Wood’n Bits Workshop

All of us use adhesives of one form or another in our hobby.  Hot “craft” glue is favored when quick, imprecise bonds are desired.  Cyanoacrylates are favored by those who like their glues “instant.”  But clearly most people grab one of the many alphatic resin glues for most work.  And why not?  They’re cheap, they’re readily available, and they work…well sort of.

Yes, I did say sort of.  They are ‘slippery’ and you can’t rely upon them to hold parts in position while they dry.  They are flexible, allowing the joints to flex in unpredictable ways.  Their rubbery nature makes them hard to sand.  They interfere with stains so you have to be very concerned about getting any on exterior surfaces.  Oh, and get it on your clothes?  The number of t-shirts I have with little hard blobs on them…ewww.  But we get used to these things, right?  They’re the ‘best’ cuz that’s what the industry uses.

Well, there are realities and then there are realities.  One reality is that since the days of the pharaohs until sometime in the mid-1900s, these glues didn’t exist, but hide glues were used with great success to hold furniture joinery together.  Every Stradivarius violin ever created was held together using hide glue.  All of the fancy veneer/marquetry/inlay work of the 17th and 18th Centuries was done using hide glue.  In spite of the lack of ‘modern’ glues, the furniture and instruments we admire so much in the antique stores are holding together quite nicely.

In fact, anyone restoring antiques will most certainly use hide glue if they know their stuff.  Instrument makers still use hide glues extensively.  Those doing marquetry, inlays or veneering will most often use hide glue.  Why?

Well, it’s because aliphatic resins are popular today not because they’re ‘best’ but rather because they’re cheap and very suitable to manufacturing environments where the users are using 55-gallon drums of the stuff.  They are call ‘carpenter’ glues, after all.

Hide glue has these features which cause people doing fine work with hardwoods to prefer it:

1) It sets up very quickly, but generally requires ‘overnight’ to gain its strength.

2) Hide glue joints can be undone if necessary!

3) It dries hard, not rubbery like aliphatic resins, making it easy to sand, and creates joints that are not going to flex.  This means it won’t clog sandpaper and files, too.

4) It is sticky, not slippery when being applied.  Often you can do a ‘rub joint’ (rub the two surfaces together and they will stay stuck, with no clamps required.

5) Hot water will clean hide glue out of anything.  You can use your finest sable brush to apply it if you want and running hot water over it will clean it up like new.  Same for your t-shirts (grin).

6) Hide glue can be quite thin when being applied, making it ideal for using small applicators in miniature-size dados and mortises.

7) It won’t attack finishes or interfere with finishing.  That’s right, it will take stains quite well.

Aliphatic resins are petroleum-based while hide glues are made from animal (cow) proteins.  Did you realize that Knox gelatin is a VERY mild hide glue?  Can you say non-toxic and environmentally friendly (grin)?

Ok…that’s enough, though in my view there are more advantages.  Let’s talk disadvantages just to be fair.  With alphatic resins, you pick up the bottle and squirt.  Their pre-mixed nature, however, also means a finite shelf life.

Hide glue is more work than that, as you typically buy hide glue as crystals, requiring that you mix it with water and heat it.  If you get used to using it and have a system in place, you’ll find this to be trivial.

I know, I know…that’s WAY too much work just for glue.  But you know, once you get set up to do it, it’s sooooooo simple that all you need to do is anticipate your need for glue by a couple minutes.  It’s just not a big deal.  This is particularly true when using hide glue on miniatures.

I’m going to stop now.  In part 2 I’ll show you how I make hide glue easy for those of us who do miniatures.  I’ll also discuss how and where to buy it.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

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Tags: Glue, Techniques

This entry was posted by Larry on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 7:59 am and is filed under Miniatures, Woodworking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.