hide glue "tradition"

[Delwin D Fandrich]

Stephen Birkett wrote:
> 
> Del wrote:
> > It was the natural process used by all furniture makers assembling large
> > wood structures with animal hide glue.  The wood had to be heated prior
> > to applying the hot glue and heating the wood dried it out. In fact, I
> > doubt that the practice of *crowning* soundboards was originally
> > designed into the piano. I think it developed as a natural outcome of
> > the ribbing process that was developed to efficiently use hot animal
> > hide glue.
> >
> Unfortunately this is yet another misconception that stems from the early
> 20th Century. The tradition of artisanal use of hide glue had a
> disconnection at this time. In the early 20th C. fashions dictated that
> furniture makers had to make hide glue do things it was never capable of
> doing, large veneers, plywood etc.. Consequently evolved the practice of
> heating the wood to be glued, using heated cauls etc. then we got
> artificial glues and somehow the old way of using hide glue was forgotten,
> leaving only the 20th C manufacturers' techniques. It is now "de rigeur" in
> the late 20th C to heat things that have to be glued with hide glue, but,
> as with all the other traditions I've mentioned, this "tradition" was not
> followed by traditional furniture makers, including pianos, prior to our
> century. Wood was not heated for gluing.
> 
> I know this works by experience....I glue everything with traditional hide
> glue, including piano bottoms, lids, cases, soundboards, childrens
> bookcases -- heating nothing (except bone key covers which are an
> exception). The problem is you can't do it this way unless you mix and use
> your glue the way the old guys did. Not our grandparents, *their*
> grandparents.
> 
> Stephen

Well, I have only the information gleaned from a few old texts and some
conversations with piano builders who learned their trade from their
fathers and they from theirs, etc. Oh, yes, and the evidence of the
hundreds of instruments I've broken down and rebuilt over the years.

I can't speak for pianos made prior to about 1870 or 1880. The so-called
"modern" piano has traditionally been bellied in the manner I described.

ddf