Brownish ooze out of old cabinet corner

[Joerg]

Hello Folks,

Right off the bat: I am not at all a woodworking guru. But I've restored lots of things and my wife and I love to keep old wooden furniture in good shape.

On an old piece of furniture we see a brown molasses-like goo oozing out of a corner joint. It's never done that before in the 15 years we had it and it is a whole lot older than that. It's hardwood so an ancient pocket of sap would be somewhat unlikely, but who knows. I guess we have all heard about those cases where people saw a miracle in a wooden statue crying blood and later it turned out it was something natural going on in there. But what? Anyhow, I've got to fix this but need to understand the cause. Google only showed lots of links to horror stories and fiction books. Any idea how this phenomenon is called in the technical world so I can use Google more efficiently on it?

[Ross Hebeisen]

i would have to think that it is pine or spuce or something like that rather than a hardwood. did you touch the ooze to see if it's sticky like sap? i don't know of any hardwood that has pitch pockets that would bleed. vas est lose? ross hebeisen

[steve robinson]

Is the cabinet been moved near a heat source recently , what do you generally store in the cabinet

[Lee Michaels]

"steve robinson" wrote

I think Steve is on the right track. A heat source of some kind could melt the hide glue in the joint. Can you examine the joint closely and see if any glue has moved out of the joint space?

[dpb]

And, depending on where OP is located, perhaps it was moved to where sun is now hitting it where it hasn't previously? In the US w/ spring/early summer on us, ...

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[Joerg]

Lee, Steve, thanks. It is actually a small hanging cabinet that houses a pendulum clock. I'll have to (carefully) remove the movement and all that to get to the back of it where it oozes. Not easy with this one because it's not exactly "service friendly". I guess because they didn't need a lot of service back then.

No new heat sources there. It did warm to about 80F inside at times but that's nothing compared to the 90F we had in previous summers.

[Joerg]

I dug out the sheet we got with it. According to that it is a hazelnut/beech/oak arrangement, not softwood. Comes from Europe, where they did not use softwood much in furniture making. At least not before Ikea ;-)

Das weiss ich auch nicht :-)))

Maybe it's the glue. But they certainly didn't use any two-compound stuff back then. The goo has chew tobacco color.

[dpb]

Could be just a pocket of old finish that got warmed to critical point, too. I noted in another post sun, maybe???

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[Joerg]

Nope, hanging on the same wall since moving here in 1997. Center of the house, never sun-exposed.

[Joerg]

Yes, that could be. It's just strange that this stuff has not hardened in two days. I can take it apart and clean it up, and I will, but I wonder if it'll ooze again some time later.

[dpb]

Well when you get access to it, you can try a few things to try to identify what it is...

First take damp cloth and see if it appears water soluble at all, then warm/hot water. If seems like so, the hide glue hypothesis is reasonable.

If not, try various solvents (again in moderation). Alcohol, mineral spirits, etc., ... Depending on what you find w/ what, report back...

[Lee Michaels]

"Joerg" wrote

Replacing hide glue is a fairly common repair. I am not an expert, but even I have done it a couple of times.

If in fact it is hide glue, it just may have reached the end of its service life. This type of repair is well documented in many books and other sources. Heat is often used to clean out the old joint and new hide glue is often "injected" into the joint with a plastic syringe.

In any case, you will have to disassemble the unit to discover the source of the "ooze". I am reasonably certain if you can get the source of this, it will become reasonably apparent what is the problem. Take care of that, make whatever necessary repairs, and you will be back in business.

[Joerg]

That's the word I was looking for, hide glue. Didn't remember it because I grew up with regular carpenter's glue. I did not know that hide glue has an end-of-life once embedded in a joint. Oh man, maybe the whole thing then will begin to disintegrate. That would not be cool.

Have to get a new syringe then, the other one is used for lubricants and stuff. In the US you always get "the looks" when you ask for that at the drugstore. Remember when we all refilled those HP Deskjet cartridges?

I think Titebond may still sell hide glue.

Yep, I guess it's take-down and repair time now.

[Joerg]

Ok, thanks for all the hints, will take it down then. Might have to be tomorrow though.