Hide Glue?

[Julie Moriarty]

When I was doing the planking on a model sailboat, I found hot hide glue invaluable. Pinning those tiny planks so they form to the hull and waiting for PVA glue to dry was taking forever. When I switched to hot hide glue I could get 3-4 times as many planks laid in the same time it took with PVA. Cleanup was also a joy. No need to worry about glue marks ruining the finish.

One comment I found interesting was when someone said, "I hope you're not going to put that boat in water!" There was some story about a Roman emperor who wanted to murder his wife. He made a boat using hide glue to secure the planking and gave the boat to his wife as a gift. When she sailed it out onto open water.....

[Mike Henderson]

Hide glue squeezout will not affect your finish like a PVA glue will.

In my experience, that is not true. People told me it wouldn't show, so when I used hot hide glue on a project, I wasn't careful about getting the hide glue on the wood. When I finished the piece, I could see all the places where the hide glue was left on the wood. I had to strip and refinish the piece.

No, even if you use hot hide glue, you have to be careful about getting it on the finish surface and you have to clean up your squeeze out, exactly the same as a modern glue, such as PVA, or it will show in the finish.

Mike

[Richard Hutchings]

It rolls right off with a finger if wait for the squeeze out to jell in about 15 minutes.

[Andrew Seemann]

I went through a hide glue phase (both real and liquid) about a dozen years ago. I even got the neat "Hold Heet" glue pot -I stumbled on one for cheap one day. My experience was that while disadvantages of hide glue are probably overstated, the advantages are as well.

For the most part it isn't really that hard to work with, once you get the hang of it, and it is quite strong. For most interior work that won't be in higher humidity environments it is just fine. For some things it works probably better than anything else; for real hide glue the quick set can be an advantage, and liquid the long open time can make some kinds of complex glue ups less stressful. Though it isn't as invisible under stain and finish as its reputation (although thinned down it was/can be used as a size) it isn't completely stain-phobic either and doesn't show up as obviously as PVA based glue.

That said, unless I really need one of the advantages of either type of hide glue, I rarely use it anymore, maybe a few times a year. It is a little too easy to get a cold joint where the glue doesn't bond right, and you always seem to find out about it too late. I've found most of the failures in furniture that I have repaired were in joints with hide glue, usually they were glue starved (probably from going too fast) or the joint got assembled cold and didn't bond. Also, hide glue doesn't have a slow creep like PVA or yellow glues, so cracking of the wood or failure of the joint from wood movement seem more common. Additionally furniture stored in a damp environment like a basement sometimes doesn't fare well with hide glue.

For most (though not all) woodworking, regular modern cold glues like Titebond are much easier and simpler and work just as well.

On a side note, if you want to start a fist fight, say "glue" to a bunch of guitar or harpsichord builders. For them glue almost becomes its own religion.

[Keith Mathewson]

A little off topic, I’ve been wanting for this person to make another run of these for awhile. Is anybody else interested?
http://www.hotdiptin.com/blog/spoons

[Kees Heiden]

An informative blogpost about hideglue and humidity: https://pegsandtails.wordpress.com/2...f-animal-glue/

What draws me the most to hideglue is the witch craft. Boiling cauldrons with funny smelling potions.

[Richard Hutchings]

Awesome, thanks for posting that.

An informative blogpost about hideglue and humidity: https://pegsandtails.wordpress.com/2...f-animal-glue/

What draws me the most to hideglue is the witch craft. Boiling cauldrons with funny smelling potions.

[Leo Passant]

If you want to learn this stuff it is very helpful to have someone to watch who has some facility with the stuff. Not everything that is worthwhile can be learned from an instruction book and done easily the first time. We do the craft a disservice when we limit ourselves to skills that can be learned in a short time. Many of today's craft teachers are engaged in dumbing down techniques to eliminate traditional skills which are "almost imposssible" to learn.

With hide glue you want to prepare everything, clamps, glue blocks and such and to rehearse (at least mentally) so that you are not hunting a prop while the glue is cooling. The upshot is that you learn to work in a very disciplined manner.

Never a truer word! Occasional experience of anything will never make a master.

Eighteenth-century cabinetmakers seemingly made more beautiful furniture using animal glue than the majority of people can today using PVA.

See more animal glue experiences here and here.

[john jesseph]

You can make a lot of great stuff with PVA glue and polyurethane finish. I like hide glue and shellac and/or varnish.