Foredge painting glue keeps bleeding through my text block

I've been at this for 8 years and every tutorial I watch skips over the part where you actually apply the size before painting. I tried hide glue at 45% strength last week on a 300 page book and it soaked straight through the first 12 pages of signatures near the foredge. How do you keep the sizing thin enough to hold pigment without it wicking into the paper? I'm about to just use a spray adhesive like that guy from the Portland Guild meeting suggested, but that feels wrong.

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blake_martinez11d ago

Holding the size back is more about the mix than the glue itself. Hide glue at 45% is way too hot for foredge work, that's for sure. Drop it to like 20% or 25% and add a tiny bit of glycerin, it slows the soak into the paper. Also, you gotta hit the foredge with a very light coat of paste wax first, let it dry, then size over that. That keeps the liquid on the surface instead of wicking down into those signatures. Spray adhesive straight onto the text block is a trap too, it'll gum up your sanding and make the edge feel weird. Test on a cheap 50 page booklet first, you'll see the difference fast.