Appreciation post: The binder who told me to stop using PVA for everything

Last year a guy at the local guild meeting watched me glue up a text block and just said, 'You're going to hate yourself in 5 years.' I laughed it off, but then I noticed my 2019 bindings getting brittle and cracking at the hinges. He explained that PVA dries hard and doesn't flex with the spine movement over time, especially on thicker books. I switched to a mix of wheat paste and PVA (about 60/40) and my last six projects have held up way better through the rounding and backing process. Has anyone else had old PVA-only bindings fail on them like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

viola1713d ago

Oh man, I definitely learned this the hard way too! I had this beautiful journal I made like 4 years ago and now the spine is cracking open like a sad little book soul. Guess I'm off to go apologize to all my old projects now.

jesse9882d ago

Oh man, I gotta push back on this a little bit. I've got books I glued up with straight PVA like eight years ago and they're still holding together fine, no cracking or anything. Maybe it's just me but I think @viola171 might've had a bad batch or something, because pure PVA has worked great for me even on thicker projects.