Best mounting adhesive for artifact boards

[Force_of_Iron]

I've used clear silicone for years. Its completely unreactive, strong and can generally be rubbed off leaving nary a trace.

However, every time the topic comes up nobody mentions it as an adhesive to use. Am I missing something?

 

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[Tdog]

I've used clear silicone for years. Its completely unreactive, strong and can generally be rubbed off leaving nary a trace.

I'd say this is where the problem comes in. It can not be removed so easily from my experience--at least on quartz and other grainy material.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

If you buy locking trays like these you don't need to glue anything.

 

[joshuaream]

Steve's choice is what a lot of people use for decent points, and if you are cutting wood backing to glue points to, you can probably make your own wood cases with a foam insert. The pressure from the foam holds the points against the glass. Or go with the black riker frames.

I have glued up broken pieces to create some display frames that would be hard to do without adhesive. I generally just use Elmer's glue because I figured someone could let them soak in water for a while, and then scrub off the glue with a toothbrush and dish soap. But when I glue pieces in a frame, they are pieces that I realistically don't ever plan on handling individually again. If I want to pull a relic out and handle it, I wouldn't glue it.

I have a scraper frame that I put together with some Mandan scrapers that I picked up at an auction several years ago (gallon bags of them were going cheap.) If memory serves I have about 1400 thumb scrapers in there. I can't find those pictures, but this is a frame with a ziplock bag's worth of broken side notch points that I got at the same auction. The buried rows of points are broken bases. The front visible row all have pretty significant dings. There a 3 or 4 in the middle that are decent, but not good enough for my display of good side notch points. (I practiced on this frame, the scraper one came out looking a lot nicer. They are glued on felt, which is glued and stapled to the back of a large frame with no foam.)

 

[Wildcat1750]

Haven't even thought about gluing any of my pieces. I prefer to use Riker frames instead, but then again I don't have a very large collection.

 

[PetesPockets55]

The silicone may work for your collection but "nary a trace" may not be acceptable to a buyer if you ever sell.
Silicone takes a lot of effort and rubbing to remove from any surface.

 

[newnan man]

No glue ever!

 

[Force_of_Iron]

Thanks for the answers so far. Please keep them coming

 

[Twitch]

Vat majority of collectors use frames like the Grim Reaper showed above. The rest use riker frames. Shouldn’t glue or silicone artifacts to anything. I also wish people wouldn’t write on them but that’s a different story.

 

[Force_of_Iron]

Unfortunately my vice has been that I like the look of the stones against a natural wood background (as per my avatar, those stones have each had a couple drops of silicone applied to them).

I don't like the bright colors and the white is so unremarkable it is off putting to me.

I just like the look of the wood. However, I suppose if I could find a better way to anchor to it I need to do so.

I tried wire but that is so labor intensive and I've heard the cons of that as well.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Please don't use wire. Wire will cause chips in the sides of Points where the wire goes across. I know from experience from my teen years.

 

[joshuaream]

Please don't use wire. Wire will cause chips in the sides of Points where the wire goes across. I know from experience from my teen years.

Ditto- I've got some great personal finds with those extra side chips from when I was a kid.

 

[Twitch]

Unfortunately my vice has been that I like the look of the stones against a natural wood background (as per my avatar, those stones have each had a couple drops of silicone applied to them).

I don't like the bright colors and the white is so unremarkable it is off putting to me.

I just like the look of the wood. However, I suppose if I could find a better way to anchor to it I need to do so.

I tried wire but that is so labor intensive and I've heard the cons of that as well.

I agree on the bright colors and the white. It may sound odd but try black felt - it's by far my favorite.

 

[Jon Stewart]

I use Riker frames also but some points are larger than others which cause smaller points to slip down when hung on the wall. So I use a drop of kids Elmers white glue which does wash right off the point with Dove dish soap with no harm to the point.

 

[Force_of_Iron]

I use Riker frames also but some points are larger than others which cause smaller points to slip down when hung on the wall. So I use a drop of kids Elmers white glue which does wash right off the point with Dove dish soap with no harm to the point.

I might give that a try. I didn't know it would soften up like that

 

[monsterrack]

Elmers glue works good and it comes in clear now, but like Steve said a good locking frame with foam works great. If you have a items that still try to move you can use double sided clear tape, it comes in all types of thickness.

 

[Charl]

Back in the day, and back in the day is before my time, collectors often glued points to boards, or just as commonly, wired points onto wooden or cardboard boards. The latter technique could, and often did, lead to damaging the points. I have some older wire-on felt covered cardboard frames. I leave those as they are, they are mostly all field grade stuff anyway. I use wooden frames and riker mounts. Now, one thing you may often run into, I know I do, is points are of varying thickness, and so very thin points can slide around. Obviously you can create a thicker background to compensate. I like to keep everything from the same site in the same frame.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Back in the day, and back in the day is before my time, collectors often glued points to boards, or just as commonly, wired points onto wooden or cardboard boards. The latter technique could, and often did, lead to damaging the points. I have some older wire-on felt covered cardboard frames. I leave those as they are, they are mostly all field grade stuff anyway. I use wooden frames and riker mounts. Now, one thing you may often run into, I know I do, is points are of varying thickness, and so very thin points can slide around. Obviously you can create a thicker background to compensate. I like to keep everything from the same site in the same frame.

When I have a thin piece that wants to slide around I use a tiny drop of Elmers to hold it in place. Works well and comes off very easily with water.

 

[newnan man]

When a thin piece wants to slide I roll up a piece of scotch tape smaller than the point and stick it under it to the felt. Works pretty good. I have a nice frame from an old friends collection, he had used hot glue. It comes off with heat but is a pain to do it. Don't use hot glue!

 

[iowa trout]

You all know the natives heated up pine pitch to glue them there artifacts ?