Unpopular take: stop using PVA glue for every single repair job

I see so many folks on here reaching for PVA glue for everything from spine repairs to corner fixes. But I restored a 1920s textbook last week in my shop near Philly, and PVA would have wrecked the paper. I used wheat paste instead, and the pages didn't warp or crack. Has anyone else tried alternatives like hide glue on old books?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_evan1mo ago

The coated paper is a dead giveaway every time. Wheat paste needs that porous surface to grip, and when it beads up you're just wasting your time. PVA is fine for modern books or stuff you don't care about, but people slap it on anything and it's a mess. Old paper from the 1800s and early 1900s was made differently, more like cloth than what we have now. Hide glue actually bonds better to the old fibers because it penetrates deeper than PVA ever could. If the paper crumbles under your fingers you're way past glue territory anyway, that's a job for a conservator or the trash bin.

ryanburns2mo ago

Oh jeez, right? PVA is handy but people treat it like a one-size-fits-all thing and it drives me nuts. So how do you tell when the paper is too brittle or coated for wheat paste to even be the right call? I feel like half the battle is just knowing what not to use.

dylan_bell2mo ago

You ever try to brush on wheat paste and the paper just kind of... crumbles under your fingers? That's when you know it's too far gone. I've had old posters just shred apart on me, like they were made of dried leaves. The coated stuff, you can usually tell by the weird glossy look or when the paste just beads up on top instead of soaking in. It's a pain to learn, but yeah, knowing when to just walk away from a material is half the battle.