This will be my first posting to MMD and its mostly anecdotal.  The
first anecdote is in regard to sealing pouches.  I have been around
rubber cement most of my adult life.  My first job while I was still
in high school was in the art department of a company that made metal
nameplates for everything from kitchen appliances to heavy machinery.

The photo-printed typography was cemented into place with rubber cement,
"Best Test" by Brand, using the big brown bottle with brush in lid and
thinned with "Bestine".  I have used "Bestine" all my working life to
clean drafting tools and the Borco drafting table cover.  I will also
say that the chemical now sold as "Bestine" is not what it was 15 years
ago.  I believe it had to be changed to meet some kind of environmental
laws in California.

While still in high school I was lucky enough to meet a wonderful old
man named Herbert Vincent.  He worked in a dark old warehouse building
as a repairman for Ross Davis who owned three carousels in California.
I watched him for endless hours as he prepared the leather for pouches
with rubber cement and a dusting of talcum powder.

Later on I met and became friendly with Dick Carty and some of his
skilled craftsmen who were working on the restoration of many of
the instruments that later became part of the Nethercutt Collection.
To the last they all used rubber cement to seal their pouch leather.
I am also told today, by one of those craftsmen, that it is even more
important today because the available leather is no longer tanned with
any regard for its use as pouch leather.  So much for that subject!

Cecil Dover