You are a one-man university! Deeply appreciated, sir. Best wishes 🐈‍⬛

I requested him few days ago to make an video on adhesive ...and here I am at the start of the video...feeling humble..thank you for the video for all of us ...greatly appreciate your work

These are the best videos ever made on the topic of bookbinding.

Ive never tried bookbinding but I am fascinated by your videos and love watching them as I find them to be very relaxing. You are very talented, keep up the good work.

I’ve read lots of books on bookbinding, your clear explanation of the difference between glue and paste, then relating the historical and modern versions of each, made so much clear. Also, showing the different strokes in applying glue… thank you, you are incredibly generous with your knowledge.

Wow you read my mind! I was literally googling the difference between eva and pva the day this video came out!

Thank you for this explanation of adhesives. I enjoyed your work as you spoke but I would get lost in your project and to rewind to hear your talk!

Great video! Thank you for going so in depth!

I am beyond thrilled to have happened upon your video tutorials.

I did use Elmer's (white) glue for my first few attempts at binding after figuring out that it's PVA. It seemed to me to work perfectly fine, with the caveat that it's slightly acidic due to acid being involved in the manufacturing process and not neutralized due to expense and the fact that, being meant for child use, no one really expects it to be used for anything meant to last a long time. (Incidentally, your explanation of acidity was slightly misleading*.) I've heard some people say that it doesn't hold very well, but I didn't have any problems with it. Having used better glues since, but still not being far removed from my Elmer's glue days, I think the reason for the disagreement is that Elmer's has a higher water content and thus takes longer to set. If you're used to glue setting in ten minutes, and everything falls apart when you check it in ten minutes, then it seems like it didn't work very well, but it holds fine for anything I've left to set overnight (and given how little time I had for binding when I started, that was pretty much everything, since I couldn't get back for the next step until the next day, generally). On the other hand, the higher water content can play havoc on your materials when it comes to stretch and wrinkling (and sometimes running colors); until I improved my adhesive selection, I was driving myself crazy trying to figure out why my endpapers kept coming out terribly. There's also the problem that the slight acidity is still enough to cause yellowing and brittleness eventually. I don't know exactly how quickly it becomes a problem (I've recently seen the book I bound 5 years ago for my sister, and it's still okay), but I wouldn't expect an Elmer's book to last a lifetime, let alone centuries. One experiment I've been meaning to try, and that you might also be interested in if you end up playing around with Elmer's, is neutralizing the glue with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate/bicarbonate of soda), which is an easily-available, nontoxic, safe-to-handle base. Things I want to try include: is it better to mix with water first? Is it better to use exactly enough to neutralize or is an excess okay? If an excess is a problem, is it because of the baking soda specifically or because a basic glue is just as bad as an acidic glue? (To test that last one, I might ( _very_ carefully) try a ( _very_ sight) excess of lye instead, to get slightly basic glue without the baking soda.) * Substances with differing pH that are still both acidic do not react _because of_ pH, though they may still react just like any combination of chemicals may or may not react if you don't know precisely what they are. The acidity of wood just means that you don't want to use a basic adhesive; the reasons for the high acidity of wood glue are more related to set time and the color and hardness of the glue after setting. If similarity in pH was the only issue, then Elmer's would be fine for non-archival paper, which is also slightly acidic. Instead, books are best made from acid-free archival paper and acid-free archival glue for the same reason: acids oxidize cellulose, making the material brittle and leaving behind carbon and hydrocarbons that stain the material. The reason acidic glues don't do this to wood is that the longer cellulose and lignen chains are more resistant to oxidation. More specifically, cellulose and lignen are both glucose polymers, and the acid can oxidize a glucose molecule at the end of the polymer chain, exposing another molecule to oxidize, etc.; The short paper fibers expose a lot of polymer ends to the acid, while wood generally only has a single layer of exposed ends on the plane on which it's been cut. Paper also suffers more structurally from even the same amount of oxidation due to both the shorter fibers and the fact that the material is (almost always) far thinner.

Thank you for such an excellent overview; it’s been very helpful.

Thank you and I am looking forward to the next installment.

Thank you for answering my question in this video. Looking forward to your next.

Thank you for posting this very informative and helpful video.

Great video - very informative. Thanks!

Methyl cellulose, huh? And lo and behold, that's within reasonable prices at Mercado Libre (think South America's Ebay/Amazon), seems much more convenient than making my own paste, thanks for that bit of knowledge!

so informative! It comes from all your professional experience. Thank you so much for sharing.

Thank you for the excellent video. You are generous with your knowledge.

This is the second time for me to watch it again since my last watch almost half year ago. Still I have learnt a lot. Thousand thanks.

Extremely helpful!

Very informative and helpful--thank you so much. I especially liked the section on brushes and brushwork. Greetings from Canada.

Adoro tu forma de enseñar y desarrollar. Sos genial. Muchas gracias, maestro.

thank you, your video

Methylcellulose is easiest to find as wallpaper glue where I live. It's usually sold under a brand name, but "small print" says methylcellulose, so it pays off to read it.

I learnt a lot from this, thank you. For many years, and I am only a utilitarian bookbinder, I have a used wallpaper paste which has a cellulose and PVA content and an anti-microbial action. I will add some PVA depending on what I am doing. I have yet to do anything that justifies a leather binding.

