Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I notice that the Stewmac catalogue now has Titebond III as well as Titebond Original, They state it has longer work times. I would be interesting in hearing from experienced builders who are or have used Titebond III. What are the + and - of each.
Alan

These are two totally different glues. Titebond III is water proof, quite a bit heat resistant, never hardens completely, and its color is brown instead of the Titebond I yellow. I have used Titebond III for gluing up purfling lines that had to undergo some serious bending, which surely also could have been done using Titebond I and a bit of care, but I doubt if I could have gotten off and again on the glued-up purfling on the once finished instrument if I had used any other glue than Titebond III. So if you are planning some mess-ups of this kind, Titebond III is the way to go.

Titebond III is a really nice glue, I use it heaps on furniture and kitchen stuff - cutting boards etc and hollow timber surfboards. Made a fishing net with it too. Waterproof glue without the messy foam of polyurethane or hassle of epoxy - big plus.

However guitars don't generally need to be waterproof, and the high heat resistance makes repairs difficult.

I could imagine that the heat resistance would be great for jobs like laminating sides before/during bending but have never done anything like it so could be wrong.

Also dries much darker/black when there is a gap in the joint so a bit more visible than original.

Titebond III for bindings with purfs where some heat may be used for bending. For everything Titebond I or in my case a mixture of Titebond !. Epoxy (where I don't want any moisture in the joint) or hide glue (if high chance of the joint needing reversal (eg top and back).

Titebond III for bindings with purfs where some heat may be used for bending. For everything Titebond I or in my case a mixture of Titebond !. Epoxy (where I dont want any moisture in the joint) or hide glue (if high chance of the joint needing reversal (eg top and back).