Saturday, March 22, 2008

Adhesives, glue and other sticky stuff ...

As a horselover as a child, certain adults thought it would be helpful to inform me that dead horses got sent to the glue factory. The upshot of this was when I was starting school, when we had to glue and paste, I would become distraught at the sight of the Clag bottle and immediately burst into tears. My teacher would make up flour and water paste for me to use instead. It wasn't till I was in my teens that I found out this little myth was just adult humour.

I will not use this space here to discuss the rendering of animal parts into glue. In fact these days, I am not sure those of us in the West use rendered animal parts as glue, but use a petro chemical by product or something.

My first choice in adhesives are double sided cassette tapes. These are usually well made and not overly expensive and by and large do the job required. If I need something stronger, I use a clear liquid glue. Other adhesives I like are my sticker machines which are also fun.

I do not like stick glues. Stick glues always dry out and do not adhere after a period of time, usually less that a year. I have used several different brands and have found this to be true of all of them. I like the idea of a stick glue, and they are certainly the most inexpensive, but their longevity is not the best. When I want something stuck, unless I use repositionable tape, then I want it stuck forever.

When cutting an item that has been glued or even a glue tape with a removeable backing, first coat your scissors with versamark liquid from a stamp pad or pen. The versamark is easily removed later by wiping with a baby wipe.

I am sceptical about the "acid free" status of glues. What would be in a glue that made it acidic in the first place?

Will update soon ...

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