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Unpopular opinion: glue sticks beat paste pots for spine lining every time
I spent my first two years binding books using a paste pot for spine linings because that's what the old-timers swore by. Last month I finally caved and tried a decent glue stick for a small repair job on a 1900s novel someone brought me. Honestly, the control was way better - no drips, no mess, and I didn't have to keep stirring the pot. Has anyone else switched away from paste and found it works better for certain steps?
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luna_wright25d ago
Paste pot loyalist here, but your glue stick argument is winning me over slowly.
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Wait hold on, you're saying you used paste for TWO YEARS before trying a glue stick? That sounds like pure torture to me. I switched to glue sticks during my first month of binding and never looked back. The no-drip control alone made it worth it, especially for those narrow spines where paste likes to run everywhere. Did you have a lot of ruined spine linings from the paste pot before you made the change?
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hannah40024d ago
A buddy of mine from the local craft circle tried to bind her first book with paste and it was a disaster. She kept her pot on the edge of her desk and her cat swished by one afternoon, knocking the whole thing onto her floor rug. She spent an hour scrubbing paste out of the fibers and the spine linings still had drips running down them. She finally borrowed a glue stick the next week and said it was like night and day, no mess at all. Did you have any close calls with spills before you switched over or was it more about the messy application?
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