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                LEAD AND PEWTER.                   233
bear it in your hand; then take your ground, and dipping
some cotton into it, wipe the steel with it; take afterwards
quicksilver, and wipe your ground over; then take the
prepared gold, and lay it on such places as you would have
gilded; after you have done this, lay it on a charcoal fire
until it turns yellow; then wipe it over with tallow; and
take cotton to wipe your blade, holding it all the while
over the fire until it inclines to a black; rub it with a
woollen cloth, until that colour vanishes ; and rub it again.
with chalk, until you bring it to a fine gloss. If you would
have the ground brown or blue, hold it over the fire until
it turns either to the one or the other colour; then wipe
it over with wax, and polish it with chalk.
              OF LEAD AND PEWTER.
                To make Pewter hard.
  TAK E one pound of common pewter, and let it melt
  in an iron pan; add to it some salad oil, let it evaporate
  well, and stir it continually, keeping the flame from it;
  add some fine wheat flour, and stir it well about; then
  take all the burnt matter off the top, and to each pound
  add three or four ounces of plate brass, filed small, and
  mixed with oil, and a few ounces of pulverized bismuth,
  or regulus of antimony; stir it all the while, and when all
  is melted and incorporated, you will not only have a pew-
  ter that is harder and whiter, but also different in its sound
  from common pewter. Or,
  Melt tin in an iron pan, strew colophony, or common
  resin, with fine wheat flour mixed together, into it; and
  stir it gently about; this takes off the blackness, and
  makes it of a fine white colour.