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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?
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emma6845mo 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.
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betty1266mo 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.
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anna_black6mo 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.
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