I had a Bear rug made a few years ago and the glue between the bear an the felt has come loose in a couple spots. The gentleman who mounted it has passed away and I was wondering if you had any suggestions as to how to fix it? Maybe what kind of glue and where to get it? Thank you for any advice in advance.
Mark

Glue should never be used on good quality bear rugs. It IS used to tack the felt only, but the felt still needs to be quilt stitched to hold it intact. Witgh white chalk, turn your rug over. Draw parallel lines about 6 inches apart. Then draw parallel crossing lines every 6 inches. Using black nylon thread, push your needle through one "+" at a time. Then on the other side, push the needle back through about a quarter inch from the exit stitch. On the back side, tie a surgeons knot snug and then clip the thread with about 1 inch tags. Do this to every "+" spot and your felt will be secured forever. That's the way it should have been done to begin with. No flexible glue will hold felt to tanned hides for very long.

HG,

You could also send it out to be re-rugged if you didn't want to fuss with it. We use a wholesaler to do our backing and felting. They do a great job for us.

Hey George, you know, I try to tell people the difference between gluing and sewing when they come in the shop all the time. But what worked best was having a glued rug in the shop to show them how it pulls apart.

Hugh

If the rug has been made only a "few" years ago you may want to re-rug it. A seasoned rugmaker uses an industrial sewing machine to attach the felt or leather border to the animal skin. If the leather is older than a few years it may be too friable to hold the stich of a machine, it could tear like a perforated piece of paper.If the leather is older the rug's leather side could be vulcanized, which is a process of putting a psuedo skin on the leather with a special formulated compound to strenghten it.
A good taxidermy friend summed it up so well: "You wouldn't buy a leather coat that was hot glued together!"

Kind regards,
Mary Hilliard-Krueger
Mary's Wholesale Rugmaking