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I use hot hide glue to purfle and bind with wood bindings, and learned a little more on this latest build.

You sort of have to leave the tape on till the glue is dry, and depending on how hard it is when you untape can determine how clean you can level (scrape or sand) the purfling and binding.

In the past I would not clean off the glue squeeze-out before I started scraping and sanding the body, dealing with the excess glue and binding oversize at the same time. If the HHG is fully hard, it is harder than the wood and makes a "jumpy" job of scraping, sometimes with slips that call for deeper sanding.

On this build, I was already as thin as I wanted to go on the sides, and "close" on the top and back, and did not want to scrape much on them. So I made sure to untape before the squeeze-out was fully hard, even though it was 2am, and with a terry wash cloth and hot water, cleaned off all the HHG.

Now when I went to level the binding, it was all wood and no glue to deal with. A much, much smoother job, with no dangerous "jumps" as I hit hardened glue.

Of course, you should size your binding, and the channels, to be as close to a perfect fit as you dare, to minimize the need for much leveling at all.

Hope this helps.

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Thanks for the tip David. Up till now I've only used CA for bindings with great satisfaction. I have been
tempted however try HHG.

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

I used to use HHG for binding but my last 6 or 7 I've been using CA for binding. When I used HHG for binding I would remove the tape after ~30 minutes to make clean up easier.

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So, I've got a question on that technique - how much hot water is too much - Obviously, one wouldn't want to soak the newly glued bindings or any other part that you're using HHG to glue, but I've been a bit cautious about it - being uncertain about how well I can clean up with nice hot, damp cloths. For example, in using HHG to join my tops, I wanted to use a hot wet towel to clean up the squeezeout - how to do it without undermining the newly glued joint (or binding)?? Thanks

Sounds good David,
Wouldn't be better to scrape instead of the hot water towel because of the concerns that Crokey raised ?
It should scrape really easily at that point.
Link

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

These are good questions, and timing is somewhat important.

The glue on binding is mostly "protected" in the channel, and unlikely to be affected by the water, unlike a top or back joint. The glue should be set firmly, you wouldn't pull the tape till the glue was holding well and set, so you aren't going to be cleaning it off until it is set well. I would estimate no sooner than 1 hr.

I use the glue cooker as a double boiler, so I charge it up with fresh water and get it to temp.
I use a white terry wash cloth and dip it in with one finger (covered by the cloth) and shake or squeeze off the extra. You just want it damp, not sopping.

Then rub the exposed glue, go around and around till the rag is "filled" with glue at that spot. Dip the rag in the water at clean spot, and wipe again. The water is hot, so it evaporates quickly, you aren't warping the wood.

The job I did last night had two parts, the top that I bound the night before, and the back I bound last night, so the top was well hardened, and it's glue came off about as easily as the fresh job.

Yes, you can just scrape it all off, but as I said, my sides are somewhat delicate on this build, and I didn't want to scrape much, and hard glue doesn't scrape that easily, it's easy for it to catch the scraper and slip and make a gouge.

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