More Old Brown glue questions - humidity

Scott H

Scott
User
Happy New Year everyone! We've had pretty high humidity in Raleigh recently (up to even 100% at points) and I noticed while cleaning up my garage that some drops of dried Old Brown glue that had had previously been hard were now soft and flexible again. I went and checked some cutoffs that were also sitting in the garage that had some hide glue squeeze out on them and that was similar. On some pieces I glued up and had indoor in climate control (~45% humidity) the glue squeeze out is still hard like plastic.

I brought the stuff that was in the garage inside, and put the stuff that was inside in the garage, and I'm going to watch how they change over the next couple days, for the sake of an empirical test.

But to get to the question: is this just the nature of liquid hide glues like Old Brown in very high humidity? I am seeing some people say online that traditional hot hide glue is not as susceptible to humidity. I also wonder how the Titebond liquid hide glue compares.

Kind of reconsidering whether I would use it as a structural glue for anything that goes in the garage at the moment, if it softens up that much in December of all times.
 

Rwe2156

DrBob
Senior User
I think it’s the nature of the glue. I live in a very humid area, too. I’ve found that OBG tends to stay tacky, while traditional hide glue gets crystallized and hard.

It’s probably ok, as the wood absorbs glue moisture but I might not use it on anything that exposed to that much humidity, I use TB2 or 3.
 

Robert LaPlaca

Robert
Senior User
As much as I like hide glues, I wouldn’t use them for anything that doesn't reside indoors. This would also apply to straight hot hide glue.

I would agree with DrBob, any hide glue that is modified with a suppressant ( Urea, salt) is more susceptible to humidity that straight hide. The modified hides also take way longer for the water to evaporate from the glue.
 

Scott H

Scott
User
It is of course as you both said. On the samples I brought into climate control for a couple days, the glue drops are much harder and the ones that were placed in the garage have become significantly softer. I appreciate the confirmation, I was initially worried I had messed up the preparation of the glue.
 

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