Hide glue for bone bow tip

[George700DL]

I found 1 post about someone gluing a bone bow tip with hide glue, and few others suggesting superglue.

Does hide glue work well for gluing bone to wood? I would think that bone, being porous, would take the glue just fine.

Thanks.
George

[Jake deVilliers]

Originally Posted by George700DL

I found 1 post about someone gluing a bone bow tip with hide glue, and few others suggesting superglue.

Does hide glue work well for gluing bone to wood? I would think that bone, being porous, would take the glue just fine.

Thanks.
George

Hide glue works very well on bone and ivory. Its what the Martin Company used to glue ivory bridges to the top of guitars. They also used it to glue the T shaped steel reinforcement bars into mahogany necks.

[George700DL]

Originally Posted by Jake deVilliers

They also used it to glue the T shaped steel reinforcement bars into mahogany necks.

Cool, that was another question - I need to glue some brass to wood as well.

Thanks Jake.

[Jake deVilliers]

Originally Posted by George700DL

Cool, that was another question - I need to glue some brass to wood as well.

Thanks Jake.

I've never used hide to glue metal to wood, I'm just reporting. That said, they use the stuff to pull the chips off plate glass to make it all bumpely and obscure so it should be okay with brass.

Let me know, would you?

[vejesse]

Old time time guitar makers sometimes used shellac to glue frets (brass) to wood.

[George700DL]

Originally Posted by vejesse

Old time time guitar makers sometimes used shellac to glue frets (brass) to wood.

"burnt shellac" is also used (or at least was used) to glue felt to pads on pianos. Not meant to be a strong joint there.

[George700DL]

Originally Posted by Jake deVilliers

I've never used hide to glue metal to wood, I'm just reporting. That said, they use the stuff to pull the chips off plate glass to make it all bumpely and obscure so it should be okay with brass.

Let me know, would you?

Will do. The glue itself won't be the only thing holding it together, it's a mechanical thing. Just a little reinforcement that can be undone later.

George

[Jake deVilliers]

Originally Posted by George700DL

"burnt shellac" is also used (or at least was used) to glue felt to pads on pianos. Not meant to be a strong joint there.

The woodwind repair guys in the room next door to me at Long & McQuade use lacquer sticks to glue pads on clarinet, flute & sax keys - just like filling fret end holes. .

[Jake deVilliers]

Originally Posted by vejesse

Old time time guitar makers sometimes used shellac to glue frets (brass) to wood.

Frets, whether T-shaped or bar-shaped, go into a slot in the fingerboard and are held by compression of the wood fibres. Glue is useful as a means of filling the air space under the fret but won't retain the fret in a loose slot.

A lacquer stick is used to fill the tiny gap under the fret end.

[George700DL]

Originally Posted by Jake deVilliers

I've never used hide to glue metal to wood, I'm just reporting. That said, they use the stuff to pull the chips off plate glass to make it all bumpely and obscure so it should be okay with brass.

Let me know, would you?

Hey Jake -

The hide glue worked very well on brass/wood. I'll post some pics in the Bows & Rosin section when I'm done.

And of course hide glue worked incredibly well for the bone-to-wood joint. There was zero clamping required, and I was sanding/scraping it about 20 minutes after gluing it on.

George

[Jake deVilliers]

Nice! That's about how I figured it would go for you. Makes you wonder how white glue ever got its foot in the door.

[vejesse]

Originally Posted by Jake deVilliers

Frets, whether T-shaped or bar-shaped, go into a slot in the fingerboard and are held by compression of the wood fibres. Glue is useful as a means of filling the air space under the fret but won't retain the fret in a loose slot.

A lacquer stick is used to fill the tiny gap under the fret end.

I generally agree with you, although considering all the new fretting techniques that have been developed in the last forty years things are a little more complicated than that.

[George700DL]

Originally Posted by Jake deVilliers

Nice! That's about how I figured it would go for you. Makes you wonder how white glue ever got its foot in the door.

Jake, here are some photos of what I was talking about.
Making a heavy bow with a german grip

George