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Re: tiny crack

Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2014-08-21 00:38

Top quality hide glue is great for working with string instruments but I am not convinced it is anything like strong enough to use in a hairline woodwind crack (or even get in there).
Hide glues require to be physically applied to the surfaces and then worked together for proper adhesion.

Hide glue used on violins etc is deliberately designed to be reversible as the makers fully realised that in the almost inevitable need for repairs over the decades/centuries the only practicable solution to many problems requires the instrument to be dismantled.

The strength of the glue can be varied by it's dilution prior to use with the thinner (and weaker) mixes being used on those parts most frequently removed e.g. finger boards.

The thinness required to even contemplate running into a crack in a woodwind would be very very weak.

Even violin repairs where a tension or separating stress is involved such as a crack in the belly or the back uses not only the strongest glue mix but is invariable reinforced with many small buttons inside the body and across the line of the crack to provide needed strength.
Cleanliness is also vital and whilst a cracked violin front can be gently flexed to open up the crack to assist cleaning this is impossible with a clarinet body.

The real strength in a hide glue joint such as the centre join of the 2 pieces of the violin belly is only obtained with a joint fit of absolute perfection and then using the rubbed joint process to achieve an almost molecular bind between the 2 pieces - something again totally impossible with woodwind.

Super glues do work when a small fresh and clean crack occurs and one where there is little residual stress likely to remain after repair.

From a mechanical viewpoint I believe that carbon fibre banding is by far the best solution when further stress is likely.
The resultant mass of the repair (as opposed to a metal band repair) is never going to be greater than the original mass of the wood removed from the groove and the process of carbon banding adds zero stress whereas metal is crimped in under high pressure.

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tiny crack new

Roxann

2014-08-17 21:24