Adhesive for leather

We are conserving an archaeological shoe from the 1770s that is made
of leather. All of the stitching has deteriorated leaving behind six
individual pieces of leather. Treatment of the leather was very
successful and it is now clean and pliable.

We were able to use a minimum of stitching to hold the fragments
more or less in place but we need adhesive to complete the
reassembly. BEVA film (BEVA 371) was very successful in treating
localized delamination because a tacking iron could be used to set
the adhesive. However a gel made of the same BEVA 371 in toluene was
unsuccessful in adhering the larger surfaces of the shoe to itself
using clamps and letting it sit overnight.

Can anyone recommend another leather adhesive to use?

Camille Myers Breeze, Director
Museum Textile Services
Andover, Massachusetts
978-851-0110


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 22:20
                 Distributed: Tuesday, October 7, 2008
                       Message Id: cdl-22-20-017
                                  ***