Heard a customer at the store say they use regular white glue for book repairs

I was at work yesterday, stocking the adhesive aisle, when a man told his friend he fixes his old paperbacks with Elmer's school glue. He said it works fine and is cheap. My heart sank. I had to bite my tongue, but it made me think about how many people might be doing this without knowing the damage. That glue is acidic and will yellow and become brittle in a few years, ruining the paper. It's not made for long-term preservation. I always use a pH-neutral PVA like Lineco. It costs more, but it's made for this job. Has anyone else had to gently correct someone using the wrong adhesive on a book they care about?

2 comments

2 Comments

stellablack12d ago

Used to think any clear glue was fine for a quick fix... then I saw exactly what @miller.tara described. Tried to repair a favorite cookbook with craft glue, and a few years later the pages just snapped clean off at the spine. The glue was so hard it cut through the paper like a blade. Now I only use the flexible, acid-free stuff.

miller.tara12d ago

Oh man, the acidity is bad, but the real killer is the flexibility. School glue dries into a hard, brittle film. Paper moves with humidity, it needs to bend. That rigid glue will crack and split the spine or page right along the glue line. You're basically putting a sheet of plastic in there that can't move with the book. I've seen old repairs where the glue itself is fine, but it acted like a tiny saw and cut clean through the paper over time.