Occasionally I glue notes, receipts, reminders, and drawings into my notebooks. After my glue stick that I had been using failed to keep a strong bond, I decided to conduct a glue test.
The good news is that all of the glues below worked with the 3 different notebooks I tested.
Glues
I purchased the 3 commercial glues at Hobby Lobby. The fourth glue is wheat paste recipe.
Wheat paste is a flour-based adhesive that has been used by book binders throughout the world for centuries. Traditionally, a larger quantity of paste is cooked on a stove. I found a couple of microwavable recipes online, and the one below is what I use. It results in a small amount, perfect for a couple of small projects. It’s not always convenient to mix up paste, so I use all of the other adhesives above too.
WHEAT PASTE RECIPE
- 1 Tablespoon distilled water
- 1/2 Teaspoon white flour
Place the water and flour in small bowl and stir well. Microwave for 10 seconds and stir again. Repeat this process 3-4 times, for a total of 30-40 seconds. Give the paste a final stir. Apply a thin layer of paste with a small brush.
Notebooks
I currently use 3 notebooks for different purposes.
- Paperblanks Midi, 120gsm, blank pages – used for sermon notes.
- Moleskine Large Art Sketch, 160gsm, blank pages – used for work notes.
- Notes for Learning, 160gsm, dot grid – used for bullet-journal style scheduling and tasks. I create these notebooks myself.
Method
I printed small strips of 120gsm paper (which I use for regular printing) and printed the glue types on the strips.
I applied the various glues to the strips and pressed them into the notebooks.
After 48 hours I pulled off the strips. All of these glues worked well and adhered well to the paper.
Results
Final thoughts
Knowing that all of these glues are effective means that I can use them interchangeably. The easiest to use, and probably the one that I’ll reach for first, is the Elmer’s glue stick, followed by the Elmer’s Glue-all.
Notes For Learning 