Vegetable starch adhesives

[MurrayMinchin]

Apparently vegetable starch is what's used to stick the plies together when manufacturing different thicknesses of mat board. It isn't freeze/thaw sensitive, is nuetral in PH, will never yellow, will last as long as the mat board itself, and is also reversable with water.

Has anybody used vegetable starch adhesives like Seal's Vacuglue or Print Mount's Sure-Mount with their photographs? What's the good, the bad and the ugly concerning vegetable starch?

Murray

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I've experimented a bit with Lineco archival wheat starch. Haven't come to any conclusions yet.

There is a very detailed description of starch mounting in Reilly's Albumen book, which you can download from albumen.stanford.edu. This process is for mounting a print to another sheet of paper which is then hinge mounted or corner mounted to a backing board, rather than traditional starch mounting directly to the board.

 

[removed account4]

hi murray

i use wheat starch, or rice starch pastes
the stuff made by lineco is as good as your own flour
just easier cause it is in a bottle.

i worked with a book binder who used to rebind/work with books and
manuscripts close to 1000 years old and he used wheat paste too.
i think he used to put a drop of oil of wintergreen in it to make it say good longer. wish he was still around, i would ask him and get the "low down"
but he passed away a while ago ..

while i never used the oil ... i have made books from scratch and "tipped" photographs using wheat and rice pastes. never had a problem,
and if you do, you just soak in water, and the paste removes ( reversible process! ) ...
the best thing about using wheat paste is that if you leave it in the
fridge in an unmarked container, and you eat it by mistake, it is good for you

good luck!

john

ps. i have never used the products you mention

 

[MurrayMinchin]

Thanks David and John, you've given me some good tips for a google search later...but for now it's back to insulating the new darkroom. Hee Hee Heeeeee

Murray

 

[Ian Leake]

This may be a dumb question John, but how do you make this stuff?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Take starch. Add water. Heat and stir.

I do wonder whether the Lineco stuff has been refined or pH buffered in some way compared to ordinary flour, which I have a-plenty.

 

[Ian Leake]

OK, it was a stupid question! This has to be the simplest recipe ever posted on APUG

 

[sun of sand]

Thanks David and John, you've given me some good tips for a google search later...but for now it's back to insulating the new darkroom. Hee Hee Heeeeee

Murray

You can go gather some cattails and have
stuff to insulate with
stuff to turn into a starch adhesive
and stuff to make dinner with

I was working on a project a few years ago and this cattail knowledge is all I have to show for it

you're welcome.

Tapioca/cassava starch I remember as being one of the better starches for industrial use ..but don't ruin a photograph based on that information