Spent 4 hours trying to fix a loosening spine on an 1880s hymnal last Tuesday

The cloth hinge had completely detached from the text block and I ended up using a wheat paste/PVA mix that held way better than straight PVA. Anybody got a go-to method for brittle cloth hinges on older books?

2 comments

2 Comments

skylergrant5d ago

You ever tried using methylcellulose instead of wheat paste? A buddy of mine was restoring a Victorian prayer book and swore by it after the wheat paste kept causing the cloth to pucker, said it gave him way more working time to get everything aligned. Might be worth a shot if the hinge is really brittle.

tarak174d ago

oh man, @skylergrant is totally onto something here. methylcellulose is way less fussy than wheat paste for tricky old materials. definitely worth trying if the hinge is as delicate as you're describing.