Rant: My mentor insisted on using only PVA for spine lining, but I tried wheat paste on a 19th century repair and it's a game changer.

He said it was 'unstable and messy' for modern work, but the flexibility and pH on that fragile text block was perfect. Anyone else have a 'bad' piece of advice that actually worked out?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantp289d ago

Old heads hate new tricks. Wheat paste for the win.

jesse_green555d ago

My first mentor at the Boston library bindery called PVA the only glue for spine work. I stuck with that for years. Then I had a 1920s book with really thin paper that just would not behave. I tried a thin wheat paste and it was like the whole thing could finally breathe. That PVA would have been a stiff board on there. Sometimes the old way is the old way for a reason.

felix_hayes649d ago

Wait, they said wheat paste is unstable? That's wild, my teacher swore by it for old leather bindings. I've seen PVA get brittle and crack on stuff from the 1800s, but the paste just moves with the paper. Messy sure, but it's worth it.