the work, 
for if it does, it will take hold too deep, and tear the work. 
The gouge is applied first to one end of the work, and gra¬ 
dually advanced to the other, turning the work true all the 
way, and reducing it till the callipers (fig. 9.) determine it 
to be near the intended diameter. 
The chissel is next employed to smooth the cylinder: its 
handle is held in the right-hand, whilst the left grasps the 
blade, and keeps it steady upon the rest, holding the edge a 
little inclined over the work, as in fig. 20; so that one side 
of the flat part of the blade lies on the rest, and the other 
side is elevated, that the plane of the blade, and conse¬ 
quently the line of the edge, is not horizontal, but inclined 
thereto, so that one corner of the edge of the chissel is ele¬ 
vated above the work: then the bottom of the edge of the 
chissel, or near the bottom, cuts away a shaving from the 
work, and this is the only way in which it will cut; for if 
the edge of the chissel is held parallel to the axis of the 
cylinder, it acts parallel to the length of the grain of the 
wood, scraping away the fibres, one by one, without cutting, 
and leaves a very rough surface. In the same manner, the 
narrow chissels, formers, and other instruments, are to be 
used according to the work which is to be done, taking care 
that the wood be cut equally, and that the instrument be 
not pushed suddenly forwards, or sometimes more strongly 
than at others; and taking care also that the instrument does 
not follow the work, but that it be kept firm on the rest, 
without yielding. The gouge and chissel are the instruments 
by far.the most frequently used, and the most necessary in 
this art. Soft woods are almost entirely turned by them. 
To make the end of the work exactly fiat, the thin side 
of the chissel is laid upon the rest, so that the plane of the 
edge may stand exactly upright. The hand is depressed, 
that the lower corner of the edge may rise against the work, 
and cut a deep circle into it, near the end, and being stea¬ 
dily advanced, cut to ( the centre, separating a thin round 
chip, and leaving the end quite flat. The cutting corner 
of the chissel must be directed exactly perpendicular to the 
length of the work, in advancing it, otherwise the end will 
be either concave or convex, and care must be taken to 
keep the plane of the edge truly upright, and hold it very 
firm, for there is danger of the work drawing the chissel 
into the end of it, with a deep spiral cut, like a screw, and 
tearing the work out of the chuck. 
A cylinder of wood being formed by the process we have 
just described, if it is required to turn it hollow withinside, 
the rest is fixed opposite the end of it, with the edge of the 
rest perpendicular to the length : then a sharp-pointed tool 
is used, to bore such a hollow in the end as will form the 
required cavity, using the inside callipers (fig. 8.) to deter¬ 
mine the size of it. The side-tool, which is made with a 
cutting edge on the side, like a knife, may be used, if it is 
required to make the bottom of the cavity square; or a 
hooked tool, with the cutting edge at the end of the hook, 
may be employed to enlarge the inside to the proper size: 
the gouge (fig. 10.) is used to determine the depth to which 
it is to be turned. 
This is the process for turning soft woods, which are 
generally of a fibrous texture : but hard woods, ivory, and 
bone, are turned with different tools. The points or cutting 
edges of some such tools are represented in figs. 15. and 16; 
they are bevelled only on one side, and the angle of the 
edges is obtuse. The round-pointed tool, and the sharp 
angular-pointed tool, are those employed for first roughing 
out tlte work, and by them a number of contiguous grooves 
are cut in the wood, until its grain is broken and divided, 
and the irregularities reduced; then an edged tool can 
remove the remainder: but as the edged tools will only cut 
or scrape off thin shavings, they are not used when the 
work is to be reduced to size, but only to finish it. The 
manner of applying the tools to the work is shewn in fig. 
18, and is nearly the same as for turning brass, or other 
soft metal: the upper surface of the tool is directed to the 
centre of the work, the intention being to scrape away 
shavings in hard wood, and in soft to cut chips, as at figs. 
20. and 21. The graver (fig. 19.) is a very useful tool for 
hard wood, as well as for turning in metal. 
After the work is completely turned, it is next to be 
polished, and this is done with shark-skin, or Dutch rushes. 
Ivory or horn is polished with pumice-stone or chalk, finely 
pounded and put upon leather, or a linen cloth a little mois¬ 
tened with this: the piece is rubbed as it turns round in tlie 
lathe ; and to prevent any dirt from adhering to any part of 
it, every now and then it is rubbed gently with a small 
brush dipped in water. To polish metals very finely, the 
workmen make use of a particular kind of earth called tri- 
poli, and afterwards of putty, or calx of tin. Iron and 
steel are polished with very fine powder of emery; this is 
mixed with oil, and put between two pieces of tin or pew¬ 
ter, and then the iron is rubbed with it. Tin and silver are 
polished with a burnisher, and that kind of red stone called 
blood-stone. Iron and steel may also be polished with 
putty, putting it dry into shamoy-skin. 
All kinds of articles in wood are turned in the above 
manner; but many contrivances are necessary to mount dif¬ 
ferent things in the lathe. 
The small figures in the plate represent various chucks, 
which are occasionally employed, and which are adapted 
for turning different kinds of work. 
Figs.2. and 3. exhibit a small wood chuck, which is adapted 
to be screwed to the mandrel at a, a hole being perforated 
in the centre of it, at b, into which a small piece of wood 
or ivory is to be inserted, in order to turn it. To hold the 
work fast in this chuck, it is divided at the end b by two 
saw-kerfs, at right angles to each other, as shewn in fig. 3, 
so as to separate the end into four segments, which admit of 
expanding or closing: a hoop or ferril is fitted on the out¬ 
side of the chuck, which part is made tapering, so that forc¬ 
ing the ferril farther on, will close the four segmeuts toge¬ 
ther, and bind fast upon the work, which is introduced into 
the cavity b. This is a very convenient chuck for holding 
small pieces of ivory, and particularly for the purpose of 
polishing. 
Fig. 4. is a brass box, to screw to the mandrel, and hold 
a wood chuck, such as we have before explained. Wood 
chucks are usually made to screw on the mandrel by means 
of a hole in the chuck, which is cut with a female screw 
within. The objection to this mode is, that the threads of 
the screw on the wood wear away by constant use. In fig. 4, 
a brass female screw, a, is cut off to fit the screw of the 
mandrel, and at the other end, b, is a box, also cut with a 
screw withinside, into which the wood block or chuck is 
screwed, as shewn by the dotted lines, so as not to come out 
without great force: by this means, the fitting of the chucks 
to the mandrel is not with a wooden screw, as in general, 
but with a brass one, which will not be liable to get out 
of the truth, but will always screw up to the same shoulder. 
The lathe should have at least two dozen of these wood 
chucks, with cavities of different sizes, and some of them 
hooped with iron at the outer end, to prevent them splitting. 
The brass box is a great security against splitting. 
Figs. 5. and 6. are a table-chuck, proper for holding 
wheels or flat plates by the circumference, whilst the centre 
parts are turned: a is the screw to fix it to the mandrel: b b, 
a large circular plate, turned perfectly flat on the front sur¬ 
face. In this plate are grooves, pointing from the centre to 
the circumference, as shewn in fig. 6: the grooves are 
adapted to receive clamp-pieces, d, d, d, by means of 
which the wheel or other work is bound fast against the flat 
surface of the chuck. The grooves admit the clamps d, d, d, 
to 
