Just realized glue choice matters way more than I thought for spine rounding

I was working on a rebind of an old paperback last weekend and had to pick between PVA and wheat paste for the spine. I went with PVA because it sets faster and I was impatient (bad move, honestly). The spine came out stiff and barely rounded, so I ended up redoing the whole thing with wheat paste and a slower clamp time. Has anyone else found that certain glues just fight your shaping?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_terry14d agoTop Commenter

OH man, YES. PVA is absolute garbage for spine work. I learned that the HARD way on a vintage fantasy novel I was trying to save. Used the fast setting PVA and the spine cracked like a dry twig when I tried to round it. Wheat paste is my go to now too. The slower drying time gives you SO much more control over the shape. I actually put some scrap paper between the text block and the spine to slow it down even more.

wadeyoung11d ago

God, that takes me back! I had a buddy in my book club try the same thing on a beat-up copy of The Hobbit and he was so mad about it, he gave up on rebinding for like a year. Said the spine looked like a ruler, totally flat, so he just shoved the whole thing in a drawer and forgot about it. @the_terry is spot on about the scrap paper trick though, my friend tried that on the second attempt and it made a world of difference with the wheat paste.