Making and Knowing
A minimal edition of BnF Ms Fr 640

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Varnish for lutes

They take a little turpentine & oil of turpentine or of spike lavender & amber pulverized & passed very subtly & make as that of mastic, & add in to color it a little dragon’s blood and make it reddish, and others some terra merita for yellow.

Borders for a Garden

You have to work the ground, then then it with a rake, and afterwards if it is dry you must wet it. Then stretch a cord clean on the ground, and along its length hit the cord with the back of a pruning knife, so that the cord marks a right line. Along its length you will make holes with an iron stake, where you will plant rosemary, its head lopped off & cut to measure and thinned out at the foot.

Locksmith

To well tin nails and other work, they file their work very neatly. Then to clean it well & rid it of fattiness, they make it boil in vinegar, then they wipe it well with a linen. Next they heat it & pass some resin over top, which coats it with a shiny skin like varnish. This done, they melt some pure & fine tin in their estamiere, which is a little square iron box. And when the tin is well melted & moderately warm, they throw in resin in to burn the filth, & then they let the head of a nail or something similar soak a little, & having remained there for seven or eight pauses, they take it out and shake it, hitting the top with an iron to make the tin that is superfluous fall off, & clean it with a small stick wrapped in tow. And if it is not well tinned, you will hit it hot with a piece of resin & do as before & let it cool. When the work cools, it becomes yellow, which is a sign that the tin is the right temperature. But it becomes blue if the tin is too hot. Things t thus tinned are durable & are not undone like tinning done in leaf, thus at the end of a year they can be clarified & renewed by heating & rubbing them.

Leadsmiths say that making a lizard die in the melted il des tin makes the tinning become very golden. Or else putting in sal ammoniac.