This is made by adding to crude or branch lacquer, about 5 Per cent. of the tooth dye (haguro) used by women, a liquor formed by boiling iron filings in rice vinegar, and exposing it to the sun for several days, stirring the mixture frequently till it becomes a deep black.

In preparing all lacquer - from the crude lacquer to the various mixtures - the principal object is to get rid of the water that exudes from the tree with the sap. To effect this, it is exposed in broad flat wooden dishes, and stirred in the sun. This, however, alone will not cause the original water to evaporate, so from time to time - ordinarily about 3 times in the day - a small portion of clean water is stirred in, say 1 Per cent. each time, for 2 or 3 days, according to the heat of the sun. All the water then evaporates together. No lacquer will dry until this process has been gone through. If the lacquer is old - i.e., has been tapped a long time before using - it is much more difficult to dry. In such a case, a portion of fresh lacquer is added to the old by wholesale dealers, or else the manufacturers, instead of water, sometimes mix sake (rice beer) or alcohol to "quicken" it.

A very remarkable property of lacquer should be mentioned. If crude lacquer, which is originally of the colour and consistency of cream, is exposed to the son for a few days without adding water, it loses its creamy colour, and becomes quite black, or nearly so, but also becomes thinner and transparent, or rather translucent, as can be seen when it is smeared on a white board. It will not now, however, dry if applied to an article, even if kept a month or more in the damp press. But if water is mixed with the lacquer which has thus been exposed and become black, it at once loses its black colour and transparency, and becomes again of a creamy colour, though slightly darker, as if some coffee had been added, than at first. After evaporating this water, it can then be used like any ordinary lacquer, either alone or in mixtures, and will dry in the damp press, during which process it again turns black. What lacquer - workers have found their greatest stumbling - block is the difficulty of obtaining a clear, transparent varnish.

What is called transparent varnish is really black to the eye, and requires grinding and polishing after application before it presents a brilliant surface, becoming also much lighter after a little time.

It would be a new era in the manufacture of lacquer - ware if a method could be discovered of rendering the lacquer varnish perfectly clear and light - coloured, when so desired, without depriving it of its drying qualities, and also if colours could be used with it other than those hereafter mentioned. -