Repair of delicate carved pieces

[dave andrews]

My brother brought this plate, hand carved from a single piece of wood, back from Vietnam and it got a little injured on the trip back. I offered to help repair it but when my K-body clamps didn't fit between the pieces I realized I might be in over my head. There are probably 6-8 spots that need to be glued together.

Any help on the type of glue and the best way to hold together small delicate parts would be greatly appreciated. I am guessing that I don't want extra glue on such small pieces since cleanup would be difficult. Thanks much and I'll make sure to get a picture up of the complete piece soon.

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[Jon Toebbe]

Since it's a display piece, you could probably get away with cyanoacrylate ("Super" glue). A little dab, hold it in place for 30 seconds or so, and move on to the next piece. Wear gloves -- you do not want that stuff on your skin. DAMHIKT.

Failing that, hide glue and a very gentle rub joint might work.

[John Coloccia]

Cyanoacrylate is the ticket. You're probably going to want to use a combination of medium and thin viscosity, and apply it with a toothpick....just the tiniest little bit. If you want to get fancy, you can tint the CA, though it will shorten the open time of the glue. To do that, I use a drop of TransTint. I put a little drop of stain, a little drop of medium and a little drop of thin. Then I dip a toothpick (or whatever) in a bit of acetone and mix it all together. Of course, I have been told it's impossible to stain CA... :rolleyes:

[dave andrews]

Thanks Jon and John for the replies. I will go ahead and try the repair with cyanoacrylate. Tinting is an idea that I hadn't thought of and may come in handy, if not here then maybe for a different repair. I'll make sure to get a picture of the full piece up after repair. Cheers.

[David Keller NC]

Dave - I would seriously consider the use of hide glue to do these repairs if you're not practiced at carvings (and the requisite fixes of "oops" with CA glue). While CA glue is commonly used for carvings, there's a bit of a learning curve, and once the glue sets, it's permanent. Hot hide glue will still tack up enough to let you repair things without clamps, but it's entirely and easily reversible, so if you don't get something lined up just right, it's pretty easy to start over.

[Bob Glenn]

Dave - I would seriously consider the use of hide glue to do these repairs if you're not practiced at carvings (and the requisite fixes of "oops" with CA glue). While CA glue is commonly used for carvings, there's a bit of a learning curve, and once the glue sets, it's permanent. Hot hide glue will still tack up enough to let you repair things without clamps, but it's entirely and easily reversible, so if you don't get something lined up just right, it's pretty easy to start over.

+1 on the hide glue

[Brian Ashton]

I wouldn't use CA for anything that mattered to me. I'd be using a five minute epoxy in a warm place. When CA goes off it's hard to get off as it goes very quickly to rock hard and the solvent is even more harmful to most if not all finishes. Epoxy will get to a point where it will hold well but can be "trimmed" if needed. And epoxy can be cleaned up with light application of a rag wetted with vinegar if needed.

If you do go down the CA what ever you do use the thickest version available. CA has a real bad characteristic of getting everywhere because of its extremely low viscosity. Even the thick stuff runs when it squeezes out of a crack that's not on the level.

[george wilson]

Thin viscosity CA glue would probably just sink into the wood,especially endgrain,and not glue it together. Hide glue is really the best suggestion. You don't have to clamp the parts,just rig up some blocks or something to lay the pieces together on.