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A guy at the bindery in Akron swore by PVA over hide glue, I argued for 6 months, then my spine cracked
I used to think hide glue was the only real way to do a spine. My grandfather used it, the old books I took apart used it, so I figured that was that. Then about 6 months ago I bound a 400 page book with hide glue and the spine cracked right down the middle after maybe 3 weeks of the owner reading it. A guy at a bindery in Akron I do work with kept telling me PVA would hold better on modern paper, and I honestly thought he was just being lazy. So I tried it on my next batch of 12 books and not one spine has failed since. Now I'm stuck wondering if hide glue is really better, or if we just say that because it's old and feels fancy. Some folks say hide glue lasts 100 years and PVA breaks down in 30, others say modern PVA outlives us all. What convinced you one way or the other, and did you switch after a specific book failed on you?
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