Do It Yourself

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Natural wood glues, general feedback? (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by loops@beehaw.org to c/diy@beehaw.org

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Hello fine people of Beehaw,

I was wondering if any of you could point me in a direction of a natural wood glue I can buy that is, of course, affordable?

I'm making myself a desktop and I'd rather avoid synthetic glues (polyurethane stuff) and finishes, since the whole point is to replace the melamine thing I have now. I was planning on using pine resin pitch to glue up the boards, but my area has been in drought for almost three months now and I'd rather not set fire to the neighbourhood when I'm making the glue.

Meanwhile, I've been tripping over the box that holds the rest of the desk (I won't be making the legs) so I would love any suggestions!

For the finish I'll be using some sort of spirit varnish. In the link they use resin from the Jetoba Tree (aka animé :D) dissolved in >95% alcohol, and apparently this varnish has lasted for centuries on violins, so I think it would be interesting to try it on my desk.

All of this will likely be done with some 5/4 s2s soft maple because it looks pretty and I'm pretty chill with my furniture.

Cheers!

P.S. I live in Canada, PNW.

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[–] TheCompassMaker@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

Have you checked out hide glues yet? Hide glue is a type of adhesive made from boiling animal hides. It has a pretty long history. Titebond sells some under their brand, and Old Brown Glue is also a pretty respected brand. It's a bit more expensive than Titebond 3, but that's not too bad imo, especially since it's natural and relatively easy to find. You could try using granules instead of the ready-made stuff, but it might not be worth the hassle for a one-time project. Plenty of information on usage on yt if you want to look into it, the search term has a exceptionally high percentage of old geezers which is interesting but also expected.