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A short while ago, JSpill, posted an inquire about hide glue. In one of the replies, SteveN referenced an article by Glen Huey about making your own liquid hide glue from dry hide glue. It seemed easy enough, salt, hide glue and water in a 1:2:3 proportion. The easy receipt called for soaking the hide glue granules overnight, adding the salt and cooking twice with an overnight in the refrigerator between cookings. I did all this a few days ago but only yesterday got around to testing it on a couple of newly jointed cherry boards. After clamp up for a couple hours I let it cure overnight and gave it the hammer test. I could not pull the pieces apart by hand but a stoke of the hammer caused the boards to come apart at the glue seam. It was a clean break with no signs of torn wood fibers being transferred from one board to the other. Clearly the glue joint was weak and the break occurred entirely in the joint. This is just a caution to people who might try Huey's recipe, test it before you use it on an important project. Ken
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The article in question. As you can see the majority was about pre-made liquid hide glue. The thread was about Old Brown, or Franklin. Most of this piece is about the attributes of those 2 glues, and that is why I posted it. I have only made hide glue a few times, and have decided that the pre-made is a better way to go as far as ease. However I did follow Don Williams recipe, and it was great glue, worked as well as any glue, hide or otherwise I have used. You don't say where you got your glue beads/flakes, or how old they were. "Williams finds that the fewer ingredients, the better, because it’s a fresher product in the end" That fresher part also comes from the age of the material, though Glen doesn't point it out very well. Millions before you made a strong viable product. Don't give up, but like cooking ingredients, you'll have the best luck with fresh materials.
Worst thing they can do is cook ya and eat ya 
GW
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I make my own liquid hide glue but have never used salt. I use urea and have not had any problems. Mine will not stay liquid, but a quick warm up and it is good to go. The urea gives it a longer open time. Plain hide glue sets up too quickly for me. Homesteadfinishes carries it and you use very little so the one small container I have will last me a while.
If I was to use salt, I would probably use canning salt. It is a finer grind and may dissolve better into the glue.
One thing I have noticed when using hide glue, is that I get lots of wood shavings stuck to my shoes. That does not happen with PVA glues. Then again, i tend to be messy with glue ups.
Oh and there are different strengths of hide glue.
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I use canning salt (and a few drops of bleach for mold control) with 192 gs finely ground refined hide glue to make slow set glue. Tried making my own liquid style and it is just easier to buy bottles from Franklin. But the slow set works great and no strength issues. Done rub joints as demonstrations with a good hammer whack and always the wood breaks, not the bond.
I get the ground glue from Eugene Thordahl. 192 and 135 gram strength. He is cheaper than Woodcraft, etc., has more choices in strengths, fresh stock, honest and unless I'm going to but 100#, easier to deal with than direct to Milligan and Higgins.
Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things. -- G. Carlin
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Yes Bjorn dot net is highly recommended. Rockler and WoodCraft could easily be years old on the shelf. Another is BT&C from Joel at TFWW You want a place with massive turnover so the product is fresh.
Worst thing they can do is cook ya and eat ya
GW
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Ken, I glued together two small pieces of 3/4" birch plywood with a little of the glue you gave me from the batch you made. I clamped the pieces together, and then left home for 8 or 9 days. When I got home today I removed the clamp and tried to break the two pieces apart. I had to wail on it pretty good with a hammer, and it was the plywood that failed, not the glue joint.
Maybe you didn't leave the parts clamped together long enough. I've always left parts that I used Franklin liquid hide glue on clamped overnight. Another difference is my shop is a lot warmer than yours. Franklin says the minimum temperature is 50°F for their liquid hide glue.
John
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jteneyck said:
Ken, I glued together two small pieces of 3/4" birch plywood with a little of the glue you gave me from the batch you made. I clamped the pieces together, and then left home for 8 or 9 days. When I got home today I removed the clamp and tried to break the two pieces apart. I had to wail on it pretty good with a hammer, and it was the plywood that failed, not the glue joint.
Maybe you didn't leave the parts clamped together long enough. I've always left parts that I used Franklin liquid hide glue on clamped overnight. Another difference is my shop is a lot warmer than yours. Franklin says the minimum temperature is 50°F for their liquid hide glue.
John
For the halibut, I started a small batch using Don Williams method last night. Using 192gs I got from Eugene Thordahl. I'm confident the bag of glue is good as I used some as recently as a month ago. 2 parts glue to 3 parts water (by volume). Resting in the fridge now. Tonight I'll melt it in the glue pot, then add 1 part salt (canning salt) and let it cook in the pot for 2 hours. Back to the fridge overnight and the following night, it cooks again for 2 hours. After that, it is supposed to be ready. I will prepare some small sample boards to test the bond.
Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things. -- G. Carlin
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John, well I'm glad you got good results with it. Maybe I clamped it too hard, there was a lot of squeeze out and I only left the clamps on for a couple hours although I waited overnight to do the hammer test. Guilty as charged about the cold shop. So it appears it was my glue up rather than the glue. The temp is supposed to get up in the 60s (finally) here in the next couple days so I will let my shop warm up and retry it.
In response to other suggestions, the glue was in pearl form and an unopened package. I have had it for a couple years but last fall I used some from a different package but the same age for hot hide glue hammer veneering and it was just fine.
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Why are you mixing something in with the hide glue and intentionally weakening it? We use hide glue everyday. We will mix it, let it sit about twenty minutes and then put it in the pot to heat up for an hour or two before we use it. Never had problems and can get 3 reheats before it's gone or just to dark to use anymore.
You might also look into getting a radiant heater to help heat the pieces as a warm joint and gluing area will give you longer working times.
"...cuttin' your presidency off right now. Just quit. Because if this is you helpin' us, then stop helpin' us."
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observation from the past. I have bought the estate of a cabinet maker that worked int he 1950-1980's. In it was five old glass coffee jars (likely Folgers) filled with hide glue granules. The jars were sealed with plumbers putty around the lids and a wrap of very old brittle tape. Of the 5 jars one is still usealed in my possesion, two were sold at flea markets and any feedback is lost, of the two remaining one has been unsealed and has been sucessfully used in hand made reproduction furniture by a Ohio craftsman following traditional recipies and the last is still in his stock for future projects. Perhaps the lifespan of the raw glue flakes is dependent on the level of exposure of the flakes to ambient air. The old timers tool pains to seal up excess stock against exposure and after decades of storage this seems to have worked, leaving the pearls fresh and viable. Low volume users should consider sealing up the unused portions as airtight as possible or expect some degradation of the bond quality in correlation to the time of storage, original quality of the flakes and quality of seal against ambient air. Hide glue is good stuff with a learning curve, kind of like carpenters honey.
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