How to Prepare & Use Hide Glue

This episode originally aired on February 3, 2013.

It's Get Woodworking Week 2013, and that means that it's time once again to do our part to promote woodworking and grow the craft. Of course this should be a year long activity, but this week, we really focus on newcomers and rank beginners to the craft. Today, I want to talk about an often misunderstood part of traditional woodworking, hot hide glue. Contrary to what some would have us believe, hot hide glue is not complicated to use and is actually very forgiving. You also don't need expensive glue pots to use it. You can of course buy one, and they do work wonderfully well, but you shouldn't think that they are necessary to use this glue. In fact, you can get started with little more expense than the glue itself. An empty jelly jar heated in a sauce pan of water on the stove top will work just fine. You can also use an inexpensive hot pot and an empty glass jar, an old cast iron glue pot like I use (about $10 on ebay), and any number of other creative solutions to heat the glue. Whatever you choose to use to heat it, here's how to go about it.

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