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John Coffey writes:

I did a few experiments, trying something I hadn't done
before.  Bruce's dilemma triggered an idea. I spread
some hot melt (EVA) adhesive onto a piece of end
grain (trying the most difficult repair first) and then laid
gilding foil over the EVA and smoothed it out using a
hot knife (my shellac stick knife). The gold foil is what
I use to stamp gold patterns on desk leathers and is a
temperature sensitive adhesive over 24 kt. gold over a
mylar carrier. The pics show the step-by-step process.
All in all it took about 2 minutes to effect this repair
and the result is somewhere between high burnish and
matte, closer to high burnish. I did a few more trials
and got better results by laying on a thicker and more even
layer of EVA.  After knifing the foil I let the glue cool
longer before peeling off the mylar. The last result looks
pretty darn good and sure beats cooking up rabbitskin
glue and making gesso and bole for a few patches.

The conservation-ally minded should love this repair as
it is completely reversible with paint thinner.

The foil can be purchased from:  Ernest Schaefer Inc.,
721 Lehigh Ave., Clinton, NJ 07083, (908) 964-
1280. Be prepared, it's not cheap as it is 24 kt. They
have other metal foils as well. I always buy rolls cut to
various sizes that line up with the sizes of
my embossing tools but they may have the material in
other configurations (e.g. sheets).

John Coffey
Locust Valley, NY


Tooling on leather using the same gold foil.




This is the setup.  The block of wood behind the glue is the experiment.




The block with the adhesive shmeared on rather slap-dash.
The block was not finished at all - just as it came off the bandsaw.




After working it over with a hot knife, but before the mylar carrier is peeled off.




Resulting repair:




Maybe 70% coverage.  I'm sure I could have done better with a more careful approach.
I was surprised how well it worked though.  The voids can be "faulted" using the same stuff.




Brown adhesive over 24kt gold over a mylar carrier.




After faulting.  There's complete coverage but a little patchy.




After a few attempts.  By george, I think I've got it!  It's pretty darn shiny.





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