Unpopular opinion: I pick glue over stitching for most repairs now

I used to stitch every broken spine and loose section, thought it was the only proper way. But after 6 months of doing repair work at my kitchen table in Pittsburgh, I switched to PVA glue for nearly everything under 20 pages. Stitching takes me 40 minutes a job, glue takes 5, and honestly the glued ones hold up just as well for the books people actually bring me, like old paperbacks and spiral notebooks. I know the purists will say stitching lasts longer, and sure, for a leather journal or family heirloom I still thread a needle. But for everyday damage, glue has never let me down, and I've redone maybe 2 glued books in that whole time. Anyone else ditch the needle for glue and see better results?

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anthony12927d ago

Wait, you've only had to redo 2 books out of how many glued repairs in 6 months? That's wild to me, I figured the failure rate would be way higher, like at least every fifth paperback coming back apart. I've been stitching everything out of pure stubbornness, but honestly my last three repairs took me an hour each and the results weren't any better than what you're describing. Do you use a specific thickness of PVA or just the basic stuff from the craft store? Because I tried glue once on a thick textbook and it cracked the spine within a week, so I gave up on it entirely. Maybe I just didn't press the pages down long enough or something, but your numbers are making me rethink my whole setup here.

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