Water based leather adhesives?

[PEU]

Thanks a ton Dave, never mind, it took me about 30 secs to figure that typo out , added the glue to my 2025 list at amazon, but now you tell that can be also be found at the Depot, so, I'll do that first.
Been looking for something like this in Argentina but all glues I found to date are solvent based. I also have one of these dispensers and also hate it, it's so wasteful for me that I'm not every day making sheaths or leatherwork.
How do you store this glue for day-to-day use? I guess you pour a fraction in a dispensing bottle or something like that?

Pablo
PS: as usual beautiful leather work, and your photos are always great and vivid, can't get that look with my illuminated photo tent and latest iPhone.

Edit to add. Just rereading this. It is Weldwood by DAP. Not Wildwood, dang spellcheck!

Pablo I forgot to answer your question regarding thick leathers. Yes absolutely it works very well on heavy veg tan. This sheath is from 10/12 oz saddle skirting. So front/back and welt all the same skirting, three layers.

 

[Lorien]

Barge thinner was not so easy for me to find, and when I did it was pricey. I picked up some methyl ethyl ketone at the local hardware store, which was cheap, and it does the job. Terrible, nasty, horrific stuff, but I'll just pour some into the can and give it a good shake so I don't have to sniff it for very long. That said, I can hear my brain cells calling out for help as they die.

 

[AntelopeProtectionAgency]

Hide glue is the original. Problem with water based is without a curing agent it comes apart when it soaks up humidity.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I don't agree with that. Maybe if you soaked it underwater, but humidity does not reverse the bond. If that was so, latex paint would slide off your walls.
Most wood glues are water based, and they work fine for carpentry to assemble many things. Just because water was the solvent/carrier before curing does not necessarily make it reverse when exposed to moisture once cured.

 

[Horsewright]

Thanks a ton Dave, never mind, it took me about 30 secs to figure that typo out , added the glue to my 2025 list at amazon, but now you tell that can be also be found at the Depot, so, I'll do that first.
Been looking for something like this in Argentina but all glues I found to date are solvent based. I also have one of these dispensers and also hate it, it's so wasteful for me that I'm not every day making sheaths or leatherwork.
How do you store this glue for day-to-day use? I guess you pour a fraction in a dispensing bottle or something like that?

Pablo
PS: as usual beautiful leather work, and your photos are always great and vivid, can't get that look with my illuminated photo tent and latest iPhone.

Thank you sir for the kind words. I took this pic in the shop this morning to show how I use this glue.

I buy gallon cans but it is available in quarts and pints too. I pour it from the can into that measuring cup to the can's right. I use to try to clean out that measuring cup after using it each time. That was a self defeating deal though. I just put it away when done and it dries. From the measuring cup I will fill up that squeeze bottle for like ketchup. I get these at the local dollar store but WalMart has em too. The Gallon can and the measuring cup are kept in a cabinet put away. If I'm gluing a large area I'll squeeze directly out of the ketchup bottle and spread it out with one of those disposable foam brushes as pictured. I get those from an art store online and they are very cheap, like $9 for 72 of them. If I'm doing detail work I squeeze the glue into that lil cup and then brush it on from there. Those are salsa cups I get online too. That's pretty much it. Works out real well. I was at the Depot yesterday as we're working on a new shelving project in the shop. Happened to walk by the glue bay and they were well stocked with the green can.

I too disagree with thi idea of moisture reversing the bond. I don't have Stacy's chemistry background but I have practical experience and when I said that we have made (me and my wife) thousands of items with this glue that is not an exaggeration. I literally have knives and sheaths, leggings, spur straps as well as holsters and other kinda gear all over the world, in every imaginable clime. If it was a problem I'd know about. It simply isn't. Remember talking to a rancher down on the gulf coast in MS I think it was. He said he was literally waist deep in salt water marsh every day tugging out some fool cow critter that got stuck. He was ordering a new Leatherman sheath. Not because the moisture had caused his original one bought from us to come apart but because his Wingman sheath wouldn't fit his new Wave tool. Soaked daily in a salt water marsh, if anybody's was gonna fail that would probably be it. My stuff gets used and by most standards abused:

Salt water:

Wyoming:

Nevada:

Florida:

Here locally. Reins, headstall and breast collar with the silver dollars is what we made. This heifer is having trouble calving. It's pouring rain and had been for days. This is big boy cowboy stuff cause your alone and gotta reach up in there and help the calf out. Meanwhile the heifer is gonna try and kick your head off if she can.

Anyhoo just some more pics for Pablo. If this glue was a problem I'd of known about it many years ago

 

[A.McPherson]

I think it just depends on the water based glue... Some are designed to be water proof after drying.
Hide glue though, that stuff falls apart when it gets wet. Not instantly, but eventually for sure!

 

[CWendling]

i switched to the green weldwood while back as well after talking with Dave. For a couple years due to a shoulder injury i was doing far more leather work than knife work and i like it way more than the red. I do have to order it, as it is not carried locally in the north texas area anywhere i could find. Just a small word of caution, it is thinner than the non-water based so be careful when you start using it. It drips and can get messy if you just sling around a brush like you would with the red can stuff.