Excerpt from A Manual of Sorrento and Inlaid Work for Amateurs: With Original Designs T is now twenty years since the author of this book began his first rude attempts at scroll-sawing, with a roughly whittled saw-frame, fitted with a blade made from a watch-spring, its teeth, few and far between, unevenly and laboriously cut with a common file. Since then he has watched the growth of the art in this country, stimulated by the introduction of curious and beautiful articles of fret-cutting from Germany, and inlaid work from France and Italy, and the gradual improvement in hand saw frames, and blades of wondrous delicacy. Within the past four years, aided 'much by the invention of treadle machines of great simplicity and beauty, a scroll-sawing fever has swept over the country, absorbing the attention of the young and old. It would perhaps be impossible to name a village, however small, where the fever had not made its appearance. In many of our large cities scroll-sawing is taught by experienced instructors, either in classes or in private lessons. There are many difficulties that beset the beginner; he buys worthless tools, and can do nothing with them; or imagines it is necessary to buy some expensive outfit that exceeds his means; he tries to polish and makes a botch of it; his wood warps; and obstinately refuses to be straight; his saws break, and he cannot account for it; his gluing doesn't hold together. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.