Unpopular opinion: I tried using a glue stick for a quick repair and it actually held up

I was fixing a paperback for a friend last month and my PVA was totally dried out. I had one of those purple Elmer's glue sticks in a drawer and, out of pure laziness, I used it to reattach a few pages. I figured it would fall apart in a week, but I checked it yesterday and the bond is still solid. The pages open fine and there's no weird stiffness. I mean, I know it's not acid-free or anything you'd use for a real project, but for a quick, cheap fix on a book you just want to read, it kinda worked. I'm not saying I'd bind a whole book with it, but it got me thinking about other weird shortcuts people might take in a pinch. Has anyone else had a surprisingly okay result with something that's definitely not 'proper' bookbinding material?

3 comments

3 Comments

emma6841mo ago

Wait, you used a GLUE STICK and it actually worked? That's wild. I would have bet money those pages would just slide right out. It makes me think @anna_black is onto something about the rules. I once fixed a broken chair leg with a whole roll of duct tape and some wishful thinking, and my dad still sits in it. Sometimes the weird fix is the one that lasts forever.

betty1262mo ago

Okay, "definitely not proper bookbinding material" got me lol. I was such a snob about only using PVA for anything paper. Then my kid's favorite picture book cover tore, and I used clear packing tape on the inside spine as a patch. It's been six months and it's still holding, pages turn fine. Totally changed my mind on emergency fixes.

anna_black2mo ago

Is it really that big of a deal? We're talking about fixing a paperback to read, not making a museum piece. Sometimes the "wrong" tool does the job just fine. I used a bit of flour paste once when I had nothing else, and it's still holding after a year. Maybe we get too hung up on the rules.