Overheard a guy at the bindery supply shop say he never uses PVA glue on leather hinges

After 12 years of doing it the same way, I tried his method with a wheat paste mix on a restoration project last week and the hinge moved way smoother, has anyone else switched glues like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

william_torres20d ago

Funny how that works with a lot of stuff, not just bookbinding. The newer synthetic stuff often feels like it should be better but the old tried and true methods just seem to let materials breathe and work together the way they were meant to.

val9491mo ago

Switched to a rice starch paste on old book spines a few years back and it made a huge difference in flexibility. The bond was strong enough but let the leather move without that stiff feeling PVA leaves behind. I would say give it a proper try on your next project and see if you get the same results.

susan1301mo ago

Let the leather move without that stiff feeling" is the key part for me... @val949 actually brings up something about how humidity affects different pastes over time that nobody's really touched on here. Rice starch paste breathes differently than PVA does in a damp environment, so the leather can expand and contract without cracking the spine. That's probably why your repairs are holding up better in the long run.