What the heck is Blue Tack?

mnavarre · Post by **mnavarre** » Wed Oct 09, 2002 10:40 pm

I've seen it refered to in many posts on this board, but what the heck is it? Are we talking about the 3M poster hanging stuff? or is it something else? I've got a feeling I may have missed something, but "The Blue Tack Tweak" kindof seems like assumed knowledge.

So what the heck are we talking about here?

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Wed Oct 09, 2002 11:06 pm

Yeah, that sticky stuff that somewhat resembles silly putty. It leaves oil marks on your posters if you leave it on too long. Also called fun tack or wall tack in my experience. I usually saw it in yellow, and one of the tweaked whistles I bought seems to have used white.

blackhawk · Post by **blackhawk** » Wed Oct 09, 2002 11:20 pm

You can find it at Office Max, if there's one near you. It's called different things...sticky tack, blue tack, etc. It'll be near the Elmer's Glue.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Wed Oct 09, 2002 11:38 pm

Most any store with a stationery department probably carries one brand or another of it. Wal-Mart has carried it since at least 1985.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Thu Oct 10, 2002 12:45 am

The brand I found at a hardware store was made for a company named Manco and called Mounting Putty. It's white.

Roger O'Keeffe · Post by **Roger O'Keeffe** » Thu Oct 10, 2002 4:29 am

Mounting putty?

Not sure we want to go there.

Traditional tacks (small, roughly-formed nails as used for fixing carpets) are blued in a process intended to make them rust-resistant. Tacky in Irish and I suspect British usage means sticky. I suspect that a pun therefore lies at the root of the brand name, which I think was originally spent (spent? er, I think I meant "spelt". Though maybe gardeners could find a use for spent B-T discarded by compulsive whistle tweakers as a mulch or soil enricher...) Blu-Tac. Oddly enough, I had always assumed it was American.

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Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Thu Oct 10, 2002 5:36 am

The original Blu Tack is made by Bostik and is a pale blue in colour. There are many copycat products available, Pritt (of Pritt-Stick fame) make a white version, but I've never seen yellow tack! A tack is also another name for a drawing pin.

If you call something tacky, you means it's in poor taste. This might refer to a joke, or that hand knitted rainbow coloured wool whistle-cover your aunt Hilda made.

FJohnSharp · Post by **FJohnSharp** » Thu Oct 10, 2002 6:20 pm

I just bought some at Office Max, in the glue section, made by Elmers, called Tac N Stik. It's blue. On sale for under two bucks.