The Peasant’s Guide to PVA

This is *not* a Titebond commercial (you’ll have to visit Popular Woodworking for that). It’s our local brand and the most widely available PVA.

Though I prefer animal-based glues for building furniture, the polyvinyl acetate glues – aka PVA or yellow/white glues – have their place in our shop.

Unfortunately, there is almost as much misinformation about glue in the world as there is about finishing materials. As a result, many students (and even professionals) make their glue-ups way more complicated or time-consuming.

One of the benefits of my job in woodworking journalism is that I regularly talk to scientists in the glue industry, plus practitioners in production shops. And I have tested a lot of their ideas in my shop and when teaching all over the world. I’ve seen a lot of glue-up disasters during classes and have been able to save quite a few assemblies that were headed for the fire pit.

I’m not a glue expert. But I do know some things. Read on if you like.

Choose the Right PVA

The co…