Repairing the canvas will take several stages; a tear or hole will be pre-welded and filled, or a cracked and stretcher- creased canvas will be pre-vapour pressed before the lining process to smoothen the surface.
The painting is then lined with either cotton or linen. I use either natural or synthetic wax/resin or traditional light weight composition paste. If the painting has thick brush strokes/impasto, a soft bed will be tailor made to the depth of the paint layer to stop the brush strokes being flattened.
For paintings with a signature or inscription on the reverse, the canvas can have a transparent/invisible lining so the inscription remains visible through the lining.
All this work is carried out on a specialist low pressure vacuum hot table.