Ditch the PVA for paste. Took me 6 months to try it.

I spent two years using PVA for everything, spine linings and all. Finally switched to wheat paste for the joints last fall after a guy at a binder's meetup in Austin told me I was making my books too stiff. Has anyone else noticed a difference in how the book opens up after the change?

2 comments

2 Comments

singh.wren16d agoMost Upvoted

Man, that's exactly what I was wondering about. I switched to paste for hinges too and the difference in how flat a book lays open is night and day. But here's my real question - did you notice the paste makes your joints dry way slower than PVA? I'm having to wait almost twice as long before I can even think about backing, and I keep psyching myself out that I'm gonna bump them and mess them up. I've been doing this long enough to know patience pays off, but the waiting kills me sometimes. How fast are you actually working with paste compared to how you used to work with PVA?

davis.diana16d ago

Oh man, "the waiting kills me" is so real lol. I actually read somewhere that paste has a slower set time because it's starch based and the water evaporates differently than PVA, so it's not just you. I've been using paste for hinges for about a year now and I learned the hard way that rushing it messes up the whole shoulder. What I do now is work on two books at once, so while one set of joints is drying I can start cutting or prepping for the other one. Keeps my hands busy so I'm not just staring at them waiting.