c/bookbinders

Switched to paper grain direction after a customer pointed it out

I used to never think about grain direction, just cut whatever way the paper felt right. Last month a customer in Austin brought back a journal where the covers were curling bad, and she showed me how the grain was running sideways. I looked it up and felt dumb, now I check every sheet before cutting. Has anyone else had a project fail because of grain direction, or is it just me?

Warped book board after a humid weekend in Austin

Left a stack of Davey board in the garage for two days and the humidity made them curl like potato chips. Took me 4 hours of pressing and re-pressing to get them flat enough to cut. Anyone else store their board indoors now after a close call?

The day my book press slipped and I blamed the wrong glue

Last spring I was flattening a batch of 12 covers in my garage workshop in Portland. I stacked them in the press like always, tightened it down, and walked away for 20 minutes. When I came back, the top three boards had shifted and left these ugly diagonal creases across the middle. At first I figured my PVA mix was too thin, so I switched to a thicker paste and tried again. Same result. Turns out the press platen had a tiny wobble from a loose bolt underneath, not the adhesive at all. After I tightened that bolt and added a cheap cork liner, the creases vanished completely. Has anyone else had a tool failure masquerade as a material issue? I spent a whole weekend chasing the wrong variable.

I finally stopped fighting my press and checked the humidity

After 8 years of blaming my nipping press for warped boards every single time, a shop in Portland told me my room was sitting at 70% RH and now I check a $12 hygrometer before every glue-up, anyone else chase their tail on this for way too long?

Best $60 I ever spent on a good bone folder, save your fingers

I finally caved and bought a proper bone folder after 3 years of using a plastic one from a craft kit. That cheap one kept cracking and the edge got rough, which actually scratched up my paper spines more than once. The new one is real bone, cost me $60 at a local supply shop in Austin, and it's night and day. It burnishes way smoother and I can get into tight hinges without wrecking my hands. I also realized I was pressing way too hard before, the weight of the tool does the work. If you're still using a plastic folder, seriously think about upgrading, it's worth every penny. Anyone else have a simple tool that quietly changed their binding game?

My old teacher's edge-folding trick still beats modern presses

Back in 2007 I apprenticed under a guy in Portland who taught me to fold edges with a bone folder and a steel ruler, no press needed. Last month I tried the same method on a batch of 40 journals and it took me half the time the shop's new nipping press did. The fold line comes out sharper too, because you control the pressure along the whole spine by hand. Any other binders still skip the fancy equipment for certain steps, or am I the only one stuck in the past?

Rebacked a 1924 novel and the spine finally cooperated on try 5

Spent Tuesday fighting with a wobbly text block from an old Scribner's copy, switched from wheat paste to PVA after my third fail, and the spine creased just right at the hinge, has anyone else hit that sweet spot where the animal glue and the cloth finally agree?

Foredge painting glue keeps bleeding through my text block

I've been at this for 8 years and every tutorial I watch skips over the part where you actually apply the size before painting. I tried hide glue at 45% strength last week on a 300 page book and it soaked straight through the first 12 pages of signatures near the foredge. How do you keep the sizing thin enough to hold pigment without it wicking into the paper? I'm about to just use a spray adhesive like that guy from the Portland Guild meeting suggested, but that feels wrong.

Dipping brush handles in paint is my new pet peeve

Last month at a guild demo in Austin, someone dipped the brush handle into the glue pot while reaching for a book cloth, and nobody said a word. I get that we're all moving fast, but that residue ruins grip and transfers onto covers if you're not careful. Anyone else have shop habits they secretly judge but never call out?

Found out book cloth is just cotton with a fancy name, blew my mind

I was rebacking a 1904 encyclopedia set and the buckram I ordered showed up with a weave I swore was canvas. Looked at the label, it said cotton cloth, so I dug into the supplier's spec sheet and turns out most book cloth, even the archival stuff, is just cotton treated with starch or acrylic. I paid $86 for a roll that's basically heavy duty bedsheet material with extra steps. The starch coating is what gives it that crisp fold, not some magic binder secret. Has anyone else stumbled on a trade 'secret' that turned out to be way simpler than you thought?

Glue pot vs. PVA brush, I finally picked one

After years of flipping between a double boiler glue pot and a plain PVA brush, I forced myself to stick with the pot for a whole month. The pot keeps the temperature steady, which matters a lot when you're doing a long run of text blocks in one sitting. My hinges came out flatter and the paste didn't dry out mid-application like it always did with the brush. But cleaning the pot takes forever, so I'm wondering if anyone else has found a faster way to keep it from crusting up between rounds?

The $60 grain filler that nearly ruined my oak restoration

Picked up a can of that fancy water-based grain filler from a shop in Portland last month, thinking it would save time on a coffee table. Sanded and applied it exactly like the label said, but it dried chalky and pulled the stain uneven, looked worse than bare wood. Spent another 20 hours stripping it off with acetone and redoing the whole top, so that bargain cost me more in labor than the piece is worth. Is there any filler out there that actually behaves on open-pore oak without turning into a nightmare, or should I just stick to shellac and pumice like the old-timers?

