Strain through
muslin.

[Illustration: Fig. 304. Direction of the Pad in French Polishing.]

Another recipe for finishing. Use 4 drams grain alcohol, 2 drams
orange shellac, 5 drams tincture of benzoin, 1 teaspoonful of olive
oil. Dissolve and strain. Apply with pad in direction of grain.

_Oil or Copal Varnishes._ The old Cremona varnish once used for
violins is supposed to have had amber (Greek, electron) as its base.
It was a fossilized coniferous resin found on the shore of the Baltic
Sea. The art of making it is said to be lost, probably because of the
difficulty and danger of melting it, for this can be done only in
oil on account of the danger of ignition. Hence its use has been
abandoned.

Perhaps the most beautiful of all varnishes is lacquer, much used in
China and Japan. It is made from the juice of the lacquer tree, (_Rhus
vernicifera_) which is tapped during the summer months. The juice is
strained and evaporated and then mixed with various substances, such
as oil, fine clay, body pigment, and metallic dust, according to the
ware for which it is intended. The manufacturing secrets are carefully
guarded. The application of it is very difficult, the sap of young
trees being used for first coats, and of old trees for the finishing
coats. It must be dried in a damp, close atmosphere. For the best work
ten or twelve coats are elaborately rubbed down and polished. Even the
presence of it is very poisonous to some people and all workers in it
are more or less affected.

The solvent or vehicle of the modern copal varnishes consists
principally of linseed oil with some turpentine. Their base is Copal,
a fossil, resinous substance of vegetable origin. The gums of which
they are made have been chemically altered by long exposure in the
earth. Other gums, as mastic, dammar, sandarac, and even resin are
sometimes mixed with copal to cheapen the product or to cause more
rapid drying. Copal is a generic name given originally to all fossil
resins. Copals, as they are called, come from New Zealand, Mozambique,
Zanzibar, West Africa, Brazil, and the Philippines. The best of the
Copals is said to be the Kauri gum, originally exuded from the Kauri
pine tree of New Zealand. The tree is still existent and produces a
soft, spongy sap, but the resin used in varnish is dug up from a
few feet under ground in regions where there are now no trees. A
commercially important copal and one noted for its hardness is the
Zanzibar or