glue for bushings

[John Delacour]

At 22:00 -0500 5/1/08, Larry Trischetta wrote:

>>"what you see is what you get" when the glue is set, so of you're 
>>gluing in hammer shanks and you want a nice clear golden ring, 
>>you'd use pearl glue that looks like this: ...
>
>Does this mean that the beads have the same look as the glue will 
>look when it is dried?

That's what I meant.

>  What quality and strength is appropriate for most piano work? Or is 
>there one strength/quality for each task?

For most piano work any hot animal glue is stronger than it needs to 
be by a huge margin, so I use the glue that is most flexible, most 
convenient to use and (for hammers etc.) most good-looking.

I do have pure hide glue in grain form and of very high strength that 
I will use for critical construction jobs, and I also have 
"rabbit-skin glue" which is either what it is called or which is 
rather a good quality glue made only from hides, not necessarily 
rabbit-skins.  Both of these have a more cloudy appearance when set 
and have other distinguishing characteristics that I won't go into 
now.  I don't use these glues for most work, ie. action work, because 
they are far tougher than they need to be and less convenient to use, 
gelling too quickly, requiring a narrower temperature range etc.

The term "hide glue" is used a lot on this list, and perhaps in 
America generally, as a synonym for hot animal glue in general.  In 
England we tend to talk of "animal glue" or even "Scotch glue". 
There are many animal products suitable for making glue and I think 
most commercial pearl glue is made not only of hides but also of bone 
and probably also of some fish gelatin.  When I was a child you could 
go to any hardware store and buy a dark slab of Scotch glue that was 
probably made of hooves and was certainly not of good quality, but 
I'm sure it would have done most piano work quite adequately if 
prepared and used properly.

JD