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A chat with my neighbor about her old photo albums made me stop rushing my work
She brought over a family album from the 1940s, and the binding was still perfect. She said her grandpa, a printer, always told her 'the glue needs to dry, not just get tacky.' I've been using PVA for years and always move too fast to the next step after about 20 minutes. Seeing that 80 year old book hold up so well, I realized I was skipping the full cure time for a faster finish. I tried waiting a full 2 hours on my last journal, and the spine feels way more solid. Has anyone else had a simple piece of advice make you change a basic habit you thought you had down?
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holly_williams2mo ago
Applies to so much more than just glue" is a nice thought, but is it really that deep? Sometimes glue is just glue. I get the life lesson thing, but we're talking about bookbinding here. If my project needs to be done by tomorrow, I'm not waiting two hours for glue to dry. Most modern stuff doesn't need to last 80 years anyway. It feels like people are always looking for a bigger meaning in every little tip.
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abbyr968d ago
Wait, you've never had a cheap craft project fall apart on you after a few months? @park.troy's grandpa was probably thinking about the people who glue stuff together and don't want it to crumble later. Honestly, even with cheap modern stuff, it sucks when your binding fails before you're done reading it.
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