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To varnish a piece of Furniture

First, observe the work to be clean; then see if any knots or blemishes require filling up, which must be done with cement of the same colour; have your varnish in an earthen pot, with a piece of wire diametrically across the top, slackened downwards, to stroke the brush against; then see that your brush is clean, and free from loose hairs, dip your brush in the varnish, stroking it across the wire, and give the work a thin and regular coat; soon after that another, and another, always taking care not to pass the brush twice in the same place; let it stand to dry in a moderately warm place, that the varnish may not chill.

When you have given your work about six or seven coats, let it get quite hard, (which you will prove by pressing your knuckles on it, if it leaves a mark it is not hard enough;) then with the three first fingers of your hand, rub the varnish till it chafes, and proceed over that part of the work you mean to polish, in order to take out all the streaks, or partial lumps made by the brush; give it then another coat, and let it stand a day or two to harden. Note -- The best vessel for holding your varnish is commonly sold at colour-shops, called a varnish pan; it is constructed of tin with a false bottom; the interval between the two bottoms is filled with sand, which being heated over the fire, keeps the varnish fluid and flows more readily from the brush; there is a tin handle to it, and the false bottom comes sloping from one end to the other, which causes the varnish to run to one end, and with a wire across in the same manner as recommended in the above directions.