Lacquering vellum or parchment

**Antipodes** · 26th July 2012, 10:52 AM

A newbie here but have some reasonable restoration skills acquired over the past 15 plus years when I lived in Denmark and Sweden (the downside being I learnt a lot of terms in Scandawegian and am occasionally a bit vague about what they are in English).

I tried hijacking the L For Leather thread but probably came in a bit late so thought I'd start my own first thread.

I've got a coffee table by an eccentric Italian furniture maker of the 50s and 60s called Aldo Tura. His speciality was furniture covered in vividly coloured goatskin - clearly influenced by Jean-Michael Frank but with a more daring approach to colour. It's claimed he lacquered his furniture in his own two-part concoction and the finishes were invariably high mirror-like sheen.

The lacquer on my table was very badly damaged so, against much advice from experts telling me I'd destroy the skin or colour, I decided to strip it back using bog standard Mitre 10 paint stripper and a plastic scraper. The restoration gods smiled on me and the skin is perfect....and now totally clean (I did a fast but gentle wash with warm water).

Some of the side areas of hide have come loose so I need to glue these back (fish glue? other suggestions?) and then it should be ready to either shellac (which I feel competent enough to do on my own) or have someone do a modern two-part lacquer or nitro-cellulose or similar (essentially something in keeping with the period).

After the long-winded intro here's the question: there appears to be no remaining oil in the hide (after 50 or so years under lacquer). Does anyone have experience of lacquering hide and, if so, is there any other type of preparation needed other than making it pristinely clean?

I've never tried doing a two part resin or any other type of modern lacquer. How difficult is this?

**AlexS** · 27th July 2012, 10:35 PM

I can't help with the lacquer, but for gluing leather down, I use Titebond II. Put a thin coat on each surface, let it dry thoroughly - say at least an hour - then put a sheet of brown paper over it and iron quickly with a hot iron. I use this method on pigskin suede, so it should be OK on other leathers, but if you can try it on a bit of scrap first ...

**Antipodes** · 29th July 2012, 01:13 AM

Much appreciated. will give that a shot. In the meantime, have been contemplating trying this myself with a two part resin. Any tips on product (I have a vague memory of something Kote (sic) which can deliver a mirror sheen) or technique, pitfalls, etc.

**burraboy** · 29th July 2012, 07:16 AM

Is the material vellum/parchment or leather? There is a difference in the way they are made and react. Drummers used to paint their skins (parchment) with shellac to waterproof them (to a degree) for playing in wet weather. Your picture makes me think the material is the former rather than the latter. If that is the case, an epoxy glue should suit. For leather there is a good contact glue called Dual88 (or something close) that is used by bootmakers so should be good for you. Be careful applying heat to parchment, even in the form of hot water!

**Antipodes** · 29th July 2012, 08:21 AM

Originally Posted by burraboy

Is the material vellum/parchment or leather? There is a difference in the way they are made and react. Drummers used to paint their skins (parchment) with shellac to waterproof them (to a degree) for playing in wet weather. Your picture makes me think the material is the former rather than the latter. If that is the case, an epoxy glue should suit. For leather there is a good contact glue called Dual88 (or something close) that is used by bootmakers so should be good for you. Be careful applying heat to parchment, even in the form of hot water!

Definitely vellum like a calf drum head but goat is thicker. As a drummer with some meagre experience of calf instead of mylar, I know how sensitive it is to heat and moisture - which is why I have a torn calfskin head at home. And clearly the smart thing to do would be to glue some pieces of that calfskin to wood (Araldite?) and start experimenting with lacquer - I did not know the shellac coat for weather protection trick but makes perfect sense. Thanks.

Still need the name of that two part high gloss resin if anyone knows it.

**burraboy** · 29th July 2012, 09:49 PM

What you had on your drum was probably a split calf skin. Goat skins vary depending on age and sex of the beast, from paper thin tambourine heads to heavy djembe skins. They were very often thickness sanded to suit the application, but this tends to destroy the structure of the skin and produces a weaker end result. Chemical bleaching also weakens the skin. It would be interesting to see what your designers used.
Try some epoxy, if you need more bits of skin to practice with, I often have a few offcuts lying around.

**Antipodes** · 30th July 2012, 11:52 AM

The drum head was definitely calf and the table top is definitely goat.

This link shows what the guy's pieces looked like with the high sheen lacquer.

1950s Italilan Green Goatskin Console Table by Aldo Tura | nyshowplace.com

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