help making hide glue

[Pat B]

I'm stripping moose sinew for my ancient Danish bow. I'm coming up with scraps and short pieces and thought I'd try to make hide glue with these scraps. I have a crock pot I use when prepping commercial hide glue so I can use that to cook the sinew to make this hide glue. I'm sure most of you guys don't have any idea what I'm talking about   but Bue and maybe a few others can give me suggestions on the process of making hide glue.     
The pile on the left has been stripped down to the fiber size I'll be working with. The middle pile  and in the bag sitting on the bow is what I initially stripped from the tendons and the pile on the right is the scrap pile...

[Roy from Pa]

Pat, just did a search on you tube, a bunch of videos on it..

[Buggs]

I've not made connective tissue glue, but I did make hoof glue once. Technically it's not the same as collagen based glue, but its damn strong. It also stinks to high hell while its cooking I think the process is the same for all connective tissue glue. Render down and dry till its hard resin. Knox gelatin is actually stronger than homemade glue, but it has no primitive charm.

[Roughcountry]

I make hide glue for my saddle tree's a couple times a year. I save all small scraps of cow hide with the hair and flesh removed.
Keep it fresh in the freezer,
It takes a long day render it down but if you do it right and don't burn it you will have some glue stronger than the wood.

[Pat B]

I have commercially made hide glue that I've used over the years but I thought with all this scrap I'd make glue that would be completely compatible with this sinew. I was told by someone in the know that the commercial glue I have is probably rabbit skin glue used for sizing canvas for oil paintings and not as strong as other collagen glues.
 I do have some rendered fish glue. It's in a small Mason jar and kept in the frig but I don't know how long it can be kept viable.

[Buggs]

I've always found this test from the TBB #1 interesting.

[rainman]

I have used knox gelatin and love it.

[Buemaker]

About 25 years ago I made several experiments making glue from sinew and hide. When it comes to sinew scraps let it soak in clean cold water for a day and then heat it up, do not need a double boiler for this, bring it close to boiling point and keep it there, do not boil, but should it boil a little that is okay. This may take a few hours depending on material. When the sinew start to desolve let it evaporate until the mix is as thin sirup, then strain and pour on a shallow dish and dry. One must remember that this kind of glues was made on the steppes in Asia for two thousand years ago, under primitive conditions and they worked. I should say that the glues I made worked, but was not as strong as commercially made hide glues.

[Pat B]

Thanks for the info, Guys. Clint Anders(osage outlaw) posted a thread from 2012 that he started when wanted to make sinew glue. Lots of good info there too from some of my old time friends on PA.
I'm still in the process of stripping the sinew down to smaller bundles, removing the small pieces and connecting tissue that I will make the glue from. I have to say these leg tendons that Bue sent me are as clean as I've seen with very little "bad stuff" with it.
 I had forgotten how much the fingers ache after stripping sinew strands so I've been working a little with that then doing something else to give my old fingers a rest. Pretty soon I'll start making the glue and will post pics of that process.

[Pat B]

This is the pile of sinew I got from the tendons I had previously prepped(78g) and the pile of scrap(15.7g) I got for the glue. And I have the scraps soaking today and I'll turn on the heat tonight and see what I have in the morning...

[Roy from Pa]

Looks great, Pat.

[Buemaker]

Bjorn Thordal is the hide glue man, many gram strenghts of hide glue.
https://bjornhideglue.com/

[Pat B]

I cooked the sinew scraps for a few hours yesterday then shut it off last night. My crock pot has no controls, one temp only. When I use it as a double boiler to keep hide glue workable it seemed to get too hot. I would add a little water to regulate the temp. With this batch of glue making it seems to not get too hot. I started it up again this morning and will let it run for a few hours then strain the liquid(glue) off then reduce the volume as needed to get the right consistency.
 Like Clint said in his older post, the liquid didn't seem sticky. I use a spoon to stir the liquid and between stirring I'd lay it on another spoon to contain any drips. When I picked up the spoon to stir again it was stuck to the spoon it was resting on.

This is where I began yesterday...


this is where it was this morning when I started. I added water last night before I shut it down.


Also like Clint, this is my "cowboy coffee maker" filter that I will strain the glue.

[Buggs]

If have not yet strained the glue, you might consider getting a free cone strainer from an auto parts store, or some other synthetic mesh.
That fabric is going to absorb a lot of liquid, probably 1/2-1 cup's worth.

Then again maybe it don't matter    

[Pat B]

I strained off the glue yesterday and here is the sinew and rawhide scraps that were left over...


I let the glue cool overnight. I put the spoon into the glue to indicate the depth(about 1" deep) in the crock pot and realized it had started to jell. You can see the jelled glue around the spoon...


I'm reheating the glue and will pour it into small plastic containers for storage in the freezer.

Phil, I wasn't going to town(1 hr round trip) so I opted for the "cowboy coffee maker" and it worked great. There was very little liquid left after squeezing it off from the cloth.

[Roy from Pa]

Looks great, Pat. Well done ole timer:)

[Pat B]

Not too bad for an old dude.   

[Pat B]

I got 6, 1/2 cup containers of clean hide glue from this batch of sinew and a few rawhide scraps. I'll freeze most of this but retain one container of the glue to use on Elg Bue...

[Roy from Pa]

Is that amount about what you expected to get?

[Pat B]

Roy, I didn't know what to expect but I'm pleased with this amount.