8. In giving the reader a view of the operative part of this business, we have selected the bureau as affording the best means of illustration. The material which composes the frame and drawers of this piece of furniture, is commonly some kind of soft wood, such as pine or poplar; and this is faced with thin layers of mahogany in those parts which are to be exposed to view. 9. The materials for the frame and drawers are first marked out, and the several pieces reduced to the form and dimensions required, with planes and other instruments. Thin pieces of mahogany are firmly fixed to the surfaces which require them. This part of the work is called _veneering_. The workman prepares the surface of the soft wood for the _veneer_, by cutting it into small contiguous grooves by means of a small plane, the cutting edge of which is full of little notches and teeth. 10. Melted glue having been spread upon both surfaces with a brush, the parts are placed in contact, and firmly pressed together by means of _hand-screws_. Before the screws are applied, the surface of the veneer is covered with a piece of heated board, termed, in this application, a _caul_. One piece of this kind commonly serves a veneer on each side of it at the same time. 11. The mahogany thus attached to the softer wood, is afterwards wrought with the _toothed-plane_, and others of the common kind. It is then scraped with a flat piece of steel, having edges which act upon the surface in the same manner as pieces of broken panes of glass. The polishing is finished, so far as it is carried at this stage of the process, by the use of sand-paper. 12. The several pieces which compose the frame of the bureau are put together with the joint called _mortice_ and _tenon_; and those which form the four sides of the drawers, with that called _dove-tail_. The bottom is united to the sides on the right and left, and sometimes in front, by the _groove-and-tongue_, and its rear edge is fastened with a few nails. The _bearers_ of the drawers are fastened on by means of nails. 13. The joints are made to fit not only by the accuracy of the work, but by the application of glue previous to the union of the parts; this is especially the case with the mortice and tenon. The back of the bureau is composed of some cheap wood, such as pine or poplar; but the panel at each end is most commonly plain mahogany through its entire thickness. 14. The parts which are to be exposed to view are next to be varnished and polished. The material for the former purpose is called _copal varnish_, because one of the principal ingredients in it is a kind of gum called copal, which is obtained from various parts of South America. This kind of varnish is made by melting the gum with an equal quantity of linseed-oil and spirits of turpentine or alcohol.