Repair

Re: Repair

John K Jordan

Looks interesting to work on!

I have used all kinds of things to hide tiny lines and voids. If a bit of chip is missing, I have whittled a sliver and glued it in with white glue. If there is a fine line in lighter wood with the edges darkened too much with glue I might remove the dark part with a #11 scalpel first.

If the line is clean but visible because of a tiny valley, I usually sand some similar colored wood and press/wipe fine sawdust powder into the line and solidify with glue, often CA glue. I use a capillary tip on a bottle of fine CA, or if that drops too much glue I might put a drip onto something then dip a needle point into it to transfer just a few molecules at a time!

A line of glued sawdust can stand out if it looks too even, so sometimes I'll use a couple of different sawdust powders arranged to create "grain". I have even resorted to painting some variability on top of the line to hide it, using the Faber-Castell Pitt artist's pens/brushes.

If perfection is not needed but it just needs to look ok, the wax scratch-filling crayons for furniture can work ok.

A coincidence, but I'm about to repair a hand carved fork and refasten a carved llama that broke off the top!

JKJ

Possibility?

Ellis Walentine

.. how about some medium-viscosity CA glue? A drop will do it, so no squeezeout.

Ellis

Re: Repair

Tony - Memphis

I would use Elmer's white. It has a decent set time and cleans up easy. Can also be undone if things go awry! I have done some similar repairs. I spent a lot of time propping the larger piece such that the break was fairly level and the part would sit there without clamps. Sometimes, a quick rub is enough for the piece to stay in place. I have also used blue tape for holding, playdo, etc. I spent more time preparing that I did gluing for sure. Sorry for the bad break. Good luck with it.

Tony

Re: Repair

Paul in NJ

I would use liquid hide glue warmed and thinned a little with water. You probably do not need to clamp, just position the piece so gravity holds it in place. Hide glue pulls the joint together as it dries. It is reversible with some heat and moisture and can be re-glued again without removing all of the glue in the joint. Clean up with a little hot water. It takes stain unlike other glues. It is the first choice of restorers.

I bought a kit of dry pigments cheaply form Lee Valley that I use to touch up. A little pigment is mixed with a little shellac using a small artist brush. You can mix and match the pigments to get the right color. If you don't like the results, rub off with a rag dipped in alcohol.

Paul Dzioba

Re: Repair

Rum

Agreed across the board.

Slight preference for hot hide glue in this case as it would set enough to hold without moving somewhat quicker.

hide glue

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Follow the lead of furniture conservers and don't do anything that is not readily reversible. Hot hide will stick with a rub joint and you won't need to worry about clamping and the camp skewing the joint upon tightening. Any squeeze out will be easily scraped away after the glue sets a bit. Probably as good will be yellow glue, again as a rub joint. Hold it for 5 min and it will be tacked. Again remove squeeze-out when the glue gets rubbery.

Re: Repair

Lee Schierer in McKean, PA

If the broken part fits back in place with no gaps with finger pressure, I would use CA glue. Spray some activator on the beak and place a drop of CA on the bird. Carefully align and press the pieces together. You should get a near instant bond with no run out and no visible glue line.

Shellac use alcohol as a solvent so applying new shellac over the old should blend right in by partially softening the underlying layer of finish.

Lee

Why not to use CA glue

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

It is not a permanent adhesive and its use will make further repair difficult.

When it was discovered that a polymer made from cyanoacrylate (CA) monomer had exceptional adhesive properties an effort was launched to see what it was good for(as an adhesive). The bond between soda glass surfaces was fleeting. It glued rubber well but failed at gluing rubber horseshoes to horse feet. No idea who discovered that it would stick wounds together but I did testing on friends and enemies that might have set the stage for wound closure. If I could induce someone to put a drop on forefinger and touch finger to thumb an instantaneous bond was formed. As they contemplated spending the rest of their life making a circle of finger and thumb I showed them that running water on the bond destroyed it in short order. And that is the limitation of this stuff. Water destroys the adhesive in minutes to days depending on exposure and water vapor does too in months to years.

Repeat, CA does not form a permanent bond with wood, at least permanent relative to other adhesives used for wood.

What I don't know......the thickened stuff is thickened by dissolving another polymer into the CA monomer. This other polymer probably alters the cured adhesive's resistance to water, for better or worse. I don't know if better, or worse and it is likely that different formulations use a different thickening polymer.

Re: hide glue ~ Agree

Larry Clinton At Frankfort, (Central) Indiana

I don't use CA glue except for one thing when woodworking and that is to obscure a very minor tear out in the surface. I wet the area with CA then sand, and repeat until the tear out is not visible.

Hot glue is the answer. I use my "hot pot" to heat hot glue but if your not set up to do that the liquid hot glue will work well.

It has several advantages.

First: it will work without clamping as a rubbed joint.

Second: the "beak" can be removed with heat after it is set if the alignment is not perfect.

Third: after the glue has set, if you work quickly you can remove any squeeze out with a cotton swab and water.

If the joint is not invisible, I would touch it up with a very small artist brush using either oil based artist pigmented paint blended to color match, or a stain that matches the color of the piece.

Re: hide glue ~ Agree

Philip Duffy

What about fish glue? Seem like some of the experienced craftsmen on other sites have used it and not seen a line at a break. Bob Rozaieski may be one of those. Phil

reversability?

DizD

I know the mantra on reversibility, but in this instance what is the reasoning - other than "that's the way we've always done it"? For a repair to solid wood you wouldn't want it to come apart. Chances are that if this piece were to break again the wood (lignin) around the glue line would fail before the glue line itself. I have made repairs to solid wood pieces in the past using traditional glues and also epoxy without concern. FWIW I concur with hide glue for this application. Also, to handle squeeze out I hold the wood pieces together and rub the joint line with paste wax. When the glue is cured, any squeeze out will pop right off

Re: reversability?

Larry Clinton At Frankfort, (Central) Indiana

Don't know about you but I have glued up items using hand held clamping that was not perfectly aligned after I released and inspected the joint. In the case of the Eagle beak, I would certainly want the option to remove and realign rather than live with the result of the first permanent glue up. Hot hide glue has one of the longest histories of producing a very solid joint (well over 2000 years). I see zero advantage in using another adhesive when I can use hide glue and have the reversibility option. It is also easy to clean up the excess with water and the color usually make the glue line almost invisible.

philosophy

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

This repair is on an antique that may today, or someday, have considerable value. I would want a very good reason to treat this repair any different from what the conservation staff of a museum would do. The current wisdom is to make repairs that can be completely undone. What museums have found is that they can not anticipate the reasons that something might need to be undone 100 years hence. And, they face undoing stuff that was thoughtlessly done 100 years prior. Hence, they use hide glue for this kind of repair, tinted shellac to add color as necessary, never stain, and finish with shellac.

If this bird was from Ikea I would say get out the CA glue and have at it.

Re: Repair

Lee Gordon

This is just my opinion, based upon years of watching Antiques Roadshow, but if you are concerned about the piece's value, particularly in the future, refinishing it with a fresh coat of shellac, or even just touching it up, will detract a lot more than just carefully gluing the broken piece back in place and leaving the finish as it is.