My mentor told me to stop using PVA glue for everything, and he was right.

I was binding a set of leather journals for a local shop and using my usual PVA for the spines. He saw me and said, 'That's going to crack in a year.' I switched to a flexible animal glue for the next batch. Sure enough, the first books I made are already stiff and noisy when opened. Has anyone else had a glue type fail on them like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

mark_hernandez128d ago

Wait, is it really that big of a deal? I mean, I've used cheap PVA on a bunch of my own sketchbooks and they're fine after a couple years. They open okay. Maybe it depends on the climate or how thick you lay it on. Idk, sometimes it feels like people make a huge thing over specific materials when a basic glue gets the job done most of the time.

jade329d ago

Tbh I read a whole article about this exact thing. It was talking about how modern PVA dries into a plastic-like film that doesn't move with natural materials. The writer said using it on leather or cloth book spines is a classic beginner mistake because it just can't flex. They compared it to putting a brittle shell on something that needs to bend. Makes total sense now seeing your books got stiff.