Ed Sutton said that one-year-old Titebond glue did soften and let the hammer spin on the shank, but that 10-year-old hide glue didn't. Come to think of it, those hammers I have been aligning for the past 25 years by heating the glue joints could well have been glued on by something other than hide glue. I know for a fact that many of them did not have hide glue, and it could be that none did. I don't think I have ever had a hammer come loose that I have aligned by heating the glue just enough to soften it. Sometimes I do find some that are loose to begin with, but they get pulled off and re-glued anyway. If you heat the thing with a heat gun (which I don't do), it will heat the shank too, and it could be that you are twisting the shank instead of slipping the glue bond. I have some 100-year-old parts in a box that I'm certain are glued with hide glue, and before I make any more assertions, I'll do some experiments, see what happens, and I'll let you know. Jim Ellis
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