Old bookbinder told me to never use PVA on leather, took me 3 ruined commissions to figure out he meant only for certain spine types

He specifically said 'PVA and leather don't mix' back in 2019 at a workshop in Portland, but I didn't realize he was talking about full-leather bindings with tight backs, and after messing up three customer orders I finally called him and he explained the difference. Has anyone else had a mentor give advice that was technically right but needed way more context?

2 comments

2 Comments

fiona5021mo ago

Honestly I'm gonna push back on this a bit because good mentors often oversimplify on purpose to make sure you don't mess up the basics first. If he'd given you the full breakdown right away you might've ignored the warning entirely or gotten confused with too much info. The fact that you learned by making mistakes means that advice actually worked exactly as intended, even if it stung your wallet a little.

tylerw921mo ago

Pay now or pay way more later, learned that one the hard way myself.