Tried that cheap wheat paste recipe for book cloth and it wrecked three projects

I was looking to save some money on book cloth so I made my own wheat paste using that 5:1 water to flour ratio I saw in a YouTube comment. Figured what's the worst that could happen. After two days the paste started turning dark and smelled like old bread. The cloth on all three books I made got these weird yellow spots and the corners started peeling up. I spent about 40 bucks on materials alone. Has anyone else had this happen with homemade paste or did I just use the wrong kind of flour?

3 comments

3 Comments

alice8917d ago

...right, I've been there. That 5:1 ratio is way too much water for starters, you want more like 4:1 water to flour and you gotta cook it until it's thick like pudding not runny. Second thing is the flour matters a lot, plain white all-purpose is fine but don't use whole wheat or anything with bran in it because that's what causes the dark spots and the smell. Also you need to add a little bit of vinegar or a preservative or it'll mold on you within a week even in the fridge. I'd just skip homemade altogether if you're doing anything you care about, the pH issues aren't worth it for 3 bucks saved.

the_alice17d agoTop Commenter

I'm curious about the pH issue you mentioned, what exactly goes wrong there? I've messed around with homemade pastes a few times and never ran into that, but I also wasn't using it for anything fragile. Is it more of a problem with certain papers or are you talking about the paste eating through stuff over time? The vinegar trick makes sense for mold but I'd worry it'd make it too acidic.

the_paul12d ago

Wait bran causes the dark spots? That explains... a lot actually.