Back in the 1960s when I supervised the rebuilding of many player
grands in my shop we purchased from Schaff a thermostatically
controlled hide glue pot and it was an excellent device: turn it on in
the morning, shut it off at quitting time.  After a few minutes warm-up
your hide glue would be ready and stay at the proper temp all day long.

I was pretty much against trying new material compared to what the old
timers had used.  One exception was we used kangaroo leather for pump
rebuilding.  Nowadays I notice that leather is pretty expensive
compared to the 1960s.  I used to buy the hides from Durrell Armstrong.
We devised a clever tool for skiving the area where we wanted to
prepare to splice the leather.

Ellsworth Johnson
Spokane, WA