Moldy glue?

[Matthew Joe]

Just bought some Titebond cold press glue for veneering on the internet, but the glue arrived with disconcerting black spots thoughout (see picture). It also smells kind of funky, though that may be normal (I've never used this type of glue before).

Is the glue molding or is this a normal characteristic of this type of glue?

[Dan Hintz]

Can't say if it's mold or not, but it's definitely no longer a proper formulation. Return/replace it.

[david brum]

I bought a gallon of Better Bond cold press glue from Joewoodworker. It looked kind of like that after I let it sit in it's box for a year until I built the veneer press. The difference was that my glue had brown pigment rather than black. The instructions on their site are to lay the bottle on it's side and rotate it every hour or so. It worked fine for me, although it was never a truly uniform color. It gets mixed nicely when you roller it on, so a little bit of color separation is no big deal.

It is curious that your glue has black pigment, though. It would be interesting to find out what the company that you bought it from says about it.

[David Peterson MN]

I have the same bottle sitting on my shelf. I have never used it. It has the same black color to it. I was just going to mix it and then try it.

[Todd Burch]

It's old.

No, wait.... it's ancient.