Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi everyone

I used Titebond last time I put Snakewood bindings on a guitar, and it didn't work too well ( I had to reglue in a couple of places).

I was wondering what glue you guys use with Snakewood. I was thinking that maybe the LMI white glue could do better, but I am also considering epoxy, although I would prefer to go with a wood glue.

Any advice?

Cheers

Pat

I used snakedwood for a knife handle recently (cut in 2, carve the mortise, reglue it). I heated the wood to get out the resin and oil, then clean it with Acetone. Wait 24 hours, made the same thing again, and then glued it with epoxy.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

I've used Titebond, LMI white glue and hide glue without failure.
Was your Titebond fresh or old? Snakewood is not particularly oily, but an old glue is not good on any joint.

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Hank Mauel

I have a least 10 out there with snakewood binding and never had a problem using LMI & Titebond Have some now will do with LMI as that is my glue of my choice now. Never had to do any heating or anything else special. Maybe Bob C's snakewood is better than other brands of snakewood. Also like Hank never found it oily enough to mess with. I do a lot with coco also and not do anythng with it, maybe just lucky.

To answer Hank's question, that was about 3 or 4 years ago and I can't remember what the glue condition was.

I think I will give the LMI glue a try and see how that goes.

Thanks guys!

Pat

Here's another vote for LMI white.
Tenacious stuff...holds on quite well.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

I guess I must have done something wrong with the Snakewood and Titebond. I don't know why, as I have never had this problem with other bindings. I have used LMI and Titebond with Coco bindings with no problems either. Maybe I was just not really paying attention when I did the Snakewood and Titebond operation...

Nevertheless, LMI white it is for this time.

Pat

Blame it on "Murphy"!

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Hank Mauel

I use CA glue for all my bindings and purfling. Works great.

I too have many guitars out there with Snakewood binding and have never had a single issue with Titebond failure. Snakewood does like to spring back some and if you did not get the waist secured of course it will want to pull away from the waist more than the bouts.

I would first suspect clamping or restraint system and second the if the glue had gone bad. I know when I first used binding tape to restrain the binding during glue up I had several that pulled away. but figured out that the tape was stretching in combination with the fact that my binding bend has sprung back some. I switched to using 3M fiberglass reinforced strapping tape and stopped bending my binding till I was ready for them and eliminated the issue.