Celluloid doll issues

This doll is made from celluloid and needs restringing.

Her face is grimy but quite beautiful.

She has a skull fracture that needs repairing.

She has a foot fracture that was taped up quite a while ago. The tape is hardened and yellow.

Her stringing is a bit complicated in that the ends of the elastics are buried inside the fragile limbs.
When these dolls were originally strung, a toggle was attached to the ends of the elastic and just pushed into the hole in the limbs. There is no way to retrieve the toggles without risking damaging the fragile celluloid.

So I start by removing the tape from the broken foot.
This reveals the original fracture.....and that fracture is big enough to retrieve the elastic toggle from that limb.

Here is the toggle that the factory used.

Using this type of toggle now is not workable.

Celluloid stiffens and gets brittle with time. There is no flexibility anymore and this toggle will not fit into the teeny holes in the limbs.

This is a very simple type of toggle but it at least will fit into that tiny hole.

The skull fracture gets welded together. Acetone melts celluloid so with careful applications, it will weld the broken celluloid by melting it across the breaks.

The foot fractures are also welded.

Ready to go home.....