A retired bookbinder in Milwaukee told me my spine hinges were too tight

Old bookbinder in Portland showed me a trick with a bone folder I still use

I was at a shop in Portland last spring, watching this retired guy fix a 1920s novel. He told me to stop pressing so hard with the bone folder, said it's about the angle not the force. He ran it along the spine crease at like 15 degrees, and the paper folded clean without cracking. I tried it on my next batch of journals and honestly it cut my mistakes in half. Has anyone else picked up a weird habit from watching an older binder work?

Paper grain direction used to mean nothing to me... until last month

I've been binding for maybe 4 years now, mostly hobby stuff out of my garage in Cleveland. Always just grabbed whatever paper was on sale and never really thought about grain. Then I made this batch of journals for a craft fair, like 15 of them, and every single cover warped within 3 days. Someone at the fair told me to check the grain on the text block vs the cover board. Turns out they were perpendicular... no wonder they looked like potato chips. Spent a whole Saturday redoing 6 of them with the grain running the right way. Has anyone else fought this battle? How do you tell grain direction when the package doesn't say?

The librarian who asked me to fix her 1923 travel guide

Last Thursday a local librarian brought me this beat-up 1923 travel guide with a cracked spine and missing pages, asked if I could do anything without a full rebuild. She watched me work for 20 minutes and said she didnt care about perfect, she just wanted to be able to open it without the pages falling out. I recased it with rice paper and linen tape, cost her $45, but now Im wondering if there are better ways to handle brittle paper than the standard Japanese tissue trick for these older books with coated stock.

Customer asked me to 'just glue it' and watched me cringe for a full minute

This lady in my shop last Tuesday pointed at her 30 year old Bible with a detached spine and said 'can't you just use school glue?' and after I explained the whole acid free, pH neutral thing she told me her nephew could do it cheaper with a hot glue gun, so has anyone else had to fake a smile while explaining why that idea makes me want to cry?

Lining up book cloth grain saved my covers from curling

I kept making hardcover bindings that warped after a week, no matter how much PVA I used. Turns out I was ignoring the grain direction on the book cloth, cutting it every which way. After 3 ruined covers in a row, I tested a scrap piece and saw it curled along the same line as the weave. Now I always run my finger across the cloth to feel the grain before cutting, just like paper. It takes 10 extra seconds and my last 12 covers came out flat and square. Anyone else fight this or do you just use buckram for everything?

The library copy of Moby Dick with all the margin notes

I was rebinding a beat up 1960s library edition of Moby Dick last week for a customer in Portland, and someone had written all over the margins in pencil. Tiny little thoughts like 'this is about whaling but also about obsession' and 'why does he keep listing stuff'. I almost erased them to give it a clean start, but I stopped. Those notes are part of the book's history now, and they tell a story about who read it before. Do you guys ever leave the previous owner's scribbles in a rebind, or do you always clean them out?

Tried using a wallpaper backing for a book cover and it split after 3 days

I was running low on buckram and thought I'd get clever with some heavy wallpaper backing I had left from a project. Glued it onto some Davey board, pressed it overnight, and it looked great. Three days later the paper started splitting right along the spine hinge. Lesson learned: don't cheap out on covering materials for hardbacks. Has anyone found a good substitute for book cloth that actually holds up?

DAE notice people use way too much glue when doing spine repairs?

I see it all the time in restoration groups. Someone posts a photo of a broken spine and there's glue dripping everywhere. I messed up my first repair on an old textbook from 1988 by using too much PVA. It seeped into the hinge and made the pages stick together permanently. Less really is more when you're working with book cloth and loose bindings. Has anyone else ruined a project by overdoing the adhesive?

Finally gave in and tried Japanese bookbinding after swearing it was just a fad

I spent 3 years calling it overrated until I fixed a torn 1920s journal with a modified stab stitch and it held up better than my usual Coptic bind - has anyone else found a traditional style that actually outperforms modern methods for certain repairs?

I finally switched to PVA glue for my bookbinding projects

I used to swear by wheat paste, but after my last batch of 6 books started warping 3 months in, I had to change. The PVA dries way faster and holds flatter, no more waiting days for the paste to cure. Anyone else make the switch and notice a difference in their spine flex?

Tried making a book cover out of old t-shirt fabric, it was a disaster

I had this idea to upcycle an old band t-shirt into a flexible book cover. Soaked it in starch, glued it to some chipboard, and let it dry for 24 hours. The fabric just peeled right off and left a sticky mess all over my desk. Has anyone else tried a weird material for a cover and had it backfire?

Old timer at the guild meeting told me I was binding books wrong for 10 years

I was at the Philly Bookbinders Guild meetup last April, showing off my new leather spine cover, and this 70 year old dude named Frank just pointed and said 'that's gonna fall apart in 6 months because you skipped the lining step.' He was right, I'd been skipping the spine lining on all my bindings since I started. Has anyone else had someone call them out on a basic step that you just never learned?