India rubber, uses
The lining of my wellies is coming loose. This calls for rubber cement! Or whatever they call rubber cement over here.
More adventures in finding what the hell I’m looking for in a foreign land.
Ah. Wikipedia helpfully tells me the Brits call it cow gum. Why? Near as I can figure, it was a brand name. As are Marabu-Fixogum and Copydex.
A poetic people.
An enterprising Ebay user calling herself longsufferingwife1 is selling fifty year old vintage cow gum from her father’s gallery. It was always an art studio staple, but I don’t think it’s changed much over the years.
It’s literally just rubber and a solvent. Solvent evaporates, leaves behind plain old rubber. Brilliant for things like fixing my damn boots.
Rubber cement is one of those adhesives that sticks better to itself than anything else. You could always get the best bond by coating both surfaces, letting them dry and then sticking them together.
Which brings us to the very best use for rubber cement: RUBBER CEMENT SCARS! Slather cement on yourself, let it dry, then pucker it up. It makes a long-lasting, truly convincing, seriously disfiguring scar.
On slow days in the art department, the boss would sometimes come in and find everyone at their desks sporting gnarly facial wounds.
Posted: December 5th, 2022 under personal.
Comments: 6
Comments
Comment from Deborah HH
Time: December 5, 2022, 8:16 pm
Not to mention that rubber cement would be an inexpensive facial. Think of all the dead skin cells that would come off when you pulled off a layer of dried rubber cement!
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: December 5, 2022, 8:47 pm
Rubber cement also can be rolled into little nuggets that display a remarkable resemblence to boogers. When I was in the Army, for a while I worked in a place where the security setup required that we present our military ID cards to get around. We would stick one of those nuggets on the back of our cards before handing it to the MP goon. Talk about sophomoric hilarity! Half of those involved laughed our butts off.
Comment from Greg
Time: December 6, 2022, 12:53 am
Shoe Goo (brand name). That’s what it calls itself. Works wonders.
Comment from MrKnowitall
Time: December 6, 2022, 12:14 pm
In the US, Barge Cement was the stuff of choice for shoe soles and the like, being the rubber/solvent goop of the same family. Sadly, it’s getting harder to find. However, Master All-Purpose Cement is the same thing and is available from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076DJQN5R
It’s odd, but in the US, “rubber cement” is a different product, useful, but not very strong. Used for paper and such. Here, we would call the good stuff “contact cement”. I can imagine great confusion in cross-cultural conversations.
Comment from BJM
Time: December 7, 2022, 3:29 am
@stoaty…Elmer’s makes a no-wrinkle rubber cement. Kill joys of the highest order.
@Mrknowitall I once has a very confusing conversation with a Brit at the newsagent. I wanted a box of paperclips, she offered bulldog clips. After a few false starts I drew a paperclip and received a box of Gem Clips… or trombones as they are known in France and Mexico.
Comment from Timothy J. McCorkle
Time: December 8, 2022, 2:44 am
“shoo- Goo” is Made By Walthers, a supplier of Model Railroad Kits and supplies…it is good stuff
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