A Strong Paste

A paste that will neither decay nor become moldy. Mix good clean flour with cold water into a thick paste well blended together, then add boiling water, stirring well up until it is of a consistency that can be easily and smoothly spread with a brush; add to this a spoonful or two of brown 6ugar, a little corrosive sublimate, and about half a dozen drops of oil of lavender, and you will have a paste that will hold with wonderful tenacity.

A Brilliant Paste

A brilliant and adhesive paste, adapted to fancy articles, may be made by dissolving caseine precipitated from milk by acetic acid and washed with pure water in a saturated solution of borax.

A Sugar Paste

In order to prevent the gum from cracking, to 10 parts by weight of gum arabic and 3 parts of sugar, add water until the desired consistency is obtained. If a very strong paste is required, add a quantity of flour equal in weight to the gum, without boiling the mixture. The paste improves in strength when it begins to ferment.

Tin Box Cement

To fix labels to tin boxes either of the following will answer: 1. Soften good glue in water, then boil it in strong vinegar, and thicken the liquid while boiling with fine wheat flour, so that a paste results. 2. Starch paste, with which a little Venice turpentine has been incorporated while warm.

Paper And Leather Paste

Cover 4 parts, by weight, of glue, with 15 parts of cold water, and allow it to soak for several hours, then warm moderately till the solution is perfectly clear, and dilute with 60 parts of boiling water, intimately stirred in. Next prepare a solution of 30 parts of starch in 200 parts of cold water, so as to form a thin homogeneous liquid, free from lumps, and pour the boiling glue solution into it with thorough stirring, and at the same time keep the mass boiling.

Commercial Mucilage

The best quality of mucilage in the market is made by dissolving clear glue in equal volumes of water and strong vinegar, and adding one-fourth of an equal volume of alcohol and a small quantity of a solution of alum in water. Some of the cheaper preparations offered for sale are merely boiled starch or flour, mixed with nitric acid to prevent their gelatinizing.

Acid-Proof Paste

A paste formed by mixing powdered glass with a concentrated solution of silicate of soda makes an excellent acid-proof cement.

Paste To Fasten Cloth To Wood

Take a plump pound of wheat flour, one tablespoonful of powdered resin, one tablespoonful of finely powdered alum, and rub the mixture in a suitable vessel, with water, to a uniform, smooth paste; transfer this to a small kettle over a fire, and stir until the paste is perfectly homogeneous without lumps. As soon as the mass has become so stiff that the stirrer remains upright in it, transfer it to another vessel and cover it up so that no skin may form on its surface.

This paste is applied in a very thin layer to the surface of the table; the cloth, or leather, is then laid and pressed upon it, and smoothed with a roller. The ends are cut off after drying. If leather is to be fastened on, this must first be moistened with water. The paste is then applied, and the leather rubbed smooth with a cloth.