A client brought me a book to fix that was literally held together with duct tape

This happened about two months ago at my small shop in Eugene. A nice older man came in with a very old family Bible, and it was a mess. The spine was gone, pages were loose, and someone had tried to 'fix' it by wrapping the whole thing in thick gray duct tape. He handed it to me and said, 'My grandson did this for me, he's a very handy boy.' I had to keep a straight face while I explained that duct tape is acidic and the adhesive will basically melt into the paper over time, making a proper repair way harder. I spent the next hour carefully peeling it off with a bone folder and some solvent, and the pages underneath were already stained. Has anyone else had a well-meaning repair job come in that made your heart sink a little?

3 comments

3 Comments

kim7335d ago

It's like when people use scotch tape on photos, that same good intentions but bad materials vibe.

hernandez.emma5d ago

Ngl that comparison feels a bit off to me. Sometimes the simple, cheap fix is all you need and it works just fine. It's more about the skill of the person doing it than the materials. A good result with basic stuff beats a bad job with fancy supplies any day.

elizabeth9005d ago

Exactly, it's like my dad always said about duct tape. He fixed our whole porch railing with it when I was a kid, and it held for a decade. A neighbor used some expensive epoxy kit and his railing fell apart in two years. The person using the stuff matters way more than the label on the tube.