A Lurker and his Cornetto

[Thomas M. Potter <pottetm@Texaco.COM>]

	Since few of the other lurkers have spoken up, I'll introduce
myself so the professionals will know who is listening in while they
exchange info. I'm a would-be amateur instrument maker primarily
interested in Renaissance winds. I have no training in conservation, but I
am very interested in the issues around playability of original
instruments. 

A few months back I found myself in the position of having to restore one
of my own instruments, my first in fact: a cornetto I made as a teenager. 
When I went off to college it went of to storage in an old shed. The
shed's roof collapsed about 3 years ago, and on a recent trip home I found
what was left of the cornetto in the rubble. 

You can imagine what three years exposed to the elements had done. The two
halves had split apart, and the leather had detached completely. 
Carpenter's glue and wood putty took care of the wood, including
correction of some of my earlier mistakes in fingerhole placement and
such. 

The covering was another story. The leather was so stiff and brittle that
I didn't try to save it; it got replaced with some black vinyl. It
stretched around easily enough, and contact cement seemed at the time to
be the best way to attach it. I had some trouble with the seam - it's in
the wrong place, rather ragged and has crept open. 

I have some questions resulting from this, which may serve to get some
discussion going: - Have any of the professionals out there dealt much
with (real) cornetti? Does their construction make them harder/easier to
work with than other winds of the era?  - If this had been a real
instrument, would any attempt have been made to save the original leather?
If so, how? - What's the favored adhesive for an application like this?
Has anyone tried the new cyanoacrylates claiming to be for wood and
leather? Or are cyanoacrylates considered Very Bad Things for
conservation? 

Thanks for your attention -

Thomas Potter	pottetm@texaco.com
Associate IS Analyst                  (so now you know my day job!)
Texaco Refining and Marketing Inc.
Universal City, CA 
Opinions expressed are my own and do not represent those of my employer.