It's quite wonderful. I dissolve the paraloid B-72 in acetone (1 part B-72, 8 parts acetone), then soak the bone in the acetone for about an hour, let the bones dry, and then suddenly they're solid and strong. You can adjust how much acetone you use for how thin/thick you want the fluid. Bones are porus so I opted for a thinner solution and it worked great. It was also really cheap.
Adhesives are a deep and interesting subject if you're looking for a wikipedia hole. For example, if you want the best general-purpose consumer structural adhesive, it's Loctite PL Premium MAX. For the best general-purpose consumer structural adhesive applied in wide temperature ranges, it's Liquid Nails Fuze-It MAX. If you want the best flexible general-purpose consumer structural adhesive, it's Gorilla Heavy Duty Construction Adhesive. For the best all-purpose consumer structural adhesive when properly prepared, applied and cured, it's epoxy resin. For the strongest general-purpose adhesive when tightly fitted and clamped between two porous materials, it's cross-linked PVA (wood glue). There are dozens of variables that change which adhesive is better per application.
It's notable that adhesives are something that Chinese manufacturers still really struggle with. Companies like Henkel and 3M have a deep reservoir of trade secrets.
Links to obsure but interesting Wikipedia articles are some of my favorite HN posts.
How many museum curators who need non-yellowing flexible thermoplastic are there on here?
This is unusual as posts go, but it's not totally unreasonable and even though I wouldn't have an immediate use, it's fascinating, leads to further exploration (like another commenter mentioning the inks) and knowledge gets filed away.
I try to remember posts like this when people are less positive about HN! :-)
- how do I apply it as a coating? I want it to be ~ 1/6" to 1/8" thick and as hard as possible
- will turpentine dissolve or soften it?
https://resources.culturalheritage.org/osg-postprints/wp-con...
https://www.zoicpaleotech.com/pages/paraloid-b72-in-fossil-p...
acetone will dissolve it, dunno about turpentine.
It can be used as protective varnish, but that would be a very thin layer, probably 0.1 mm or something like that.
Note: I thought this was about Polaroid, not Paraloid, at first!
On the restoration of my house I allow its use on very specific cases. It very useful for example in strengthening wood that has rotten. Sometimes Paraloid is the only thing that can be used, but it needs to be used with care.
For a painting or building that has survived for half a millennium we need use methods that will preserve the object for another 500 years.
Too many times I hear people say we will just use Paraloid.
Although we're cheap so we usually use butvar (polyvinyl butyral).
In my wider life in the UK, speaking to people associated with pianos (from a piano tuner, to school premises teams), it is often not worth the commercial expense to repair old pianos unless they are of particularly good quality or have some sentimental value.
There's a solution you can add to soften the hammers, but I don't know what chemical it is or how well it works since I haven't tried it yet; you can also needle the felt to fluff it up.
https://otislibrarynorwich.org/2024/04/08/edwin-land-and-the...
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/polaroid-inventor-...
