Here's how I set up to test a batch of glue. I take a 1x6 pine or whatever scrap I have on hand, and hand plane one face. Then I rip it into three pieces, and then crosscut into six. I then face glue, offsetting by roughly thirds and clamp overnight with spring clamps. I should say here that, contrary to some beliefs, most glues hold better the smoother the surface they are bonding. A lot of people think that they have to rough the surface up to give the glue some bite, but this is not the case. Sanded smooth is good, but a hand planed surface is the best. The exception is epoxy, which bonds in a different way--the surface needs to be abraded and held together with clamps, not clamped all that hard. Same goes with hide or carpenters, squeezed but don't go to hell with the joke.
The next day I give it a good whack with a hand sledge, and keep whacking until something breaks. As you can see, this batch of 305 hide glue passed with flying colors, 100 % wood failure, which is what you want. I do this with every batch of hide glue or every bottle of PVA glue, just so I know. I put waaaaaay too much time into projects, and it's my reputation on the line, to have stuff fall apart because of faulty glue.
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