My old mentor in Asheville said to stop clamping so hard on spine glue ups, and I'm second guessing 6 years of habit
Ran into Hal, the guy who taught me book repair back in 2011, at a supply shop in Asheville and he watched me glue up a spine for about 10 seconds before telling me I was squeezing all the glue out of the joint. He said he clamps his spines at maybe 30 percent of what I use and lets the PVA do the work. Now I'm sitting here with two test signatures trying to figure out if he's right or if his old hands just got tired. How much pressure do you all put on a spine during glue up, and does it change for thicker text blocks?