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I have become a big fan of fish glue, I use it for things like braces, plate joints, bridges, linings, neck laminates, top to rim etc. One of the things I had not used it for was rosettes, so last night I decided to try it for that. Glued up the rosette, and when I started scraping it level today I noticed the fish glue had soaked into the end grain of the surrounding spruce, leaving blotchy, brown stains... Leveled some more to make sure it was not just on the surface, but no; it's not going away. I realized I had not used fish glue on spruce end grain before, so I had not seen this effect. I guess I should have sealed with shellac, I've had this happen with CA when I didn't. Anyways...







The top had got too thin for its intended instrument because of all the scraping (perhaps someone will want a black top parlor some day ) so I just joined up another on which I will use titebond for the rosette.

So has anyone seen this before?

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Thanks for the heads up Arnt. I am planning to use fish glue on my next project.
Guess I'll stick to white glue or CA on the rosettes.

Arnt, Thanks for the warning! Makes sense in hindsight.
Easy to miss that one.

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Yes Sir you should have sealded with shellac first. Good habit at any time, PVA can do the same thing

I've never had the staining problem even though I use fish glue for installing rosettes and purfling in spruce. The brand I use is Kremer.

Gary, where do you get the Kremmer. The Lee Valley stuff is Norland.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

"Guest", do you mean you seal all gluing surfaces with shellac prior to adding the glue, regardless of the type of glue? I've never had this happen with any type of glue except CA before, certainly not with PVA glues.

Gary, do you seal before you use your fish glue? I use the Lee Valley / Norland glue like Waddy, BTW.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I use the fish glue straight away and don't seal. I purchase the Kremer from Sinopia

I thought that I would mention this again..... I use good old Titebond for rosettes, I don't seal, press the rosette into place and clamp, wait for about 30 minutes, and pass it through the thickness sander and if there were any gaps prior they are automatically filled now. I would bet that this would work great with LMI white too, I just have never tried it.

This has provided me with perfect results on 7 rosettes now and is very easy.

I havent had the exact same problem as you, but similar enough to mention it.

On a recent all wood rosette, I used fish glue and after the glue dried I noticed that the glue had seeped through the back of the top causing a circular stain. While this is normally not a problem since few will ever see the back side of the top, I still didnt like it. Perhaps the top was too thin to begin with or the wood was more porus than other woods I have worked with....not sure. This was the fisrt time I had used fish glue for a rosette and will most likely be the last. I'm going back to titebond from now on.

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Reguards,

Ken H

A little off topic but how many of you are using fish glue for neck joints? Does it have the properties required for such a joint? BTW, I'm using a dove-tail joint on this one. I really like fish glue for other areas, bracing etc. but wonder about this use.
Thanks
Bruce

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Bruce Herrmann
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

AR type glues will not adhere properly to shellac. Not sure about fish glue, but I don't think I would want to do that either.