Modern glues have made the whole gluing in woodworking easy. Well easy is good I guess? Maybe not in my world. Many only know modern glues, liquid brush on clamp and wait. Others know the old ways. Animal glue. What is that? Animal glue was the most common woodworking glue for thousands of years until the advent of synthetic glues such as PVA and other resin glues in the 20th century. Today animal glue is used for making violins, wood instruments, piano repairs, antique restoration, etc…The glue is applied hot and glue is kept hot in a glue pot that takes a good 45 minutes to heat up, that’s the thing. You need to think ahead and plan your work. No full speed ahead and then open the glue, apply press and wait….nope! Think ahead…prepare and then full speed ahead! Animal glue cools quite quickly and it’s then already a strong bond. Actually 1 minute and you can continue work. That’s the the big thing. It allows a continuous workflow. All that’s needed for assembling the many hundred individual sections of the we13a or we12a. The nails are placed after the animal glue has fully firmed, kind of second level strengthening. You can see here on the Western Electric 13a that there are very few nails, it’s all glued. The secret is also to have very tight tolerances, not easy given the curvatures. In forefront my hotpot for the animal glue. Needs cleaning! I only use animal glue that’s what the craftsmen who made them back in 1926 used. Keep it authentic, no shortcuts and the time and devotion is all worth it in the end.

All fun…