Hide glue & hammer veneering - round I

About 6 months ago, a good friend of mine in Oregon called to ask if I had ever considered the adhesives I use in my woodworking. I could tell by the pace of the question that he was a bit concerned about it. I told him that for furniture I usually use PVA glue - “why do you ask?” He proceeded to tell me about a conversation with one of the conservators at a pretty well known museum. The conservator said he was amazed by the quality of the fine furniture being made at some of the fine woodworking schools... too bad they rely completely on modern adhesives as the pieces will not last more than 2 generations. It was his opinion that many of these objects will literally fall apart because they rely totally on modern adhesives for their structure. “It is a shame that no one uses hot hide glue anymore”.

This prompted a very long conversation. We noted that North Bennett Street school might be the only institution we could think of that still promotes the use of hot hide glue. We talked about the fact that many of us might have visions of our furniture outlasting us - and that our grand-kids will be fighting over it. I know I certainly do. And I think many of the students who have attended any of the fine woodworking schools would feel the same way. We both agreed that we really ought to explore using hot hide glue.

Not long after hanging up the phone, I jumped onto youTube to see if there was anything to do with hide glue or hammer veneering. I came across a familiar name - Rob Millard. I have admired Rob’s work for years (I have a bit of a thing for Federal furniture) and seeing his name was like seeing a familiar face at the airport. I watched his 2 part series on hammer veneering.

He made it look very straightforward, almost easy (and I know that as soon as someone can make something look easy... they are really good at what they do). So in typical fashion - I jumped in up to my neck.




I ordered a glue pot from Joel (tools for working wood). As I was waiting - I decided on the first project. Our sunroom has been mostly done for a few years now. All that was missing were the 3 lift up doors in the upper cabinets. These doors were to hide the “ugly stuff’. The doors were going to be veneered with Macassar Ebony. What stopped me from making them was the fact that I had a hard time wrapping my head around work with mdf or chipboard. I was not sure how any fasteners were going to hold in any of these materials and to be honest - I cannot stand working with them. What was so appealing about hammer veneering, was the fact that Rob uses a solid wood core. This instantly appealed to me. I have always collected quarter sawn material whenever I find it. It is perfect for drawer sides and all sorts of other applications. Rob usually uses quarter sawn poplar but he suggested that most any wood would work. I went to Rob’s site to see which of his DVD’s I might get for further instruction. He suggested Making a Federal Inlaid Candlestand.

As I was waiting for the glue pot and DVD to arrive, I realized I needed some glue and a veneer hammer. I considered buying a veneer hammer for about 3 seconds and thought making one would be more fun and much faster. Once again I followed Rob’s advise and used a piece of UHMW plastic for the edge. Here is my veneer hammer made from scraps from the Shaker bench restoration.





A luthier friend of mine generously donated a bucket (literally) of ground hide glue. Thanks again Mark. Once the pot arrived - I was set to go.



This is the Macassar Ebony veneer. I had already inlayed some of it into the visible ends of the upper cabinets - I wanted the veneer to wrap around the entire built-in. The rest of the sunroom is done in cherry, so it was a no-brainer to veneer cherry onto the insides of the doors.



Here is a shot of the quarter sawn core.



One of the tricks to successful hammer veneering is to use a layer of cross veneer. This layer is placed perpendicular to the solid wood core. It is also a great opportunity to test out hammer veneering before you use the good veneer. I used some quarter sawn Sapele for the cross veneering. You can see the cross veneer in the above photo as well as the off-cut from the core. Another critical tip from Rob was to apply a coat of sizing to the flat surfaces and a few coats of sizing to the end grain. This was a great tip as I would have never thought of doing this. It made veneering the edges quite easy.



I edged the visible end and bottom edge of the door with some of the Ebony.





Two ends showing the face veneer continuing around the corners.



2 of the doors ready for the pulls.

Just when I was feeling all proud of how well everything went, I screwed it up in the finishing stage. I applied a coat of varnish directly onto the Macassar ebony. Three days later - it was still a bit tacky. I sent a sheepish email to Jameel to see if he had any advise. His response was something to the effect of “dude... I always put a coat of shellac on first! Are you nuts?” I have put finish directly on Rosewoods and ebony many times, but this time it clearly did not work.







Thankfully - I was able to remove the finish in less than 10 minutes and I was back to square one without damage to anything but my pride. This time I did apply a coat of shellac and the next day, the finish went on perfectly.





Our sunroom is quite small so I had to take 2 separate photos and splice them together. The lighting is not ideal, but you can at least see how the doors fit into the cabinets. On the left side you can see how the Macassar wraps around the cabinet.

(And a shot taken during the day)




(the door pulls)

In hindsight - I was kind of an idiot for cutting my (hammer veneering) teeth on 11" wide Macassar Ebony veneer - but it worked wonderfully. Here are some observations about hide glue and hammer veneering in general.

First - get Rob’s DVD. The first disk alone is well worth the cost of admission. Rob has a very no-nonsense manner about him and watching him work is an incredible education. He works methodically and is very good at explaining everything that is going on - including what to do with cracks in the veneer or if they develop part way through the process. I thoroughly enjoyed the DVD.

Hot hide glue does not smell bad at all.

Getting the correct consistency of the glue is very important. As I was mixing my first few batches I was running back and forth from the house to re-watch the DVD to get a sense of the consistency of the glue running off Rob’s brush. It was only after I stopped running back and forth that I realized I could have just brought my laptop into the shop.

Making a veneer hammer is really easy compared to making planes.

Working with hide glue is really quite pleasant and I will absolutely try to switch over as time permits. As my friend Mark said as he handed me the bucket of ground hide glue, “be careful... you will find yourself just gluing stuff together just because you can”. He was right - I was gluing all sorts of stuff to see how it bonded. It was very impressive.

In Rob’s DVD, he often lightly sprays the veneer to keep it from curling. As I was working with the Macassar - I was having to apply at least 3 times more water to keep the veneer flat. But... it did work and the veneer went down very well. I should also mention that this veneer was very thick - it was not the typical “spit-through” veneer that is available now. I am sure that increased the need for more water.

You can successfully plane veneer if your planes are set for a light cut.

I would like to offer my deepest thanks to Rob Millard for all his email correspondence during this first adventure with hot hide glue. He was very generous with his time and advise. If you have any interest in working with hide glue but are not quite sure where to start - watch his youTube video as a primer and then pick-up one of his DVDs. That will get you well on your way.