Anyone still use hide glue for general woodworking?

[John Coloccia]

Any one still using hide glue? I'm not talking about that awful liquid hide glue stuff. I'm talking about real hide glue in a glue pot. I hate all the "setup" getting everything going, but once it's going, I always really like it's properties.

That said, I rarely use hide glue for anything anymore.

[Casey Gooding]

Chairmakers frequently use it. Almost all chairs need to be repaired at some point, hide glue is best when you know you will need to take something apart in the future.
That being said, all glue will eventually fail. Many people choose hide glue to make repairs that much easier in the future.

[mike holden]

John,
It is my glue of choice. I build primarily period furniture, which is how I came to learn of it, but even for my shaker and a&c pieces, I use it. Lots of good reasons for it, only drawback is the setup time. Although, were I laminating wood, then I would use gougeon WEST system epoxy. Also, for iceboats I would use WEST.
Hide glue is simply the easiest to work with.
Just my opinion,
Mike

[Dan Forman]

Just curious, what is "awful" about the liquid hide glue?

Dan

[Mike Henderson]

The problem I have with regular hide glue is the preparation time and the fact that it goes bad. You can't just walk out to the shop and glue something - you need to prepare first.

Hide glue has some advantages (or it wouldn't still be used) but taking a chair apart is not one that I see. Most of the time the back seat joint gets loose, and by that time, you can take the joint apart simply by pulling it apart, if necessary with a Bessey clamp with the head turned around. I use epoxy on chairs that I build.

Mike

[John Coloccia]

Just curious, what is "awful" about the liquid hide glue?

Dan

I've found it's much more susceptible to coming apart under mild heat and/or humidity. I don't find that liquid hide glue stays together or bonds nearly as well as hot hide glue. I much prefer Titebond. I'm sure many will disagree.

[george wilson]

Actually,a test of the two some time ago found that liquid hide glue is stronger than the made up glue.

I have found that keeping the glue in the refrigerator between uses makes it last days longer. But,it is still VERY easy to get mold,etc. in it anyway.

I always place the liquid hide glue bottle into hot water for a while before using it. It makes the glue much thinner,letting it penetrate better. I expect everyone knows that,though.

I also use hot hide glue,and have an electric glue pot. For quick jobs where you just need a dab,it is cumbersome,though.

[Frank Drew]

And the working time is measured in seconds, not minutes.

I used hot glue exclusively for several years, and got quite comfortable with it, but I honestly don't see that it offers enough advantage over the other, more convenient glues. Rub joints are nice but you can use yellow glue for that, too.

[Vince Shriver]

And the working time is measured in seconds, not minutes.

I used hot glue exclusively for several years, and got quite comfortable with it, but I honestly don't see that it offers enough advantage over the other, more convenient glues. Rub joints are nice but you can use yellow glue for that, too.

What's a "rub joint"?

[Mike Henderson]

What's a "rub joint"?
You put glue on the two pieces of wood to be glued and usually rub them together to get the excess glue out, then hold the two pieces together with finger pressure. With hide glue, the glue sets up very quickly and your piece is fixed.

With Titebond, it doesn't happen quite as fast but the same thing does happen. The glue is not to full strength right away so don't try to do anything that puts stress on the joint but the joint will hold together while the glue finishes curing.

All this assumes you have a good tight fit between the two pieces to be glued.

Mike

[John Coloccia]

Rub joint work well with hide glue because it contracts as it dries, and pulls the joint together tighter. Does titebond do that too? I always thought that you absolutely have to clamp titebond to get anything approaching full strength.

[Mike Henderson]

Do a simple test. Take two small pieces of scrap, maybe 2" by 3". Rub titebond on one face and rub the other piece against the first. Hold the two pieces together with your fingers for maybe 5 minutes. Try to separate them.

Hide glue works much faster.

Mike

[If you're into experimenting, cut several pieces that size and do the first one after one minute, the second one after two minutes, etc. That'll tell you when you have a good enough bond that you can't get them apart. If you do the experiment, please report back on your results.]

[Bill Spievak]

I use hot hide glue that I make up myself for all the work I do that will be stained or dyed or clear finished. For painted pieces I use LV 2000, which has about a 15 minute open time. I add urea to my hide glue to extend open time. I have become comfortable using 192 gs without urea, but I can't move fast enough to use either the 251 or the 315 without urea. When I walk into the shop I take the glue from the refrig and plug in the pot. I must have just gotten used to doing it because it doesn't hold me back.

[Rob Young]

Making a rub joint with Titebond (PVA) works pretty slick, especially with stuff like picture frames that can sometimes require creative clamping. You can get it pretty close with the rub joint and use your clamps, cauls, packing tape and whatever to finish the job.

[D-Alan Grogg]

For the Windsor pieces that I've done, I used Titebond liquid hide glue rather than making up the hot glue pot. I believe that modern liquid hide glue is a very high quality glue. It is also a lot easier to use than the traditional hide glue. The Titebond has performed very well for me. For my first chair, tried heating it 1st, but I didn't like the way it handles when heated (too runny and messy). For me, the perfect consistency is right out of the bottle.