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Spent 3 hours last Saturday re-sewing a text block because I used too much PVA and I blame every tutorial I watched
So I finally got around to casing in a copy of Moby Dick I sewed up about a month ago, and the whole thing felt stiff as a board when I opened it. Turns out I had been soaking the spine in PVA like it was going out of style, three heavy coats when two thin ones would have done the job. I sat there with a scalpel and a spatula for almost 3 hours cutting the block out of the case, and of course I nicked the endpaper in two spots. A binder I know in Portland told me once that you should be able to see the threads through a good spine glue up, and she was right, I just ignored her. Here is my hot take: those 15 minute YouTube videos that say drown it in glue are ruining a whole crop of new binders. Does anyone else think the glue up is the most lied about step in this craft?
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sam53025d ago
Sounds like the real problem is nobody teaches you that PVA shrinks as it dries. Three heavy coats means it pulls the spine tight as it cures and that's what makes the whole thing feel like a brick, not just the thickness of the glue. I switched to a 50/50 mix of PVA and methylcellulose for the spine and it dries slower with way less pull, plus you can still see the threads. The YouTube folks skip that part because it doesn't look as satisfying on camera.
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