70.5 Make your own plaster bandages

This is almost a lost art, but if you can make plaster bandages yourself they will be a tenth the price of those you buy. The difficulty is that the powdered plaster tends to fall through the bandage. The trick is to make the bandage just damp before you cover it with plaster. This will help the plaster to stick to the gauze, without destroying its capacity to set later when it is thoroughly wetted in the normal way. ’Home made’ bandages are not so convenient, and take longer to set, but the economy may be worth it.

MAKING PLASTER BANDAGES

MATERIALS Medicinal plaster of Paris (dried calcium sulphate BPC) is best, but you can use builder’s plaster of Paris. Buy it by the kilo and keep it dry. Ordinary wide gauze bandages.

METHOD Take a gauze bandage, wet it, and squeeze it as dry as you can. It will now be only just damp and will hold the dry plaster in the next stage.

Rolls.

Open the roll of damp bandage, lay a length of it flat, and sprinkle it lightly with powdered plaster. Sprinkle it from your hand, or with a sprinkler. Roll it up as you cover it.

Slabs.

Double the bandage backwards and forwards as you cover it. Dip the prepared rolls or slabs in water and use them just as you would commercially made ones.

Use them that day or store them in an airtight tin. Don’t try to make slabs with preloaded bandages.