Talk:Animal glue

Bolded words

Why are some words bolded? Any reason?

Changed to quote marks or italics as appropriate. Is OK? Just plain Bill 23:28, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes, remnants of the style recommendation of putting first occurrences of subject and alternative titles in bold, that were mostly obsoleted by the added content. Femto 11:26, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Merge with Hide glue

Unless anyone objects in the next few days, I propose to bring text from hide glue to this article, and have that article redirect here. __Just plain Bill (talk) 13:46, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

If you're going ahead with this merge, can you please swallow "hoof glue" too. Andy Dingley (talk) 14:07, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

I still have reservations about this merge (but I didn't fix it myself first, so that's my problem). There are three sorts of glue (hide, rabbi-skin, fish) and they're all distinct. I'd hate to see it swallow rabbit-skin or fish too.

I had some reservations as well, and it's good to see interest being shown. I use hide glue a lot, but am only familiar with rabbit and fish glue from my reading, such as Ralph Mayer's reference tome on artists' materials. Hoof glue is a new one to me. It might be a good idea to separate Hide glue out again, or perhaps not, swallowing hoof glue as well, as you suggest. I'll be watching this space... __Just plain Bill (talk) 16:23, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

I think ideally (if I'd got off my arse) I'd have done this as a very thin article on "animal glue" with "Main article this way" links out above each of three one- or two-para sections on each glue. So the majority of the content would still be in the hide article.

All I know about "hoof" suggests that it's a lower grade of hide, usually handled as the old "Scotch" glue in large cakes rather than pearls. It's a bit more temperamental to work with, owing to the big lumps, but otherwise the same.

I've used rabbit-skin a fair bit in bookbinding and leatherwork (leather to wood), also as a constituent of gessos and compo. It's very like hide glue, only flexible when dry. I'm no artist, so I'm not familiar with it for sizing. Fish-skin glue I've used for hiding nails and pins, because of the high initial tack (Lee Valley sell a tiny bottle of it, with their hidden-nailing jig). Some people also use it for picture framing, for the same reason. I've also tried it for sticking fish leathers down, but found it a bit unpleasant to work with, so went to either petroleum contact adhesives or rabbit-skin instead. Andy Dingley (talk) 16:39, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Thin article with links from sub-sections seems like a better way to get it organized than the way it is now. If I get off my bum before you get off your (horse, was it?) then that's the way we'll soon see it. __Just plain Bill (talk) 17:35, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Template ({{morefootnotes}})

Only 4 inline citations in entire article.The Onion 22:56, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

"Noxious odors"

I just did some minor cleanup, removing red links, and took out the mention of "noxious odors" as a reason animal is now "more difficult to find and use." Modern synthetic adhesives are widely accepted despite odors, not to mention vapors requiring ventilation and masks in some cases. I have gotten the occasional stinky batch of hide glue, but no longer get it from those sources. Decent quality glue with an inoffensive odor is easy enough to find, thanks in part to online vendors addressing the long tail of the market. I don't have any experience with fish glue... If anyone wants to restore the "noxious odors," a reliable source will be nice to see. __ Just plain Bill (talk) 23:59, 8 January 2012 (UTC)

Modern hide glue smells just as bad if you overheat it. IMHO it's not the glue that has changed, it's the use of thermostatically controlled electric gluepots, rather than gas stoves to heat it. Andy Dingley (talk) 00:21, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

In my training I used an improvised water bath consisting of a Pyrex custard cup in a rummage-sale saucepan on a flea market electric hot plate. Nowadays it is a stainless steel cream pitcher hanging over the edge of a dedicated crock pot slow cooker, without a thermostat. Temperature control amounts to how far aside I push the lid. Although luthiers have a name for being cavalier with their glue (there is a ref for that wording somewhere, but can't be asked to chase it just now) I haven't lost a batch to overheating or microbes in many dozens of months, knock on wood. __ Just plain Bill (talk) 23:08, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

It's worth having a thermostat, and an adjustable, repeatable one at that (I use a chemistry lab stirrer hotplate, just because I happen to have one, with a traditional cast iron inner). Changing the temperature changes the viscosity, which can be useful for some tasks, especially veneering. A thermostat control, rather than just equilibrium control, allows faster warm up too. Andy Dingley (talk) 23:52, 16 January 2012 (UTC)