My old mentor told me to always use PVA for spine lining, but I tried wheat paste on a 19th century ledger and it was a total game changer.

3 comments

3 Comments

Your mentor wasn't wrong for its time, but PVA just doesn't age the same way. Wheat paste stays flexible for decades, which that old paper really needs. It's a lot more forgiving on brittle fibers. Modern adhesives can actually make future repairs harder.

adamellis10d ago

Remember reading about this exact debate, and @umaf44 is totally right about the flexibility. That old wheat paste just moves with the paper instead of fighting it. Makes you wonder what we're sticking things with now that'll be a problem later.

barbara2788d ago

Yeah I saw a thing about how museum people hate that modern tape yellows and gets brittle. Makes sense about the wheat paste.