Changed my mind on wheat paste after a batch went moldy in my garage

For about 3 years I cooked my own wheat paste for every spine lining and case, mostly because a teacher at the bindery in Dayton told me store bought was for amateurs. Last month a batch I mixed with cheap flour grew green spots in 9 days and I had to tear apart a book I spent 6 hours sewing. Now I use a 2 to 1 water and PVA mix on almost everything and my spines have held up better than they ever did. The humidity in my basement sits around 62% in summer, which I ignored for way too long. Anyone else give up on the homemade stuff, or am I just bad at cooking paste?

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val_ramirez7d ago

That line about ignoring the humidity in your basement for too long really hits. I see the same thing everywhere, people stick with the hard way because someone told them it was the right way, and then one small thing they were told to ignore, like damp air, wrecks the whole project. Same deal with sourdough starters, cast iron seasoning, all of it. We treat these old methods like religion when half the reason they existed was that people had no other choice at the time. Your 2 to 1 mix is just you being honest about what actually works in your space.

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