I quote Stephen Bacon’s remarks on fish glue below. This is a response:
The liquid fish glue, which is amazingly handy for non-critical quick-grab things, and for things that have virtually no way for stress or moisture to affect them negatively, does have some history of failure. A friend purchased a clavichord (not from yours truly) which turned out to be made entirely of the stuff. She kept her instrument in her basement on the east coast of the US near Boston during the humid summertime, and the entire instrument came apart. The good news is that the disassembly was utterly without damage. By the time the process was complete, she was left with a collection of intact parts like those that come in a kit. It was easy enough to return it to the maker and request that he simply put it back together with different glue. He did that (with what glue I have no idea) and it has behaved beautifully ever since. Another friend brought a brand-new theorbo to a baroque opera workshop I attended once in Seattle, and by the time she took it out of the case after her flight, the long neck (“diapason”? I think it is?) had cleanly come apart from the housing. A swipe with a wet fingertip and the smell of bottled fish glue was unmistakable (identical to the smell of that stuff called “mucelage" when some of us were little kids, the stuff in the stubby glass bottle with the red rubber nipple).
I use it sometimes to glue leather padding and if I’m in a rush I use it with abandon on dowels and trenails. How would enough humidity get down into the bottom of a trenail hole and how would the stress pull the pin up and out? Stressed joints? Not so much.
Somewhere in our far back archives is a post I remember from, well, it was either Laurie Libin or Stewart Pollens, I forget, explaining that dry-sheet-mixed isinglass glue which requires mixing and, I believe, some heat as well, really IS, compared to the liquid fish glue, what real hot-mix hide glue is to bottled liquid hide glue, and that it behaves as well as hide glue. When Frank Hubbard in Three Centuries comments that an early source recommending assembly of soundboards with fish glue seemed a bit crazy, I’ll bet he was thinking of the liquid fish glue, not the sturgeon-based dry-mix isinglass.
In passing: the only time I ever used bottled liquid hide glue, it ended badly. I would, if the choice were between liquid hide glue and Titebond in its various versions, choose Titebond in a heartbeat.
Stephen, I remember seeing real isinglass offered in an older catalogue of Sinopia, the pigment/art-supply outfit in San Francisco. They are now, I think, owned and operated by Kremer Pigments, but I’m not sure about that. Hang on…..
I find nothing on the Sinopia site, but paydirt from Kremer Pigments:
http://www.kremer-pigmente.com/en/product.html?info=6572&sorting=model&xe1b2b=5003e400e618bf1c76072e008a9020a5
I’ve never tried it, but perhaps I am tempted…..
Owen
Stephen wrote
In response to David Pickett. I'm glad you brought up fish glue. I have had similar failures with the brand mentioned( in liquid form) as I have with the treated or liquid hide glue. I've correlated the failures to high humidity thru testing. However my isinglass (dry sturgeon bladder) performs better than even 315 (graham strength)hot hide glue in high humidity situations. As I have almost run out, does any one have a source for isinglass in the dry form? Because I live in a dry area my worries are different than Michigan or the east coast. However as a general precaution as well as help in gluing large surfaces sizing has always been a must for me. A well sized surface( double sizing or one to soak in, one to fill the pores)lets one glue very efficiently over large surfaces with just a very hot thinned sizing glue with out fear of jelling.
I understand that making any statement on hide glue is at risk because it's use has many variables of formulation, environment, and technique. I can only speak from my own experience, be they either successful or failures.
As an aside I have seen failure of PVA on instruments due apparently to excessive UV exposure.
____________________________________
Owen Daly Early Keyboard Instruments
557 Statesman St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
http://www.dalyharpsichords.com
(503)-362-9396
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Note: opinions expressed on HPSCHD-L are those of the individual con-
tributors and not necessarily those of the list owners nor of the Uni-
versity of Iowa. For a brief summary of list commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask] saying HELP .
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
|
