[NHCOLL-L:832] FW: thread for herp tags

[Panza, Robin]

We use Barbour's linen, rather than cotton.  It's available in the
conservation/archive supplies catalogues.  Linen is considerably stronger
than cotton, for a given thickness, because the fibers are so much longer.

At a former employment, we used cotton button-and-carpet thread.  Cebelia is
a crochet thread, and is meant to be soft and relatively loose.
Button-and-carpet thread is 6-ply, for heavy-duty sewing, smoother and a
tighter twist.  Another possibility would be DMC cordonnet, although that
will be harder to find.  It's a 6-ply lace-making thread, much tighter and
smoother than Cebelia, but probably not as good as b&c.

Robin K Panza                         panzar at carnegiemuseums.org
Collection Manager, Section of Birds          ph:  412-622-3255
Carnegie Museum of Natural History       fax: 412-622-8837
4400 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh  PA  15213-4008  USA

-----Original Message-----
From: Jessica Rosales [mailto:rosales at MAIL.UTEXAS.EDU] 

Any recommendations for cotton thread used for tying tags onto herps?  I've 
tried unsuccessfully to get samples from Coats American several times.   We 
tried using DMC Cebelia but found it to unravel too much.  Any other 
suggestions?