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Hot take: That old binder's tip about PVA vs wheat paste really threw me off at first
I got told by a guy at a shop in Portland that I was ruining my books by using PVA for everything. He said wheat paste is the only way for spine repairs on older books. I switched for a few months and honestly my repairs felt weaker and took forever to dry. Now I'm back to mixing both depending on the job. Anyone else get conflicting advice from old timers that ended up not working for your specific projects?
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wyatt1353d ago
The whole "only wheat paste" thing drove me crazy too until I realized different books need different stuff. I mostly use PVA for modern paperbacks but mix in some wheat paste for fragile old cloth spines where you need that extra grab. You just gotta test things on scrap material first and see what actually holds for your specific job, not just follow what some old timer swears by.
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irisowens3d ago
Oh man, you're totally right @wyatt135. I learned that lesson the hard way when I glued a modern paperback with straight wheat paste and the pages warped like a potato chip. PVA is a lifesaver for those glossy covers that just won't stay put otherwise. But for the old cloth ones where it's all dry and cracked, a little wheat paste gives you that second chance to get the spine to actually set. It's about matching the glue to the job, not having a religion about it.
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Jumping off what @wyatt135 was saying about testing on scrap first - that's the real secret nobody tells you. I had this old library book with a spine so brittle it was basically dust, and the wheat paste mixture I used let me basically massage the cloth back into place before it set. PVA wouldve locked everything in place way too fast and Id have been screwed if I needed to adjust. But then I had a modern paperback with a glossy cover where the wheat paste just beaded up and slid right off, so PVA was the only thing that actually grabbed. Mixing both is the way, just depends on the book's material and how much working time you need.
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