I was reading a really old book on binding and found out about a glue recipe from the 1700s

It was in a scanned copy of a manual from 1789 I found online. The recipe called for boiling parchment scraps with water and a little vinegar to make a simple paste. I tried a small batch last weekend and it held up way better than I thought it would on a test repair. Has anyone else tried using a historical glue like this for a project?

3 comments

3 Comments

lisa_carter313mo ago

Tried making ink from a 1700s recipe once and it was a total mess. I mean, my kitchen looked like a crime scene for a week. Maybe I should stick to store bought stuff.

rivershah3mo ago

What recipe did you use? I had the same thing happen with a walnut ink recipe... it was everywhere. The trick that saved me was mixing everything in a big disposable roasting pan on top of newspaper. That way the splatters and spills are contained. It still gets messy but cleanup is just rolling up the whole disaster and tossing it.

beth_green2mo ago

Hold on, I gotta push back on this. Boiling parchment scraps might sound charming but it's actually a terrible idea for modern book repair. That old glue was made when paper was full of rags and lye, not the wood pulp stuff we use today. The vinegar in it will eat through modern paper over time, leaving yellowed, brittle pages. Plus, it's way too acidic for anything worth keeping. You'd be better off with a Japanese wheat starch paste or a pH neutral PVA for pretty much any real restoration project. All that old recipe is going to do is ruin your books faster than just leaving them alone.