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Broke a book spine at a library sale and it changed how I mod
I was at the Friends of the Library sale last Saturday and picked up a beat up copy of a mystery novel for 50 cents. The spine was already loose so I figured I could practice some rebinding on it. When I got home I realized the glue was this old yellow hide glue that came off in sheets. That got me thinking about how I prep books before any modding. Now I always check the binding type and glue before I even think about adding a hidden pocket or staining pages. It saved me from ruining a nice vintage cookbook I found at a thrift store the week after. Has anyone else found a specific glue or binding that just does not cooperate with your projects?
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sagen363d ago
The old yellow hide glue is a nightmare. I found that using a hairdryer on low heat for a few seconds softened it enough to peel it off clean without tearing the pages. That trick saved a 1950s field guide I was modding into a travel journal.
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benbrown2d ago
Oh man, I feel your pain with that hide glue. It's like it was designed specifically to ruin a good bookbinding project. I had a similar situation with an old atlas I was trying to repurpose, and I ended up using a heat gun on the lowest setting (which felt terrifying, honestly) and a dull butter knife to gently work the pages apart. The hairdryer trick sounds way smarter, I'm definitely going to try that next time I'm dealing with a stubborn spine.
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