Hello again, In my last posting, I mentioned using Elmer's glue to
apply a varnish transfer, I was referring to the old style varnish
transfer.

I have noticed that several people have frowned upon this practice.
Let me go a bit further.  In 1956, when I was a senior in high school,
I was rummaging around in an old dusty room at Aeolian American factory
in East Rochester NY.  I found boxes of odd decals for obsolete pianos
-- pianos I never heard of.  None were an Aeolian American product.
I assume that Aeolian American (or when the company was American Piano
Company) would buy out a piano company and the decals must have been
part of the deal?

I was told to take anything I wanted in the room, because if I did not
take what I wanted, the rest would be burned or taken to the scrap
yard.  I was in my glory!  Among my treasures (a whole car packed so
full I could hardly drive home!) I brought home about two pounds of
old decals!  Again my parents greeted me with the familiar, "Oh no!
Not again!"

This gave me lots of decals to experiment with.  I tried the tacky
varnish method, separating the layers as per instructions.  Often with
this method, removal of the tissue paper would destroy the decal, or it
would wrinkle, or part of the decal would stick to the tissue, ruin the
decal, and make a mess.

In that era everyone was using Elmer's glue [a type of white glue]
for everything, including pneumatics.  I thought, why not try Elmer's
glue to apply a decal?  I had hundreds of decals; it would be no loss
if some were destroyed during experimentation.  I experimented using
different adhesives, and I tried Elmer's glue, and it was very success-
ful, and had no problems destroying the decal when lifting off the wet
tissue.

Using a small paint brush, paint the lacquered or varnished surface
lightly with Elmer's glue, over a bit larger and area than the decal
(do not apply glue directly to the decal).  Press the decal onto the
glued surface, smoothing out bubbles.  Let it dry a few minutes, and
soak the tissue with a damp cloth, until it releases the decal.  Gently
wipe from the center of the decal outwardly, moving as much excess glue
from under it and rinsing it away using a damp cloth.  Let it dry
several days, then lightly spray with a few very light coats of
lacquer.

Using this method, I applied many decals to many different surfaces,
including a large and fancy soundboard decal on my mother's refriger-
ator door.  (She was not happy about it, but it was too late, and we
could not get it off, and it remained until she got a new refrigerator
many years later.)

In recent years, I tried the tacky varnish method, and another decal
again was destroyed.  I thought of my old experiment, and again tried
the Elmer's glue method to apply two decals, which turned out to be
very successful.

The decals I applied using this early experiment, are still securely
in place to this very day, and are holding up very well.  Some have
been in place over 40 years!  I still have a large glue-applied decal
on the front of my old dresser, that was placed there using this
method:  "THE W.H. PAULING CO. Ltd."

Now, others are telling me that the glue will turn yellow, or it will
not dry properly.  I do not understand how others can make comments on
other methods, unless they have tried them.

Bruce Clark