knight.dylan•23d agoProlific Poster

Picked wheat paste over PVA for a restoration job and I'm still finding flakes everywhere a week later

Chose wheat paste thinking it'd be more reversible on a 1920s novel I'm rebinding, but the spine is starting to peel and I'm wondering if PVA would've held up better long-term, anyone else had bad luck with wheat paste on older paperbacks?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_diana22d agoMost Upvoted

Calm down, it's a paperback from the 20s not a Gutenberg Bible. Slap some PVA on it and call it done.

the_claire23d ago

Did you test the wheat paste mix ratio before applying it, because too much water can weaken the bond something fierce? I've seen guys skip that step and end up with flaking that just gets WORSE over time, especially on older papers that already have some embrittlement. Maybe your issue isn't the paste itself but the prep work, or did you burnish it down properly after application?

reed.elliot22d ago

Yeah and that burnishing step is actually way more critical than people realize with wheat paste on older papers.