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Subject: Rubber cement

Rubber cement

From: Ivy Strickler <strickif>
Date: Friday, February 3, 1995
As a graphic artist I can assure you that there is a solvent for rubber
cement. Commonly called rubber cement thinner (Bestine is the best known
brand) it contains among other things naphtha and hexane. It is
flammable and toxic but can be used with care on cotton balls or cotton
tipped swabs. It will also dissolve the gum from tape and price tags,
but doesn't dissolve nail polish while you work!

A simpler way of removing dried rubber cement is the use of a rubber
cement pickup square, which is simply a piece of gum rubber available in
art supply stores. You rub it over the dried cement and it rolls up into
little balls. Old-timers used to make their own pickups out of gobs of
dried cement, which grew larger over time, like a rubber band ball. Hope
this helps,

Ivy Fleck Strickler
Drexel University
Nesbitt College of Design Arts
Philadelphia, PA 19104
215-895-1637
Fax: 215-895-4917

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 8:62
                 Distributed: Tuesday, February 7, 1995
                        Message Id: cdl-8-62-007
                                  ***
Received on Friday, 3 February, 1995

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