That expensive bookbinding glue I swore was a gimmick

I've been using plain old PVA for 15 years, so when a guy at the shop in Portland kept pushing this $22 jar of specialty glue, I figured it was just marketing fluff. Last month I had a run of 30 hardcovers where the spines kept cracking after a week, and I finally gave in and bought a jar. I glued up a test batch of 5 books, left them in my car for three days in 90 degree heat, and not a single spine split. Has anyone else been burned by a product they thought was overpriced?

2 comments

2 Comments

adam1868d ago

I read somewhere that heat cycling is the real test for bookbinding, sounds like you proved it.

the_rose8d ago

Oh wow, that's actually a really interesting point @adam186. I've been stressing more about the humidity swings than the actual temperature changes. Like if you have a book in a car that goes from freezing cold to baking hot, the glue and paper expand and contract at different speeds. Someone I know had a hardcover cookbook where the spine literally cracked after a summer in a hot kitchen. But here's the thing I don't see people talk about, the leather or cloth covering can pull away from the boards if the temperature shifts too fast. That's why I always tell people to let books acclimate slowly when moving them between rooms.