[shark]

Medical superglue is the dogs knackers but short of a heist from hospital stores not sure its worth the money. In my experience they are single use only, once perforated they dry in the tube so not the best for repeated use anyway.

From the thread above it sounds like the vet products are the same ie the Medbond linked above for £17

[webbo]

Having had the incision that was made in my left buttock so they could replace my hip, glued. I would say that medical superglue has something that the stuff I’ve used to glue splits sadly lacks.

[Dingdong]

Do some reading and make your own mind up whether an expensive superglue is better for you than cheapo gorilla glue?

It’s the plasticity I’m bothered about. Superglue just cracks if you spread it on your tips. It works well with tape though. Someone said that with medical glue you don’t have to use tape. Is Gorilla glue plastic (as in it doesn’t crack?)

Have you tried layering it? I usually do this:

1. Sand the skin to flatten the split and use a razor blade to clean and further smoothen the split

2. Apply first layer of superglue and use a utensil to flatten the superglue so it’s not lumpy

3. Once dry sand it down until it’s flush with skin

4. Apply 2nd layer of superglue and once again flatten it, sand it, let it dry and then do the same with a 3rd layer

This usually makes it less likely to crack and last way longer. I suffer from splits a lot especially on the tips…

[moose]

Re the relative safety of the various grades of superglue, my understanding is that they are all cyanoacrylates but with slightly different molecular structures that give slightly different properties - rate of curing, stability, adhesive power etc.  The key difference for dealing with wounds is their relative rates of degradation and release of formaldehyde / methanal.  Bostik / Gorilla Glue etc form a stronger, harder bond than the veterinary / medical grade variants, but breakdown faster and release more formaldehyde. 

Formaldehyde is a carcinogen but considering the amounts concerned and the length of exposure, I suspect the more realistic risk is irritation / inflammation of the wound.  Incidentally, formaldehyde is hard stuff to avoid - it's given off by burning lots of fuels, and leaches from construction materials like foam insulation, plywood, particleboard etc. Personally, if I felt glueing would help get me up a problem, I would not be too concerned... but then I had a decade in a lab that was awash with PFAS, have spent the last decade exploring fire scenes potentially containing asbestos, and drink too much. So, figure glueing splits would be last in the queue of "activities that will be implicated in my death". YMMV!

That said, I personally avoid gluing tape to flesh, just because of squeamishness about removing it afterwards. I use superglue but apply it between the layers of wraps e.g. where "figure 8s" cross themselves and to anchor where the wrap ends - maybe not as secure as gluing to skin but appreciably reduces slippage and makesthe tape job last longer.

[shark]

Interesting stuff but none of this is helping me get a rec for a skin glue that will provide a second skin for when my tips wear thin

[Dingdong]

Interesting stuff but none of this is helping me get a rec for a skin glue that will provide a second skin for when my tips wear thin

Like I said, I just layer normal shop glue and that works for me

[joel182]

did a bit of googling on this and from what i could find:
medical superglues are n-butyl cyanoacrylate based e.g.: Vetbond is 99% N-butyl cyanoacrylate with 1% Hydroquinone (which seems to be mostly added to preserve shelf life)

standard superglues seem to be mostly/entirely ethyl cyanoacrylate

the cheapest product i could find with N-butyl cyanoacrylate is LiquidSkin (amazon link) - since a standard 3g-4g tube of superglue gets quite a few uses, i guess each 1g tube should do a few sessions

[shark]

Interesting stuff but none of this is helping me get a rec for a skin glue that will provide a second skin for when my tips wear thin

Like I said, I just layer normal shop glue and that works for me

I’ll have a play but surprised it doesn’t crack

[Dingdong]

Interesting stuff but none of this is helping me get a rec for a skin glue that will provide a second skin for when my tips wear thin

Like I said, I just layer normal shop glue and that works for me

I’ll have a play but surprised it doesn’t crack

Usually one layer is weak but if you do 3 layers and then sand inbetween goes it keep it from cracking as much. YMMV.

[Fultonius]

Are you really talking about just splooging a thin layer over your entire tip Shark? Having had normal Superglue on my tips through spillage / lack of attentionz the frictional properties it provides are so bad I just can't see medical grade stuff being any better. Do people actually do this?

If my skin is that thin my elbows usually need a rest day or two anyway.

[lagerstarfish]

Usually one layer is weak but if you do 3 layers and then sand inbetween goes it keep it from cracking as much. YMMV.

I misread this as meaning putting sand on in between layers of glue 

[tomtom]

Thought about wearing gloves? Superglued on if they're a bit wriggly?

xx

[shark]

Having had normal Superglue on my tips through spillage / lack of attentionz the frictional properties it provides are so bad I just can't see medical grade stuff being any better. Do people actually do this?

There was an old hand from Sheffield at Datca who said he did just that and it worked well. Apparently it was a suggestion he picked up on in Ned’s book.

[Blintflint]

Yeah Ive done it before some sessions on nearly every tip lol

[Dingdong]

Are you really talking about just splooging a thin layer over your entire tip Shark? Having had normal Superglue on my tips through spillage / lack of attentionz the frictional properties it provides are so bad I just can't see medical grade stuff being any better. Do people actually do this?

If my skin is that thin my elbows usually need a rest day or two anyway.

This technique isn’t really for covering tips that have been ground down, it’s more if you get a small split on a tip, you can glue that little split area back together and crack on. I usually use a very minimal amount to just cover the split itself

[tim palmer]

Are you really talking about just splooging a thin layer over your entire tip Shark? Having had normal Superglue on my tips through spillage / lack of attentionz the frictional properties it provides are so bad I just can't see medical grade stuff being any better. Do people actually do this?

If my skin is that thin my elbows usually need a rest day or two anyway.

This technique isn’t really for covering tips that have been ground down, it’s more if you get a small split on a tip, you can glue that little split area back together and crack on. I usually use a very minimal amount to just cover the split itself

I have tried this and just made the split way worse.  I have climbed a lot with taped tips and have found the method described in beastmaking the best, I don't even bother with super glue, I find most tape sticks fine alone provided your skin is cleanish