xt
operation is to open the lead with a piece of hard wood, such as boxwood
or _lignum-vitae_ (fig. 50), made to your fancy for the purpose, but
something like the diagram, which glaziers call a "lathykin" (as I
understand it). For cutting the lead you must have a thin knife of good
steel. Some use an old dinner-knife, some a palette-knife cut
down--either square across the blade or at an angle--it is a matter of
taste (fig. 51).

[Illustration: FIG. 50.]

[Illustration: FIG. 51.]

Having laid down your leads A and B (fig. 52), put in the corner piece
of glass (No. 1); two of its sides will then be covered, leaving one
uncovered. Take a strip of lead and bend it round the uncovered edge,
and cut it off at D, so that the end fits close and true against the
_core_ of lead A. And you must take notice to cut with a perfectly
_vertical_ cut, otherwise one side will fit close and the other will
leave a gap.

[Illustration: FIG. 52.]

In fig. 53 A represents a good joint, B a bad one. Bend it round and cut
it off similarly at E. Common sense will tell you that you must get the
angle correct by marking it with a slight incision of the knife in its
place before you take it on to the bench for the final cut.

Slip it in, and push it in nice and tight, and put in piece No. 2.

[Illustration: FIG. 53]

But now look at your cut-line. Do you see that the inner edges of pieces
2, 3, and 4 all run in a fairly smooth curve, along which a _continuous_
piece of lead will bend quite easily? Leave, then, that edge, and put
in, first, the leads which divide No. 2 from No. 3, and No. 3 from No.
4. Now don't forget! the long lead has to come along the inside edges of
all three; so the leaf of it will overlap those three edges nearly 1/8
of an inch (supposing you are using lead of 1/4 inch dimension). You
must therefore cut the two little bits we are now busy upon _1/8 of an
inch short of the top edge of the glass_ (fig. 54), for the inside leads
only _meet_ each other; it is only the _outside_ lead that overlaps.

[Illustration: FIG. 54.]

_How the Loose Glass is held in its place while Leading._--This is done
with nails driven into the glazing table, close up against the edge of
the lead; and the best of all for the purpose are bootmakers' "lasting
nails"; therefore no more need be said about the matter; "use no other"
(fig. 55).

[Illustration: FIG. 55.]

And you tap them in with two or three sharp taps; not of a hammer, for