Hide glue as a violin ground?

[Doug Polk]

I've read about hide glue sizing as a ground for violins, which seems pretty common to some builders, though I've never tried it. How does it stand up to other traditional grounds? And how is it mixed (extra water amount)? What would happen if other proteins (say...egg white) were mixed in? Anyone here do this?

[Nicholas Blanton]

It's used a good bit for fiddles. I myself think a hide glue or egg white size coat is generally a practical way to reduce the blotching you get from applying varnish over some figured woods for a lot of instruments. Or even non-figured woods; sometimes spruce, fir and some other softwoods can look kinda muddy if there's a lot of random grain-runout making some spots absorb a lot of finish. I've only done it for oil varnish, but I imagine it would work for lots of finishes- though I would bet NOT water-borne ones. It does raise the grain a bit, so probably some people would use something like a vinyl sealer or a light coat of shellac instead, so they don't have to sand.

Maybe somebody has a recipe; but I have diluted glue-strength hide glue about 50% for making a size.

[Steve Senseney]

I tried this on one project (not a violin). It caused the instrument to be quite sticky when your hands would sweat.

Otherwise, it was unremarkable.

[Bob Orr]

we seem to have some spam!

[Barry Daniels]

I deleted it.

[David King]

Water glass seems to be a popular ingredient for a ground.