Hi all,

Regarding Craig's post about the merits of hot hide glue, I have got a
couple of items around the house that I've repaired with yellow
carpenter glue and have seen good service life on the glue joints.  One
in particular is a swivel stool that I use in my office when someone
needs to sit next to me at my computer.  I reglued it close to 15 years
ago, knocking every joint in it apart before reglueing.  It is holding
quite well and is showing no signs of weakening.  I sometiimes use this
stool for a step stool as well, putting all my 200+ pounds of weight on
it.

I could list a few other things that I've reglued but suffice it to say
that I don't find yellow carpenter's glue as useless as Craig does.
Hot hide glue has some terrific properties and has been used in pianos
for quite some time with terrific results.  I've used yellow glue for a
good number of years and have found it to be quite sufficient for all
of repairs I've done.

As for the accoustic properties of one glue over the other, I would
think that the differences would be hard to hear.  A good glue joint
doesn't have so much glue between the two pieces of wood that there is
a poor conduction of sound from one piece to the other.  In all cases
of soundboard repair, and bridge repair, I've noticed a tremendous
improvement in tone when I used yellow glue.  As for wheather the tone
would have been even better with hide glue, well, that was never found
out.  The customer was happy with the repair, and the increase in tone,
and I felt the job was done right.  Also, these old pianos weren't
intended to last this long, and so any repairs we do to soundboards is
extending the life and the customer's enjoyment of the instrument.

Personally, I find hot hide glue an immense bother to deal with.  The
glue crystals have a shelf life, the combination of water and crystals
needs to be right for good adherance, the temperature should be just
right, the glue pot should be cleaned out to remove old glue, the water
used should be distilled water, a cover with a hole in it keeps the
glue from "skinning over" and makes a big mess with the dip stick
passing in and out of the hole as you use it, the glue is stringy
making cob webs all over the place getting on clothes, hands, work
pieces, etc., and it needs to be heated up previous to usage, which
requires planning ahead adding more time to the job.  It may have all
kinds of really nice properties to it, but it also is a major pain to
deal with ............... in my opinion.

One tech in this area has a pretty good philosophy, and he had a button
made up that said, "Relax, it's only a piano".  It displayed his
practicality on the subject.  I tend to side with him.  I'm a very
practical kind of person.  Practically speaking, yellow glue works just
as well as hide glue, for the vast majority of repairs.

Having said all that, I'll duck and let you guys that are pro hide glue
attack me.

Lar

•                     Larry Fisher RPT
   specialist in players, retrofits, and other complicated stuff
      phone 360-256-2999 or email larryf@pacifier.com
         http://www.pacifier.com/~larryf/ (revised 10/96)
           Beau Dahnker pianos work best under water

• [ Editor's Note:
 [
 [ I trust that those with differrent opinions will be more polite
 [ than "attack"ing you.  Frankly, I'm fascinated with all the
 [ differrent points of view that have come up repairing
 [ old pianos.  I'm hoping for some more articles.  I hope that
 [ the focus stays on materials and technologies;  it makes my
 [ job LOTS easier.
 [
 [ Thanks
 [ Jody