*Saturday with Darryn!* 😀👍

Purely anecdotal here, but I've found that by making my corn starch paste partly with rubbing alcohol (say, 20% of the liquid), and then keeping it in an air-tight container in the refrigerator, extends its life considerably. It may tack and dry a bit more quickly than paste made with pure water, and possibly the adhesion strength is slightly different, but if so, I haven't noticed either. Likewise, I have no idea how it affects the pH level. The paste does seem to work as usual, though, and I've got a batch in the fridge I made months ago that's still good.

As always that was very educational, I have been using Evostick PVA wood glue and it has been working for me, I like how it dries clear and it is flexible. have to put on covers on the solution manuals that i have binded , what i have done is cut several notches and placed short pieces of organic twine to hold the block together, all of my projects so far has been with A4. Thanks for making these vids they have been great help.

Your videos are fantastic! I’m guessing that you are an educator….Possibly a Tertiary Educator. Your KZfaq tutorials are so impressive because of your attention to detail and stunning books but also because of the wealth of knowledge that you have. I think that fact that you always reference your knowledge is wonderful and, it definitely makes your tutorials stand out from the crowd. I must say I never feel the need to refer to your references because I trust your research and expertise. Thank you 🙏 for sharing your passion with the world. Jaime from Melbourne. One more thing, how can I make bole? I can’t seem to find how. Thanks again 😊

Thank you for another magistral lesson on bookbinding. I recently started using a new bookbinding PVA and I noticed that it dries faster than the one I've been using so far. Now I found harder to back the books because after ploughing the edges and rounding the spine, the glue is already pretty set. I wonder if I could use mix for this first thin layer of glue on the spine or that would it introduce too much humidity.... Regards

For someone looking for a good PVA for beginning and hobby level: Anecdotally, from other crafting experience, mod podge furniture finish is incredibly difficult to reactivate once fully cured, compared to regular white glue or regular mod podge. As a multidisciplinary craftsperson, furniture finish mod podge is my go-to PVA, even for bookbinding.

This is probably going to horrify you but, as a beginner, I've been using wallpaper paste as the paste and it seems to work OK. None of my bindings are sufficiently old however to know how this will work out long term.

I've used that polyester "paper" for book covers, because I don't have any way to print logos on leather or cloth, but the downside is that you can't paste down the edge flap. It just pops back up and if you score it enough to bend it breaks. I haven't quite figured out what to do about this. also the casing in hasn't gone that well because I've been trying to use pva instead of mix.

I like the precision of your language, explaining what and how you are doing. I have two questions: 1. What means DAS. In my native language, written with capital letters, it expresses THE (emphasis in, to be the only one). Since you do a great job, you may claim this article. (However, other also make nice videos about bookbinding) 2. Where did you get this cute little heatplate, shown in minute 2:44. I was looking in eBay and others, but couldn't find anything. Keep on making such nice videos.

So, if I understand well, I can get going with only PVA and Methyl Cellulose ?

For archival reasons, is EVA a better choice than PVA?

question about preservative additives to home-made paste - do you know if other oils like eucalyptus, ravensara, tea tree, or cajeput would work? (after having infections after all four wisdom teeth extractions, i loathe cloves . . . 8/ ) Come to think, tea tree may do well . . .

About Elmers School Glue: Sea Lemon did her own video on bookbinding glues a few years ago, kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mdxzhNlhyK6mh40.html and at the 14:18 mark she briefly mentions that type of glue and says that it doesn't hold together very well for book construction.

I would use the term "go off" as in a chemical reaction firming up or setting such as epoxy or polyester resin fiberglass laminations. From the context of your use, I'm assuming that you mean it to mean something like spoil, mold, turn rancid, having the water separate out of it, or dry so it can't be used?

Could one use Wheat Paste for everything??

Can you use water proof adhesives? Like waterproof wood glue? And most importantly do they work with water proof papers and boards? I'd like to make some waterproof steifbroschuren for in the field. Edit: as so basically no wood glue because of pH.

A point of clarification: you say in the video that you would explain why you use EVA over PVA, but I never saw that explanation (I did check the transcript too). Is it simply a cost issue, as EVA supposedly has a longer shelf life than PVA (given it's otherwise similar properties to PVA)? Finding information on EVA for bookbinding can be tough; even the 'BPG Adhesives' section of Paper Conservation Catalog barely mentions it. Here in the US it's impossible to find for bookbinding, yet it's used in a lot of other industries (paint especially). Maybe 'BEVA D-8' is similar to the Evasol I've seen you use on your channel? The only other one I've seen that even contains EVA is 'Jade R', and it seems to be a PVA/EVA mix.

I acquired an 1897 book "The Black Watch", a history of the regiment. It is an ex-library book, and they rebound the book. The text block appears as though it was sewn on a sewing machine (must have been quite a machine!) and the glued the cover directly to the spine. I want to rebind the book to look a bit more like the original, but how do I get the cover off the text block? What will take the glue off? I've looked online but can't find any solutions. Thank you.

What is the reason wheat paste is used for leather rather than methyl cel? Is Methyl cel not suitable for leather? Would methyl cel/pva mix be suitable for working with leather?

Does "mix" paste/PVA go bad as does pure wheat paste?

Is your wheat flour paste whole wheat or white flour paste?