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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.

December 5, 2022 — 8:05 pm
Comments: 6