I am sorry to hear that Huntsman is no longer offering 1253 as part of their Araldite line. As others have attested on this forum, it is a very useful material to have in the cupboard (better the fridge) in one’s conservation studio. Unfortunately, I am worried now that my old tubes are likely to have expired, especially as they have not been refrigerated for several years, in part because I never imagined that it would go out of production.
Araldite is a product line that Huntsman acquired from Ciba-Geigy, now decades ago. Another was C-G's REN line. REN 306 was a castable, carvable, wood-like epoxy that was also great in a variety of conservation applications, especially in the filling of voids and the fabrication of machinable/toolable replacements for losses. It was in many respects a castable grade of Araldite 1253, except that it was more of a mahogany color, as opposed to the pine/oak color of the Araldite. Andrea Rothe advocated its use in the repair of panel supports for paintings long ago. I used to use it for cast epoxy mends in canvases, accepting its problematic reversibility for the excellent mends it produced. (Who would ever want to reverse them?) Unfortunately, Huntsman did not take up production of REN 306 when it acquired the REN line. I wonder if any others on the list used to use REN 306 as well? And if a replacement for that extremely useful material might also be explored concurrent with exploration of a replacement for Araldite 1253? I have not looked into this for some time, but seem to recall that there are manufacturers of bulked epoxy/polyester adhesives/fillers used in aerospace manufacturing, in particular for the finishing of the cut edges of composite, i.e. honeycomb, panels. Some of these, both pastes and castables, might be of interest in our applications. Take that as a lead for now, but if I have some time I will look into my old research and see if I kept any notes of any names… Good luck. I would be pleased to see both products revived. And thanks for everyone’s efforts on this front. Best from sunny Santa Fe, Steven Prins ****** Unsubscribe by sending a message to [email protected] Searchable archives: http://cool.conservation-us.org/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/
