TIL most people glue their book spines wrong - it's all about the hinge gap

3 comments

3 Comments

My neighbor's been a bookbinder for 30 years and she swears by just using PVA glue straight across the spine. She says the hinge gap method is mostly for antique books or ones with really brittle pages. For most paperback repairs, a full glue job holds up fine if you use the right kind of glue and clamp it tight for a few hours. I've fixed dozens of books her way and they've never fallen apart on me.

wells.olivia4d ago

Saw a YouTube video that said the same thing @barbarah19, PVA works great if you clamp it right.

barbarah194d ago

Wow, really? I had no idea there was a right way to glue book spines. I've been just slathering glue all over the place and smashing them together for years. It always seemed to work okay but maybe that's why some of my books fall apart after a while. The hinge gap thing sounds like one of those little tricks that makes a huge difference. I'm gonna have to try this next time I repair a book. Thanks for sharing this, I feel like I've been doing it completely wrong this whole time.