First I wanted to thank everyone who answered my pre-set diamond in
platinum question–it was amazing of you to take the time and it
really helped me out!
Another weird question:
When I lived in Germany and we were doing bead stringing, when you
were done with the knotting and had an end cap that had a ball with a
hole in it–we would melt a bit of a brown stick called, “Kitt”
(which I think was like Shellac) on the end of the string, then heat
the end cap and stick it in. It would solidify and hold the string
end well.
I cannot find this Kitt-shellac stuff in the beading section of the
catalogues I have. Does anyone have a suggestion of what might be an
equivalent here? Where to find it?
For my current project I will be setting horsehair into an end-cap
and thought shellac would be good. Does anyone else have experience
with this and possibly a better or different suggestion?
Kitt waxes are available…you might try a ski supply company as pure
carnauba wax is quite hard once melted and cooled, is brown and
comes in a stick…sounds like the GbH stick you had… Kitt company
makes car products as well in the US under their own label.
Stick shellac though, as a setters cement is cheapest from Rosenthal
supply Miami FL,then Romanoff ( i believe to be 2ed),and third
Cooksons UK or US concerns…otherwise you need a product that will
adhere to whatever your end cap is made of, so after creating a
"tooth" with an abrasive disc or bristles (3M 's creative arts
division’s Pumice grade radial bristle discs are a great choice
(unless you are using gold filled material or copper that is
stabilised for body contact ) a bit of adhesive may be in order (gs
hypo cement) before filling with a sealing wax product,or any hard
wax or insect shell or synthetic based laccuer.
hole in it--we would melt a bit of a brown stick called, "Kitt"
(which I think was like Shellac) on the end of the string, then
heat the end cap and stick it in. It would solidify and hold the
string end well.
Quite likely, it really is shellac. Some faceting supply vendors
will have it, or you can get it in a woodworking store as flakes. I’m
sure Graves has it - they supply it with their new faceting machines.
I cannot find this Kitt-shellac stuff in the beading section of
the catalogues I have. Does anyone have a suggestion of what might
be an equivalent here? Where to find it?
On this page of adhesives they have several kinds of shellac or, what
may be more useful, adhesive pellets, small grains of glue which you
just heat in place so that they melt (hot air gun, blowtorch or
whatever). these are really meant for securing flute pads etc but
have a million other uses… usual disclaimer - no interest in the
site other than a happy customer…
I personally would try to do it without adhesives. Whip the end with
silk and attach something to run through the cap, assuming there is
a hole in it. if not, then I guess adhesive is necessary. I just
thought through whatyou might be doing. OOOPS! :-}