Rant: My mentor told me my paste was too thin and it wrecked my whole project

I was making a rebinding for an old 1920s novel last week and my paste was running everywhere. My mentor who's been binding for 40 years watched me for like 2 minutes and said 'your paste is too thin, it's gonna bubble under the cloth.' I brushed it off but sure enough the next morning the cover had these nasty air pockets. Now I gotta redo the whole thing. Has anyone else had a simple paste ratio mess up their whole timeline?

3 comments

3 Comments

fiona_kim9719d ago

Four decades in and dude can't give you a proper ratio to start with? I'd say the bubbles are on him for being vague, not you for guessing wrong.

wade_kelly7719d ago

@fiona_kim97 right? Four decades and he's still tossing out "a splash of this" and "a pinch of that" like it's a cooking show. Guess the bubbles paid for that mystery.

violag8019d ago

A splash and a pinch are fine for someone who's been cooking for themselves for years, but if you're trying to teach someone, you gotta be specific. If I were learning a new recipe and got "a splash of that" I'd just be guessing the whole time. It's not really on the person trying to follow along if the instructions are that loose. Maybe the guy just doesn't realize how much he's relying on muscle memory after all that time.