Shocking Pink

Q. What’s hard and pink and sticks out of your pyjamas in the morning?

A. Your head, of course.

.

Q. What’s soft and pink and protects your fingers?

A. This stuff:.

Adhesive-free, self-adhering bandage.

One of our dogs went to the vet’s a while ago with a sore paw and came home sporting a dressing which was secured with this adhesive-free, self-adhering latex-impregnated crêpe bandage. I must have played with it for a full five minutes; unwinding it and reapplying it and there was no evidence of it losing its grip. Of course the simple dog thought all the attention was directed towards him and lay there wagging his tail while I amused myself.

So, dog bandages/woodwork, woodwork/dog bandages? “Where’s the connection?” I hear you moan. Well it struck me that I could use this stuff (technical name, co-adhesive bandage) in place of the time-honoured-but-hideously-messy-to-remove masking tape when sanding intricate mouldings and during some hand planing operations. The stuff winds on and the stuff winds off! You can even wash it and re-use it a few times before having to cut a fresh piece off the roll.

A quick Google search and I discovered quite a few varieties and trade names such as Flexx-Rap and Co-Flex, available globally from vet’s suppliers, farm stores and manicurist’s suppliers (coincidently, something to do with holding nail files all day long).

The bandages come in widths of 1″ up to 5″ and normally about five yards to the roll. They’re  offered in an assortment of colours including black, blue, flesh, green and red, but I chose fluorescent pink because any detritus will be easily spotted and can be brushed away before being included in the finish.

It certainly protected my fingers and prevented the nails being worn back to the quick when sanding some cross-grained ash mouldings recently.

Preserving my fingerprints in the all-too-likely event the police request imprints of  them.