Recipes for tempering steel and imitating jasper amber
How to make good steel, and false amber mottled to look like jasper.
A full page of pen notes giving two workshop recipes. The first is a metallurgical process for good steel: beat it lengthwise, break it into small squares, stack them one over another, pack them in earth of Valencia and ground talc, then dry and heat them slowly with iron scale added and force the fire until it 'boils.' The second explains how to make imitation amber mottled like jasper from boiled egg white set in a gut casing, painted with spots and coated again. A marginal sketch beside the fifth line shows the little steel squares stacked one over another.
On this page
Recipe for making good steel
Steel is beaten lengthwise, broken into small squares, and laid one on top of another, then packed with earth of Valencia and ground talc. It is dried and heated slowly with iron scale added until glowing through, when the fire is forced to make it boil; the earth is then removed and the steel beaten lengthwise again.
Recipe for jasper-like imitation amber
To make amber mottled like jasper, take egg white, put it into a gut casing and boil it; once hardened, paint the mottling on it, coat it with more egg white, and set it back into a larger casing.
Marginal sketch of stacked steel squares
A small drawing in the margin beside the fifth line shows the little squares of steel laid one over another, illustrating the stacking step of the steel recipe.