Large Patch Fitting

Recent work undertaken with the help of my current assistant Malte Stump.

This beautiful slab-cut back comes with some major challenges. The lower back thicknesses turned out to be less than 1mm in some areas and dropping away steeply from the gluing surface. Apart from the obvious wavy cracks, there are multiple small fissure cracks throughout that whole area too.

Even after several weeks of pressing, the lower back remained too bouncy to allow for accurately fitting a large patch and therefore had to be temporarily fixed into a cast in that area – something I very, very rarely have to resort to and would normally avoid – a process not to be undertaken lightly and very dependent on the type of varnish you are dealing with!

The clingfilm was fixed in with 3M Photo Mount spray as well as the Japanese paper and then the critical back areas fixed on with hide glue. After the gluing of the patch, the back gets released with white spirit.