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An old binder in Portland showed me how to fix a torn hinge with wheat paste and I still think about it
I was at a small book arts meetup in Portland about 3 months ago and got talking to a guy named Roger who had been binding books for close to 40 years. I had brought in a beat up 1930s hardcover with a hinge that was splitting and I was about to reback it the way I always do with PVA and mull. He stopped me and asked if I had ever tried a wheat paste hinge repair on something that old, and honestly I had not. He walked me through it right there on the spot, mixing a small batch, pasting a strip of Japanese tissue, and working it into the split with a bone folder. What stuck with me was when he said, "the book already told you how it wants to be fixed, you just have to slow down and listen." I tried it on my own a week later and the hinge came out way more flexible than my usual method. Has anyone else here gone the wheat paste route on older hinges, or do you stick with PVA?
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diana2028d ago
Wait, did Roger actually say the wheat paste itself made the hinge more flexible, or was it the Japanese tissue? Because wheat paste dries pretty stiff on its own, it's the tissue and the way you work it in that gives you that give. PVA gets a bad rap but the real issue is people slather it on thick, a thin coat with the right tissue does fine on most hinges.
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