Found a stat that says 60% of bookbinders still use animal glues even though PVA has been around for decades

I bumped into that number in a trade survey from 2022 and it made me wonder if tradition actually holds up better than modern adhesives in the long run, so which side do you fall on for your own projects?

2 comments

2 Comments

dakota47911d ago

Yeah there's actually a really interesting point about how animal glues age compared to PVA. I read somewhere that animal glues absorb and release moisture with the environment, which means they move with the paper and board instead of fighting against it like PVA does. That's probably why those old books stay flexible while modern paperbacks get brittle and crack. It also explains why conservators still swear by hide glue for rare book work. PVA dries hard and stays hard, so when the paper expands or shrinks with humidity, the glue joint just gives up and you get those ugly white cracks. So even if PVA is easier to work with and doesn't smell like a dead animal, the long term repossession and reversibility factor is hard to beat for serious binding work.

nora_campbell6611d ago

Oh come on, PVA is great and all but animal glues have been doing the job for centuries for a reason. I mean think about it, old books from the 1800s are still holding together and that's all animal glue right there. Meanwhile I've seen modern PVA joints fail after just a decade in the wrong conditions, like that cheap paperbacks from the 90s that are already falling apart. And don't get me started on reversibility, animal glues can be undone with a bit of heat and moisture while you gotta dissolve PVA with nasty chemicals if you ever need to fix something. Plus the smell of good hide glue is part of the experience, smells like actual craft instead of a plastic bottle from the hardware store.