Alan Peters: Avoiding glue stain on joints

[David B. Morris]

I was reading through Alan Peters' revised edition of Ernest Joyce's Encyclopedia of Furniture Making last night and came across this remark on glue-ups:

"...a stick of chalk rubbed across the extreme edge of meeting joints will prevent a dark glue-line showing on pale woods--sycamore, holly, cherry, etc." (pp 201-2)

Has anyone here tried this technique? What exactly does it mean? On an M&T joint in a leg-and-apron assembly, for example, would you rub chalk along the shoulder line of the apron tenon, and on the face of the leg next to the mortise? This seems like it could be a very useful shortcut if I knew exactly what is involved.

[Jim Koepke]

My first question would be when was the tip first published?

The second question would be what glue was being used?

Maybe hot hide glue sets up dark.

If the joint is tight, usually just being careful and wiping up the joint as much as possible does the trick for me. I tend to wipe off glue with wood shavings, a stiff card (often supplied by American Express or Discover and their endless campaign trying to get me to sign my life away to them) or a damp cloth.

jtk

[Jim Belair]

Good question David. I'll be interested in hearing if anyone knows.

[David Weaver]

It would seem to intend to tint any glue that makes it to the edge of the joint. Cherry, to me, would be iffy. I have noticed chalk under finish on cherry before when you think you got it all out, and it's not pretty.

[Kevin Bourque]

It almost sounds like with the method you are describing that you're trading a glue line for a chalk line on the wood joints.

[David B. Morris]

My assumption was that the chalk functioned as a release agent for glue squeeze-out and to prevent it from penetrating the exposed wood fibers along a joint edge, esp. where end grain is invloved (as in leg-and-apron). I didn't think the object was to color the line in any way.