• DOI:10.1179/SIC.1959.003
• Corpus ID: 135666389

The Adhesive Strength of Whiting-wax-resin Cements

@article{Jones1959TheAS,
  title={The Adhesive Strength of Whiting-wax-resin Cements},
  author={S. Rees Jones and P. F. J. M. Hermesdorf},
  journal={Studies in Conservation},
  year={1959},
  volume={4},
  pages={5-12}
}

• S. R. Jones, P. F. J. M. Hermesdorf
• Published 1 February 1959
• Materials Science
• Studies in Conservation

BEESWAX, a material of great stability, is an important protective and adhesive material which is being used extensively in the conservation of works of art. It is usually combined with various substances into mixtures with improved qualities and better suited to particular requirements, such as relining, transfer, and gap-filling. At least two investigations [I] have been devoted to the properties and possibilities of beeswax, whether alone or in mixtures with strengthening and plasticizing materials. Though there has been no evidence that the commonly used beeswax-resin mixtures are unsatisfactory, it was considered that the presence in them of natural resins justified a search for alternatives. Two possibilities suggest themselves: the substitution of a more stable resin for the colophony or dammar, and the introduction of an inert filler. To this end a series of tests were carried out at the Courtauld Institute of Art in the summer of 1952 on a range of beeswax-estergum mixtures to which had been added varying amounts of whiting (fine calcium carbonate).