Adhesive for ceramics

Amanda Severne <amandaseverne [at] btopenworld__com> writes

>I have heard of an adhesive used in ceramic conservation whereby the
>object is first taped into position and the adhesive applied to the
>taped fracture.  It then migrates into the fracture, allowing near
>perfect contact of the broken pieces.  I believe this is being used
>for the reconstruction of the FitzWilliam vases in Cambridge.  Can
>anyone tell me what this adhesive is, and where I could obtain it,
>bearing in mind that this posting comes from the U.K.? ...

A note in addition to what Stephen Koobe wrote in Conservation
DistList Instance: 20:16 Wednesday, September 27, 2006:

Fynebond, which comes from Scotland, is excellent for the purpose of
capillary bonding of porcelain or stoneware, but you can also use
Hxtal, which is manufactured in the States. The advantage of
Fynebond as opposed to Hxtal is that it generally hardens to the
touch within about 24 hours (although this varies with the ambient
temperature), while Hxtal can take up to a week to cure although
this can be speeded up somewhat.

Before the curing process is irrevocably completed, fragments can
still be manipulated, and alignment corrected if necessary, using a
hair-dryer to soften the adhesive and make it--briefly--flexible.
Also, shortly before curing any excess material can be effortlessly
removed by means of acetone swabs. This saves a lot of rubbing down,
which can be damaging to the decorated surface (e.g. soft-paste
porcelain), but also enables gilded surfaces to be safely
consolidated without any loss of gold.

Lindsey Bogle
De Porselein Studio
Maasdijk 423
4264 AS  VEEN
Netherlands
+31 416 696807
Fax: +31 416 696856


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 20:19
                  Distributed: Monday, October 9, 2006
                       Message Id: cdl-20-19-004
                                  ***