I swapped linen thread for waxed cotton on a repair and now I get it

Been binding for maybe 5 years now, mostly doing rebinds of old paperbacks and family Bibles from the thrift store. Always used linen thread because that's what my mentor handed me back in 2021 at a shop in Portland. Last month I had this beat-up hymnal from 1958 that was falling apart at the hinge, and the linen kept snapping on me because the pages were so brittle. Out of desperation I grabbed this spool of waxed cotton I'd bought for a leather project and never touched. That stuff glided through the signatures like butter, no fraying, and the knot held even when I tugged hard on the spine. I re-sewed the whole thing in about 40 minutes flat, where linen would've taken me twice as long and I'd have re-threaded the needle like four times. I'm not saying I'll ditch linen forever, but for old, fragile paper, waxed cotton is now my go-to. Has anyone else found a thread that just works better for certain jobs, or am I late to this party?

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taylor_moore14h ago

Did the waxed cotton actually hold up after a few weeks of opening and closing, or is it just easier to sew with? I've seen that stuff stretch out and go slack on the spine, which is the whole reason linen is the standard.