Ecological glue for traditional furniture: Optimization of the handicraft for making fish glue

Through a comprehensive review of published literature on fish glue (FG), the ecological glue for traditional furniture, the traditional handicraft for making FG was found to include six main processes: soaking, steaming, manual smashing, decoction, filtration, and airing. The handicraft that makes FG is manual and is not only time-consuming and laborious but does not have clearly documented standard processes and is thus less repeatable. Considering this, experiments to optimize a new technique for making FG were designed. Six basic technological processes (cutting and drying, crushing, soaking, decoction, filtration, and airing) were investigated to optimize the new glue production technique. The technological processes of the new technique were compared with those of the traditional handicraft method. The results indicated that preparing FG following the optimal processes of the new glue-making technique not only ensured the quality of the glue solution but also outperformed the traditional handicraft technique in the following aspects: 1) it simplifies the production process, reduces labor intensity, and saves time: the soaking time is decreased by 50% and the traditional manual smashing process is not required; 2) it improves the glue yield by 5.42%; and 3) due to introduction of mechanical processing, time and temperature are controllable, rendering production more repeatable and easily up-scaled.