Not a question, just an FYI.
I made a blanket chest this summer, not completely unlike Andrew Hunter’s:
https://www.finewoodworking.com/2013/10/03/blanket-chest-by-hand
He used hide glue and I had some Titebond, so decided to do the same. Later that evening I checked the glue and it was still wet.
With the horse well out of the barn I decided to check the expiration date of the glue, 2012. This was in 2020.
Now in panic mode I did a web search for “expired hide glue” and found Christopher Schwarz’s blog post:
https://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/liquid-hide-glue-turns-bad/
I glued up his slow test and went to bed. In the morning I couldn’t break apart the test blocks with reasonable banging from a mallet. My shop is in the basement, so the glue was stored in a relatively cool location for all those years.
The chest appears fine, now a few months later.
I’m not recommending you use hide glue 8 years past its expiry date, but should you, you might be OK.
Replies
I’ve used OBG 4 years out of date and it worked fine. Kept in fridge is the key maybe.
I’ve since gone over to hot hide glue and don’t have that concern.
Yellow glue, OTOH I do think goes bad. I pulled a bottle if TBIII off the shelf the other day it was like water. I used it anyway and it seems to work ok.
Huh, I mostly use Titebond, usually II, sometimes III, and I find it gets yellower and thicker as it ages. I'm cheap, so I use it anyway, and haven't had a failure, yet.
If you can put hide glue between your fingers and pulling them apart creates strands/strings like hairs or spider webbing, it's generally suitable to use.
I've never been able to get glue that old to flow. In fact, I've bought a bottle from a local retailer here that was solid within a small fraction of a year and went back to their rack only to find that every bottle on the shelf was also solid. I threw it away (no clue if you can warm it and fool around with it to do the string test).
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