38 epiphone deluxe binding question

[timothy a connelly]

have a 38 epiphone deluxe in for re binding.old celluloid rotted off, and yes ,putting new celluliod back on to keep it correct. hide glued a couple of open seams on top &back plates, wiping the exess off I noticed chunks of the old binding that were still on cleaned off w/ hot water.is that how the original binding was installed, w/ hot hide glue? sure like the idea of using it for re-binding as it wont hurt the existing finish.......tim in wis.

[Frank Ford]

I wonder about that one. I doubt it was originally installed with hide glue, or any water soluble glue for that matter. Now, it is possible that the binding had been reglued before you got to it. Plastic binding can often be reglued with wood glue because the glue sticks to the tiny fibers of wood imbedded in the plastic when it was first glued with plastic solvent glue.