Chatting with a retired bookbinder at the flea market made me rethink my glue setup

I was browsing old tools at the flea market in Nashville last Saturday and got to talking with this guy who had been binding since the 60s. He saw me buying a cheap PVA glue and just laughed. Said he never uses anything but wheat paste for most of his work now because modern PVAs can get brittle after 20 years and crack the spine. I told him I thought wheat paste was just for old school stuff and he said 'son, if it held books together for 400 years before factories, it'll hold your rebinds together fine.' It hit different because I've been chasing these high-tech adhesives thinking newer meant better. But this guy had bindings from the 70s still looking perfect on his shelf using plain paste. I'm going to try mixing up a batch this weekend for my next restoration project. Has anyone else had luck switching to traditional paste over PVA?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylorc509d ago

Funny how the old stuff usually ends up being the best. @keithbennett would agree.

taylorc5013d ago

Thought about trying wheat paste for years but never did. Went all in on a batch last month for a really beat up 1920s novel I was fixing. That stuff grabs way faster than PVA and holds like crazy. You gotta work quick though because it starts tacking up in like 30 seconds.

keithbennett13d ago

30 seconds? Yikes. That's like trying to frost a cake that's already hardening. Bet your first batch was a real learning curve. Probably stuck to the brush before it hit the paper. Still though, for a 1920s novel that stuff is probably the right call. PVA would've made that brittle old paper feel like plastic.