blair_chen81•19d agoMost Upvoted

Twenty years of binding and I just got called out on my own glue pot.

Was trimming a text block last week and a customer watched me reach for my standard PVA. She asked why I wasn't using an 80/20 mix with methylcellulose for the spine lining. I've been using straight PVA for everything since 2003. She showed me her cracked spine at home from a book I did 8 years ago. Anyone else have that moment where a newbie showed you something basic you missed?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_claire19d ago

Oh come on, a single cracked spine from eight years ago proves nothing. I've been using straight PVA since I started and I've seen books from the 90s still holding up fine. That 80/20 methylcellulose mix is trendy right now but it's not some magic fix. It actually makes the spine too flexible over time and you lose that tight, flat opening that old school binders aim for. Plus those fancy mixes dry slower which means more chance for warping if your humidity isn't perfect. Maybe her book cracked because she was opening it like a paperback instead of a proper bound text block.

lunar8919d ago

Yeah but PVA alone gets tacky after 5 years, it's not about trendy it's about actual flexibility.

the_wesley14d ago

And it's the same thing with wood glue in furniture repair, I've noticed people have this need to overcomplicate basic stuff that's worked fine for decades... @lunar89 is spot on about the actual long term behavior mattering more than what's popular right now. It always comes down to people wanting to feel like experts by using fancy recipes instead of trusting the simple stuff that's proven itself over time.