Somehow I stumbled upon
Sugru a couple of months ago whilst perusing the interwebs. The stuff seemed to have potential, so I ordered a small starter pack. I was surprised upon receiving the parcel how little one gets for one's money: the kit I got contained six small packets, each containing less in volume than those little ketchup packs from Dairy Queen. They also have expiration dates, which is somewhat intimidating: better think of something to do with my remaining five, at least before April next year.
Fortunately, I had a project waiting. This is a really nice 2L saucepan I picked up at a flea market here in town. Thick, robust stainless, possibly a sandwich bottom (one fellow I showed it to suggested it may have a layer of copper in the bottom), and a cracking bakelite plastic handle:
Normally I avoid any type of plastic handle on my pots and pans, since I like to be able to pop them from stove top to oven and back again at will. Since Sugru claims to be heat resistant to 180 deg C, I figured it was worth giving it a go to repair the handle.
My first impression of the material upon opening the package was that it was really too sticky and fluid to work with. It most certainly wouldn't support itself for any type of larger piece, at least in the state is is upon opening. I also realized that the volume of the little packet, while seemingly tiny, was really too much for my project.
I tried two different methods for this repair. First, I rubbed a small volume of Sugru in some of the smaller cracks near the handle, putty-like. Then I took a much larger volume and coated the handle around the larger cracks near the hole in the handle.
The Sugru was much harder to form and smooth than I had been expecting. It really is a fairly fluid consistency straight out of the packet. The final result is therefore kind of choppy, and not at all as professional-looking as I had hoped. But the cracks are indeed filled, and the handle has taken machine washings without any trouble so far. The Sugru-as-putty experiment was perhaps more successful, and I may attempt to re-do the handle entirely with this method in the future.
After coming home, I decided to compare the labels more closely. Indeed, both my "universal lederbalsam" and Decubal Dry Spots Balm share almost their entire ingredients list:
Beeswax (cera alba), lanolin, paraffinum liquidum (petroleum jelly), petrolatum, and castor oil (ricinus communis oil) are the basic components in both the shoe wax, selling for €80 per liter (note the price tag on mine was in Swedish kronor, making it actually significantly cheaper than the suggested retail price), and the lip balm, which at 65 kr for 30ml makes it about €230 per liter. It's hard to say what the exact proportions of the two compounds are, but they have a similar texture and odor. I suppose the Decubal has more lanolin, which can't be cheap. (Unrelated: In Sweden there's a whole ad campaign based on the premise that "cheap" sounds like "sheep" in English. Ridiculous.)
