Short version: The adhesive is a carcinogen class 2B, which apparently means “maybe causes cancer in humans”. If anyone has a finer grasp on how to read an MSDS, please chime in.
I’ve used the Greenstar on Baltic Birch ply and veg tanned leather. It takes some work (pressure and smoothing with my hands and a putty knife) to get it to stick nicely on the birch and the flesh side of leather. Weeds easily from the birch and a holds a bit tighter to the leather. Tighter still if I leave it on in the material stack for a while before using. But even then, it’s easier to weed than the Proofgrade.
I have more trouble with flash back on the birch. If I give enough power to reliably get through the birch then the flash back also makes it through the mask sometimes.
So far I’ve had better luck with the leather. Probably because I’m less worried about making it all the way through all the time. A few missed spots are easy for me to cut through with a knife. So I can dial it back to where it is just barely making it through the masking.
Sure, I use that stuff on everything - fabric, wood, acrylic, and (predominantly) leather. I like it quite well, and find it to be far more economical than some of the other options that I initially tried. It holds nicely, but still peels off easily.
When using it on leather, be careful to smooth it out completely. Any folds or crinkles will transfer to the surface of the leather (true for any masking, FWIW).
Chemist here. MSDS sheets are mostly for lawyers and firefighters in industrial settings.
As Paracelsus said in the 16th century, the dose makes the poison. The amount of vinyl acetate in the adhesive is small and you are not wrapping yourself in it.
The information in a MSDS is of use when working with industrial scales, for small amounts they are not very useful and they make every chemical sound extremely dangerous.
If you read the MSDS for salt and sand you would hesitate setting foot on an ocean beach again.
This is true but is there a better place to start than the MSDS for unknown materials?
You kind of have to learn to read them and not panic but they have done well for me so far.
Tangential, but I love how salt has an expiration date. That Himalayan salt in my kitchen was in the ground for eleventy-thousand years before they dug it up and put it in that bottle, and now I’m supposed to throw it away because it’s passed the expiration date stamped on the bottle.
I use that same example, along with pointing out a Staph infection is totally natural too… I’m sorry but your mom’s sepsis is just the cycle of life so no antibiotics for her!
I think most mothers are prone to making a few too many observations on the lives of their children. Timing, and DNRs in the will, determine who survives an ingrown toenail and who doesn’t.
I actually know someone who swears her dad made her executor because he doesn’t trust the other two siblings not to pull the plug over an ingrown toenail.