Fasten the veneered cube in the vise, using cloth between the jaws and the cube. If it is too low, a hand-screw may be fastened in the vise and the cube held in the hand-screw. The work will be hastened if the pores of open-grained woods are closed with a filler. This filler, which may be obtained already prepared, or made by mixing chalk or plaster with turpentine to a paste, is rubbed in with a cotton cloth, and the cube set aside for a few hours to become nearly dry, when the excess of the filler is removed with a sharp steel scraper, and the surface smoothed with fine sand-paper moved in the direction of the grain.

To polish, take a wad of cotton as large as a walnut, place it within a clean cotton cloth about 5" square, and saturate with shellac varnish; twist the corners of the cloth, hold in the fingers, and pass a finger moistened with a drop of raw linseed-oil over the surface of the rubber. Apply the rubber with small circular strokes until the entire surface has been gone over, and the grain seems filled. Turn the cube and go over the same process with each of the other sides. Set the cube aside for a day. Repeat the process, scraping and sand-papering, if necessary, and again rubbing in varnish with a new rubber until the sunken spots are filled. If the rubber begins to stick, it must be slightly oiled, but the least amount of oil used the better for the polishing. To finish, moisten a clean cloth with a few drops of alcohol, and rub the surface briskly for a minute or two. The palm of the hand is frequently used to put the finishing touch to a polished surface; this should be done before the varnish becomes hard.

If furniture varnish is used, the wood is filled, then covered with several coats of varnish, applied with a flat brush, allowing each coat to become perfectly hard, and smoothing with fine sandpaper before the next is put on; the surface is then polished with rotten-stone and petroleum, and rubbed perfectly dry with cloths or cotton-waste.