Tested hot glue vs PVA on a spine repair and hot glue won by a mile

I tried fixing a torn textbook cover from the 80s last month with PVA because everyone says it's archival safe. The pages kept popping loose after a day. So I hit it with hot glue on the spine joint instead and that thing is solid now. Honestly, I know PVA is the standard but for a cheap student book that just needs to survive the semester, hot glue held up way better. Has anyone else found a situation where the "wrong" glue actually worked?

3 comments

3 Comments

johnson.ryan2mo ago

That book from the 80s probably had old hide glue or something similar already in the spine, right? @holly_gonzalez61 PVA might not bond to that residue as well as hot glue which melts into everything. Did you do any prep on the spine like scraping off the old glue first, or did you just go straight over it?

holly_gonzalez612mo ago

Wait, you hot glued a book spine? That's wild. I've never heard of someone doing that. PVA is like the holy grail for book people. Hot glue is usually for crafts and stuff. I can't believe it held up better than the archival stuff. That's crazy.

sanchez.mia23d ago

Wait, hot glue actually held up better? That's honestly wild but I'm not even surprised. PVA is good but it's not perfect for everything, especially if there's old glue residue like johnson.ryan said. I've had PVA fail on me before with older books where the old glue just wouldn't bond right. Hot glue grabs onto anything, even dust and crud, so it makes sense it worked in that specific case. Still feels wrong to use it on a book though, like using duct tape on a wedding dress or something.