Lost Art Press

A Petition for Cruelty-free Hide Glue

Posted on by Lost Art Press

skinnycow

Last weekend while lecturing about hide glue to the San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association, one of the members mentioned a disadvantage of my favorite adhesive that I’d never considered.

“I bet the vegans don’t like your glue,” he said.

The statement stopped me dead in my tracks. He was right.

And that is why I am asking for your help to petition both Old Brown Glue and Franklin International (makers of Titebond Hide Glue) to change their manufacturing processes to make and market only “cruelty-free” products.

While I fully recognize you cannot make hide glue without animal by-products, these can be harvested in an ethical manner by using animals that have died of old age or in collisions with automobiles. Another alternative is to adopt the methods employed by the “No-kill Mutton Tallow” industry, namely liposuction.

I am certain that woodworkers would be willing to pay a premium for a glue that sticks well and also results in slimmer, more attractive livestock.

Win-win.

— Christopher Schwarz

32 thoughts on “A Petition for Cruelty-free Hide Glue”

    1. I wonder if worms would make a good glue…..we’ve certainly opened a fine can of them!

      1. How’s that phrase go? You can’t put the hide glue back in the bottle… or something like that.

    1. This has got to be a joke. Most of us enjoy our steaks even more than a bit of glue. I certainly am not going to pay extra for such a thing as this. Hide glue isn’t all that cheap to start with.

      1. “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
        -Mahatma Gandhi

        I, for one, would pay more for this. The food industry in this country is awful in its treatment of animals and the by-products we use (hide glue) are just as guilty.

        By all means, enjoy that steak. Just try to think about the way the cow was treated during its life; it was, after all, a living creature.

      2. I kill most of my own meat – deer, elk, and ducks and geese. The only negative reactions to this have come from people that were lamenting the treatment of livestock on commercial farms.

        I’ve always thought that strange….

        I’m not saying that is the case in this instance, just more or less thinking out loud.

  4. You need to get hold of the farriers union.
    A horse normally gets its hoofs “adjusted” every 8 weeks, and there are a lot of small off cuts.
    If all those are collected, they can be boiled and we have hoof glue.
    Brgds
    Jonas

  9. As the Vegan is offended by materials made with animal products, such as hide glue, I suppose i, as a strict Carnivore, should be offended by materials made with vegetative products, such as lumber.

    Therefore, I’ve been working on patenting a new material made of pulverized bone, hair, and hide glue with my business partner, Steve Douglas. We’re calling it Douglas Fur(TM). (He fronted most of the money, so he got to put his name on the product.) It is power tool and hand tool friendly, without all of the terrible and wasteful cutting of what I like to call “Mother Earth’s Hair”.

    I’ve already started replacing all of my wooden plane totes with those made from narwhal and unicorn horn. Still trying to source materials for my chisel handles, though.

    2. Do you get that smell of burnt hair and bone when you mill it? Kind of a deal breaker for me.

      1. I think that would only be an issue for offering a torrified version. Maybe Veritas will start making plane totes from it? They already lead the industry in the use of natural manufacturing products. The tears of regret from woodworkers already fully vested in traditional handplanes are an ideal lapping fluid for their PVM-11.

    1. Nossir. I’s dead as dead can be…

      You woulda thought he’d learn that ‘dry’ humor just causes too much friction on the internet.

  15. The answer is:
    Naugahide Glue!!
    [sic]

    Get it?
    Polyvinyl acetate glue?
    Made from vinyl (naugahyde)?
    Render the… um… collagen, and you get “Naugahide glue”!

    The best of both worlds!

    Uh-oh. Did I just give away my million dollar idea?!
    -K

  16. Hide glue is the least of your worries Chris. What about all the Roorkee chairs you’ve made and promoted? I think you’re beyond any form of redemption among the vegans.

  17. You are all missing the “elephant in the room!” All I see in the Home Depot adhesives isle are bottles and bottles of dead gorillas! They are everywhere! Where is the concern for how many gorillas are being destroyed to provide a toxic glue that cannot be removed from the skin?

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