Paul Kierstead
>As stephen said, everything will have to be quite warm to get sufficient open time. One of the problems with water based glues (particularly liquid or hot hide glue and PVA) and veneering is the water tends to cause problems in swelling veneer. The most obvious manifestation is curling of the veneer, potentially making handling difficult (hammer veneering avoids this by having glue on both sides of the veneer). It can cause various other problems as well as the swollen veneer dries out; adhesion, seams opening, etc. Now this is not to say it *can't* be done; quite clearly it can (and I have done it as well), but it does introduce new problems. As always, the size and materials can matter a *lot*, and it isn't always exotic ones; for example, maple can be a lot more bother then oak to use as a veneer. One of the great upsides of hide glue is zero creep, reducing spring-back on curved items and helping keep seams closed up etc. on flat work.

But the catalytic glues do offer quite a few advantages over water based ones, but I'll admit most aren't very friendly in a variety of dimensions.