Making Hide Glue

[InDy]

http://offgridsurvival.com/making-hi...rvival-skills/

For over 5000 years people have been using animal hides to make glue. Until the invention of synthetic glues, animal hide glue was the most common type of glue used in woodworking.

Making Hide Glue

1. Scrape, sand or cut your animal hide into small pieces or shavings. (The closer to a powder you can make it the easier it will be to work with)
2. Boil a pot of water
3. Gently cook until the mixture thickens. You will have to replace the water as it evaporates. (this process will take forever, some people cook it for days at a low heat)
4. Strain the mixture with an old T-shirt or other cheese cloth.
5. The mixture can be used as is or Dried for storage.

How to Store Hide glue

1. Pour the mixture into a metal cake pan or metal sheet. (1/4 to 1/2 inch thick)
2. When the mixture dries to a gelatin consistency cut into 1 inch square chucks. Let the mixture set for another week.
3. Pop the squares out of the pan.
4. With a thick needle, run some string through the squares and hang dry for at least another week.
5. Store in a waterproof container. ( if kept dry the dried squares can be stored forever.)

Using Dry Hide Glue

To use the glue, take your dried chucks and dissolve them in a small amount of hot water. Let it heat up into a syrup and then apply the mixture warm. Clamp you wood together and let it set. Your now good to go.

[Garnet]

It is always good to know how to do these kind of ancient crafts. Just to warn anyone who has never done this sort of stuff before though....it STINKS. Not just a little bit either.

My high school boyfriend and his brothers were very into doing these kind of things. I remember when one of his older brothers was making a powder horns from cow horns he'd picked up at the local slaughter house.

After two days their mother couldn't stand it any longer and banished them to the garage. Their father came home and parked their very nice car in the garage an immediately banished the boys to the back deck.

By the end of the project, they had been banished to about an acre away on their 10 acre property. The only family members who thought the entire project was simply wonderful were their dogs!

Just be aware that working with animal parts, especially hide, hooves and horns are probably not going to be inside projects if you are heating them up.

~Garnet
Been there, done that.

[InDy]

It is always good to know how to do these kind of ancient crafts. Just to warn anyone who has never done this sort of stuff before though....it STINKS. Not just a little bit either.

My high school boyfriend and his brothers were very into doing these kind of things. I remember when one of his older brothers was making a powder horns from cow horns he'd picked up at the local slaughter house.

After two days their mother couldn't stand it any longer and banished them to the garage. Their father came home and parked their very nice car in the garage an immediately banished the boys to the back deck.

By the end of the project, they had been banished to about an acre away on their 10 acre property. The only family members who thought the entire project was simply wonderful were their dogs!

Just be aware that working with animal parts, especially hide, hooves and horns are probably not going to be inside projects if you are heating them up.

~Garnet
Been there, done that.

ROFL!!! Thanks for the heads up. Note to self: do this project on a deserted island.