After reattaching the structure, laying down the brass, cleaning up the remaining animal glue and removing the residue of glue and neoprene glue, comes the step of cutting the new pieces of brass and tortoiseshell to fill the gaps.
So, as usual, I take an impression of the missing piece.
Then I glue this piece of paper onto a brass plate, which is itself glued with fish glue onto a piece of 4 mm plywood. This makes the brass plate easier to cut.
To recover the brass piece, it's simple: just immerse the cut piece in boiling water, which melts the fish glue and the brass will come off by itself.
Next, I check and adjust each piece perfectly in its place.
Then comes the gluing stage. On this sign, I used two gluing methods for the curved parts. For the sides of the sign, I used sandbags with fish glue.
For the lamp base, I used the vacuum sealing technique. I placed a bag of sand inside to prevent the pressure from causing the structure to explode. Then, I placed the lamp base, glued with fish glue, in an airtight bag and evacuated the air (to approximately -0.8 bar).
I slightly warmed the veneer (without reaching the melting point of the old glues) in order to optimize the bonding.
