FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[John S. White]

Back from Munich and processing my dozen or so mineral acquisitions. About one third of them have the locality information or price stuck on with very soft Tack (not sure of spelling) and it is a horror. It is very difficult to completely remove from the sample, it gets all over your fingers and it sticks to everything it comes in contact with. It is almost so annoying that I would consider not buying a specimen if the dealer used it. I spent more time trying to clean it off and up than I did in numbering and labeling my new specimens.

[Bob Harman]

Hi John,
I know exactly what you are talking about. For my small sub collection of smaller examples I have tried several solvents; while most worked to some extent, none was perfect. Acetone might be one to try, but I suspect you have already gone that route.

Your best option might be to again mount the specimen in such a way as to reuse the same tack (sp?). Then you need not attempt to remove it in the first place! BOB

[lluis]

Hi,

Having suffered that, I found that using a new piece of BlueTack (that is the name of the brand I use.... I think is the original one.. more expensive than the others, but far better to my taste,,) and sticking it in the places where residues of the old tack is and pulling out in a move, you take some old tack. Doing it as many times as it is necessary and maybe using several pieces... I completely cleaned all the pieces I processed....
Yes, takes time and a lot of patience... But...

With best wishes

Lluís

[Fiebre Verde]

It is indeed a nuisance.
And when this is done on a crumbly sample, removing the 'tack' can quickly become a horror story as you sometimes feel the whole specimen is falling apart.
Gérard

[Charlotte]

Amen!

Not only a useless and fruitless labor but there is real risk of scratching a softish mineral in attempting to remove the blasted tac (sp?). A double curse on those who stick it to a crystal face! That's what matrix is for. Maybe the blue tack (sp?) is easier to use but any remaining is extremely visible. Even minimal remains seem to shine out of proportion to the size of the residual

Bill Logan

[lluis]

Hi, Bill

Indeed to adhere it to a crystal face is a crime, provided that there is matrix.
But when it is only a double terminated crystal, may I humbly ask where you adhere it?
And do not say me thermosilicone (that is thermo, but not silicone, just a low melting polyvinyl acetate). I smashed two nice specimens, even when they were soaked (not only wet, really soaked!) in alcohol (ethanol, pharma grade to be exact).
I have in front of my eyes an Ouro Preto double terminated crystal, without matrix (not a cleaved one; all faces are the crystal original non cleaved ones) stuck with blue tack. I took apart and *no traces* of tack are in.... And it is more than two years in this state....
Only the cheaper ones work bad.
And I hate them...
I destroyed an already eaten label, old, on a piece of sylvanite, just fixed with the Tack in the label. I could remove all it, easily, But I could not recover what tack took from the very "ripe" paper.... (cellulose and sulphuric acid are not good friends... :-( )

Anyway, just tastes and ways to display and mount collections....

With best wishes

Lluís

[Pierre Joubert]

When the Tac is old, it has the evil habit of doing that. I find that turpentine works best to remove the old tac, using an old toothbrush or piece of cloth.

[lluis]

Hi, Pierre

Depends on tack...
The Blue Tack does not do this.. It maintains as first day....
And I do not believe that in Catalonia we have a better in world....I just know the grey ones used to be from bad to very bad... And yes, those each day are a little worse....

With best wishes

Lluís

P.D.: turpentine may work in some.. In others, I doubt it makes something.... Maybe with dimethylsulphoxide.... But if you are not chemist, hard to find... And besides, has dermal absorption and brings a garlic taste to skin (apart of aroma, that is not exactly Chanel 5...)
Still, a piece of blue tack and patience is the best I have found....

[John S. White]

Just to be clear I was referring to the grey tack not the blue tack, but the blue tack can be a little bit of a problem also.

[lluis]

Grey tack is in two variants... (at least to my knowledge): one is bad. The other is even worse....
With Blue Tack technique I has been able to clean the worse grey Tack...
And indeed it is a terrible nuisance....

With best wishes
Lluís

[James Catmur]

The white stuff is really awful, and some blue stuff it bad too (spent a while yesterday trying to clean one specimen where the blue stuff had gone very tacky)

[lluis]

Hi, James

The blue one I use is Blue Tack brand.
It works well, and withstand in time (in a land that is not exactly cold, and very humid, where things tend to deteriorate very quickly....)
I bought one time a white one that is also good. Was same price as the blue one
The grey ones were in pieces I bought, and are awful.

But I suppose that bad brands could be in any colour.... It is just a question to use a pigment or another,... And done shade tacks have, by sure is the less in total cost.....

With best wishes

Lluís

[Jordi Fabre]

I never tried it but it could work. Please read carefully the comments below the video in You Tube and note that some oil could remain in the specimen.

If some one try it it could be nice read here their thoughts.

[Peter Lemkin]

I'm sure WD-40 will remove blue tack and a lot of other things from a wall, but I'd not want to use it on specimens. It contains a lot of strong solvents and chemical cleaners - none of which are publicly listed [proprietary secrets]. Strong, dense, minerals without fissures or channels might be OK if cleaned afterwards, but so many others would absorb or adsorb some of the solvents and who knows what would happen after some time.

I find a lot of mineral dealers are now using hot glue to mount specimens for sale. So far I've had no trouble removing the specimens from the glue, which is not to my liking [although not totally offensive]; however, on a fragile specimen I could see it might cause it to break trying to remove it or be incorporated into fibrous or friable materials. I hear that soaking in warm water or use of isopropol [rubbing] alcohol weakens the hot glue's grip on the specimens.

[Jordi Fabre]

Please check: Hot Glue Gun Mounting and Willard Perkins Classic "Perky" Mount