# How do I repair an old leather-bound book?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-repair-an-old-leather-bound-book/641617>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 20, 2012, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-repair-an-old-leather-bound-book/641617 "2012-11-20T14:50:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-repair-an-old-leather-bound-book/641617/1 "2012-11-20T14:50:20Z")

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I’ve got a old leather-bound book. Dropped it accidentally the other day and the spine broke away on one side; still connected on the other side.

What’s the best way to repair it? Normal white glue probably isn’t very good because it set hard

Woe something like Lepage’s rubber cement be better? Would it keep it flexible enough?

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**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-repair-an-old-leather-bound-book/641617/2 "2012-11-20T15:01:03Z")

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Apparently the best glue for repairing leather books is [PVA](http://cloud.lib.wfu.edu/blog/pd/2008/07/28/conservators-toolkit/) aka [normal white glue](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvinyl_acetate).

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**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-repair-an-old-leather-bound-book/641617/3 "2012-11-20T16:21:07Z")

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If its something important to you or valuable to the market, seek a professional. It will take time and cost like the dickens but anything you do at home will be as much damage as repair.

That being said, I have a couple basically worthless old (1740s) books I keep to read around camp at historic events. For them I use white glue for spine repairs and then sometimes reinforce the repair by white gluing a strip of pillow ticking over the whole spine and partly into the front and rear boards.