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Goldsmith

They assemble silver filings with saltpeter which
refines it & does not make it brittle. But gold filings are
assembled with borax or, to spare the borax, with
lead, which refines the gold & softens it, for the
saltpeter would make it brittle, which silver does not do.
This is why, to save money, goldsmiths use it to assemble, in
order to spare borax, which costs viii sols per
ounce, & saltpeter x sols per
lb.

When goldsmiths have thus assembled their silver
filings with saltpeter, a red enamel vitrifies at the
bottom of the crucible. I do not know if the copper
mixed in with the silver is the cause. Try for
enamel.


Pastel woad

It is grown in Lauragaiswhere the deep soil is so
fertile that if wheat was grown there every
year, it would lie flat for being too vigorous. This is why
one alternately does pastel woad and wheat
there. For the cultivation of pastel woad, one works
the soil with iron shovels, as gardeners do.
Next, one harrows it with rakes, & breaks it up finely as
for sowing cooking herbs. One commonly sows it on
Saint Anthony's day in January. One makes eight harvests
of it. The first ones are better. The best pastel woad
of Lauragais is the one from Carmail & the one
from Auragne. And sometimes the pastel woad
is good in one field & in the one close by it will hardly
have worth. The goodness of the pastel woad is known
when, put in the mouth, it gives a taste as of
vinegar, or when crumbling & breaking it, it has some
mold-like veins which are as if golden or silver. One assays it in the
dyers' vat, and to fill a vat with it, one
needs six balls of it. One dyes several locks of
wool, and if it dyes fifteen times, it is said to be fifteen
florins, if it gives xx dyings, xx florins. The good
kind dyes up to 30 times & commonly up to xxv or 26.

