Hide Glue · Granular · 192 Gram

Granular hide glue, 192 gram strength — the traditional reversible adhesive for furniture and instrument work. You warm it in a glue pot, brush it on hot, and it grabs as it cools. Where most modern glues set once and stay set, hide glue is friendly to the work it holds: a little heat and moisture releases the joint again, which is why it has stayed in restoration and instrument shops for centuries while newer adhesives came and went.

It's the glue under the veneer of an antique, in the seams of an old violin, behind a rubbed shellac surface. Conservators and instrument makers keep reaching for it because a reversible joint is a repairable joint — what one craftsman assembles, the next can take apart and put right. It cleans up with warm water, leaves a hard glue line that takes finish without grinning through, and tacks fast enough to rub a joint by hand.

Ours is dry granules — you mix it with water, let it swell, and heat it to working temperature. Made in the United States by a maker that has been cooking hide glue since 1868, in the same plain grade luthiers and restorers have trusted for generations.

Pairs naturally with shellac and French polish — the two have shared a bench for a very long time.