I've always loved my parents' collection of glass animals. As a child, apparently, I used to stare at the china cabinet for hours. If I was very good, I might be allowed to have the door open, but I never tried to grab anything from it. I knew these were precious and fragile.
Despite this, some of the animals have broken over time. The lamp post, bought on Brighton pier apparently, is at least 60 years old!
Sticking glass back together seems to defeat most glues, but recently, we've seen superglues that are set by UV light appear on the market.
I think this stuff comes from the dental world. My dentist has set a couple of fillings with UV and I understand they have similar glues claimed to be incredibly strong.
Revell's version arrives with two tubes and a marker pen with UV torch on it. In theory, all you do is apply the glue, fire light at it for 5 seconds and the job is done.
In practice, I found that the 5 seconds thing is rubbish. Think nearer 30 for a workable joint. My first attempts fell apart quickly and I found that while the edges had hardened, most of the glue was still liquid. This is especially odd as the glass is transparent, although the colour may block the correct light wavelength.
Where we had a clean joint, the glue worked well. The delay of a few years between breakage and mending meant that a few slivers of glass had long gone, but I did my best and at least all the pieces are attached. Not good as new, but good enough not to throw away.
I've since tried the glue on a couple of other jobs and been reasonably impressed. Not cheap, but a very useful addition to the toolbox.
