I swore by PVA glue for years until a rainy week in Portland changed my mind

I was rebinding a 1920s poetry collection for a client and the humidity made the PVA take forever to set... it was a mess. An older binder at the local shop, Maria, convinced me to try wheat paste for the spine lining. The flexibility it gave the text block was a total game changer for that old, brittle paper. Anyone else switch adhesives for specific projects like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

dylanwells2d ago

Oh man, I feel that. Humidity just wrecks some glues. That wheat paste tip is a good one, I should try that on my next older book.

beth_kelly2d ago

Yeah, it's wild how fast it can go. I had a whole box of old postcards get that weird tacky feeling last summer, like they were melting.

tessap972d ago

Wheat paste is the real deal.