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Hi all. Would anyone like to comment on the idea of using ordinary grocery store powdered gelatine in place of hide glue? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand they're basically similar stuff. With the gelatine I've glued test pieces in every combination of leather nap, leather grain, card, fake leather cloth side, fake leather plastic side, and tyvek (the last three with the idea that they might be useful for bellows, but that's another story). Results are mostly promising (see below). But of course that doesn't tell me how durable it would be or how it would stand up to fatigue from flexing. I'd welcome any comments. Test strips 25mm wide with overlap of 25mm, so glued surface of 25x25. Approximate breaking stress in shear in kilos to nearest half kilo estimated by hanging weights off them. Leather nap to: nap more than 6 (leather broke first). grain 4.5. card at least 8.5 (stopped measuring). tyvek 5.5. fake leather cloth side 1.5 Leather grain to: card 7.0. fake leather cloth side 2.5. Card to: card at least 9.5. fake leather cloth side at least 8.5. fake leather plastic side 2.5. Fake leather cloth side to: cloth side at least 8.5. plastic side: 0.5. tyvek: 3.0 Fake leather plastic side to: plastic side 0.5. tyvek 0.5 Tyvek to: tyvek 6.0 The results for fake leather seem oddly variable. I may have been treating the samples differently in some way that was more important than I realised. Fake leather plastic side was hard to glue because surface tension made the glue bead very quickly so it was hard to wet the whole surface. Fake leather cloth side absorbed the glue very quickly. I put on three prep coats at intervals of 30 to 60 seconds allowing them to soak in before the fourth coat wetted the surface long enough to join the pieces. Cheers

Hi My Rochelle took a tumble and 4 reeds have come unstuck and fallen out of their berths. What kind of glue should I be using for putting them back in? It seems that originally (brown) animal glue was used. Can i dare think of using a standard synthetic wood glue like vinavil ? It's a question of sticking metal to wood. thanks if anyone can help all the best Dominic R. Umbria, Italy