Softening gut

James Moss <clkmkr [at] tiac__net> writes

>I have a tall clock with gut lines used to support the weights. The
>approximately 1mm gut lines are old and hard. The client has
>requested that the original lines be re-installed into the clock. To
>do this, I must be able to tie an over-hand knot in one end of each
>line thus the lines will need to be softened ...

This may seem a little off-putting, but I'd simply take the knotted
end of the gut (after cleaning it) into my mouth and let saliva
soften it until it was about as limp as cooked spaghetti, remove it,
run the line and tie the knot; then let it dry under tension from
the 16 pound weight.

I've worked with similar materials ranging back 800 years, and have
made goldbeater's skin from ox intestine, issinglass from the swim
sounds of Columbia River sturgeon, and collect sinew from deer and
elk each year.

Collagen is tough stuff.  If you can find an old tennis racket,
strung with gut, try my suggestion.

Directions for making gut are below, if you're so inclined.

    Source: The Art of Travel, by Francis Galton, F.R.G.S. Honorary
    Secretary to the Royal Geographical Society London: 1860

    Catgut, to make.-Steep the intestines of any animal in water for
    a day; then peel off the outer membrane, which will come off in
    long strips: these should be twisted up between the hands, and
    hung out to dry; they form excellent sewing thread for skins,
    &c. The next step is to turn the gut inside out.

    This is easily done by the following artifice, viz.:-turn ever
    so short a piece inside out, just as you would turn up the cuff
    of a sleeve; then, catching hold of the turned-up cuff, dip the
    whole into a bucket, and scoop up a little water between the
    cuff and the rest of the gut. The weight of this water will do
    what is wanted: it will bear down an additional length of
    previously unturned gut; and thus, by a few successive dippings,
    the entire length of any amount of intestine, however narrow it
    may be, can be turned inside out in a minute or two.

    Having turned the intestine inside out, scrape off the whole of
    its inner soft parts; what remains is a fine transparent tube,
    which, being twisted up tightly and stretched to dry, forms
    catgut.

Jack

Thompson Conservation Lab
Portland, Oregon


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 25:5
                   Distributed: Tuesday, July 5, 2011
                        Message Id: cdl-25-5-005
                                  ***