That moment I realized I was turning my pages wrong for 3 years

I had this aha moment last Tuesday when I was binding a small batch of poetry books. My text block kept warping after I glued it up, and I couldn't figure out why. Then a fellow binder at the local shop in Portland pointed out I was using way too much PVA on the spine, basically drowning the folds. I always thought more glue meant a stronger hold, but she showed me a thin, even coat does the trick. Has anyone else had that gut feeling something was off but ignored it for way too long?

2 comments

2 Comments

keith_henderson4d ago

Twenty bucks says your books would have held up fine anyway, half the time we overthink this stuff. I mean yeah maybe you used a little extra glue but is it really that big a deal unless you're selling them to museums

riverk824d ago

You know, I actually used to think exactly like that - like "eh, it'll probably be fine, people worry too much about the 'right' way to do things." But then I had a book from the 80s that I glued back together with just regular Elmer's and that thing turned into a brittle mess after a few years. The pages started falling out again and the spine cracked in this weird way. So now I'm starting to think maybe those museum people are onto something with the pH neutral stuff and the proper techniques. I mean, you're not wrong that most of us aren't selling to museums, but if you want your grandkids to actually read that book someday it might matter more than we think.