This is a very pretty and useful kind of ornamental work, and it is frequently combined with carving, as in the bracket Fig. 88. The tools for fretwork specially are not many, nor are they expensive. Cedar, mahogany, and white holly are good woods for this work; they all saw easily. Wood can be bought specially prepared for fret-cutting, made up of different layers glued together, the grain of each layer going in a different direction to prevent splitting. Having got your wood, the next thing is the design, which must be according to the object you have in hand. This class of work admits of a large and very varied application. It can be used for panels, sides and backs of brackets, reading- and music-desks, rims round the upper or lower edges of shelves, cabinets, frames for photographs and small pictures, and rims for card-trays and other ornaments.

Draw a design of your work on thin paper; paste it on to the wood, or transfer it by the method we mentioned in the directions for carving. The various holes must be bored or drilled - the latter is preferable - through which you can pass the saw. Next put the wood into a clamp that will hold it steady while it is being cut. There is a great variety of fretwork saws, so that we must leave you to select according to the money you have at your disposal, for sets can be had at 1s. 6d., while some go up to £5 or £6. We will, however, suppose that you are working with an ordinary saw, having a metal bow something like the letter P, the saw stretching across the bowed end of the letter. You unscrew one end of the saw, pass it through the hole bored for it, screw it up again, then commence sawing. Hold it to your pattern, make short gentle strokes, keep it at right angles to your wood, then you will get your work clean and accurate, and very little cleaning up will afterwards be required. Having got through one portion, the saw must be again unscrewed, taken out, put into another part of the work, screwed up, and so on till the whole is completed. Never use a design that omits to leave strong enough portions between its parts to hold the whole together. Where a large panel has to be cut, it frequently must be done in parts; then comes the difficulty of putting it together accurately. This is best done by putting the whole together on a duplicate of the original pattern. In putting a frame round it, see that no parts got shifted. In fitting up a bracket on fretwork supports, it will be better to use wood of not less than ¼ inch in thickness.

Fig. 88. - Carved Fretwork Bracket.

In fitting frames to hold fretwork together, you will have to use the mitre-box and board, as recommended in picture-frame making. In putting them together with glue, do not be too impatient to move them, for till the joints get perfectly dry they are easily misplaced, and will give more trouble to replace than they did to put together for the first time.

In all the work given in this chapter, your success depends very much on your taking pains, and this can only be done by your being patient. This especially applies to your carving. Do not scoop out too large pieces of wood at one time, but get your design into form very gradually, and you will be repaid for all your patience.