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Old bookbinder told me to stop using PVA glue for leather hinges. He was right.
A guy named George at a guild meetup in Portland told me PVA would fail on leather after a few years. I didn't listen and used it on a restoration job last fall. Sure enough, the hinge on that book came loose last week. Now I have to redo the whole thing. Anyone else learn a glue lesson the hard way?
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evanr7911d ago
Yeah I read a thing from a guy who tested PVA on leather samples over like five years. The glue just gets brittle and the leather pulls away from it. @xena_rivera63 that timeline matches what he found - the failures actually start showing around year three in most cases. He said it's because PVA is water based and leather expands and contracts with humidity way more than paper does. The glue can't handle that movement long term. I've started using a proper hide glue mix for leather hinges now and it's way more forgiving if I ever have to undo the work later. That Portland guy George saved me from more headaches down the road.
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