c/bookbinders

kai914•12h ago

My rounded spine was backwards for 8 years until a customer pointed it out

I built hardcover books for almost a decade using a rounded spine because I thought the curve had to face outward toward the cover. Last spring, a retired bookbinder from Des Moines picked up one of my journals at a craft fair and said, “The hump goes inside the text block, not against the casing.” I stood there speechless while he opened the joint and showed me how the backing hammer shapes the swell so the spine sits convex on the inside. Every book I had sold had the curve punched the wrong way, which meant the covers never squared up over time and the pages kept pulling forward. I spent a whole weekend rebinding three sample copies to test his method, and the difference in how they lay flat was instant and obvious. How many of you learned a basic technique years into this craft from a total stranger, and did it sting as much as it did for me?

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kelly.nora•3d ago

Cotton thread vs linen thread, my spine repair just got easier

I spent 3 months fixing old library books with cotton thread and kept having to redo the sewing. Switched to linen thread from a shop in Philly last Friday and the stitches hold shape without twisting. Do you find linen worth the extra few dollars per spool for rebinding?

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christopher_sullivan•5d ago

Warning: that $80 book press from the auction site was a trap

Bought a cast iron book press on eBay last Tuesday. Looks great on the shelf, but the jaws are so misaligned it crushes one corner every single time. Tried shimming it with cardboard, still crooked. Anyone found a way to fix an off-kilter press or am I just out the cash?

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betty_palmer•7d ago

Mull over PVA vs wheat paste for a tight-back rebind, landed on one

I had to pick between PVA and wheat paste for a rebind last month, went with PVA for speed but the spine crackled after drying. Next project I'm testing a 50/50 mix, anyone else run into that issue with tighter joints?

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terry_lewis21•9d ago

That cracked spine on the $80 folio made me rethink everything

Last month I was flattening a sewn binding and saw a customer's old $80 folio crack right down the hinge, so I asked them how long they'd owned it. Three years of daily carry with no support strip, is that just a built-in flaw or are we all skipping a step?

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terry_wood51•17d ago

Hit 500 spine repairs and found out my hands know more than my brain

I keep a log book for every book that comes through my bench. Last Tuesday I hit number 500. That's a lot of cracked hinges and wobbly text blocks. The weird part is I dont think about the steps anymore, I just do them. Has anyone else hit a repair milestone that made them realize how much was muscle memory?

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susana66•17d ago

Customer asked me to rebind their cookbook, found 40 year old love note inside

Guy brings in this beat up pasta cookbook for new covers. I open the spine and a folded note drops out, it was from his wife to him, dated 1984. He just stood there quiet, paid the $60, and I never saw him again. Anyone else ever find something weird tucked in a binding?

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gray6•18d ago

Old book I rebinding split at the spine a week after I finished it

I used wheat paste for a 1924 novel and it held fine for 6 days, then the spine just cracked open on my shelf in Austin. Turns out the old boards were too dry for paste, I should have used a flexible PVA mix instead. Anyone else run into dried-out boards wrecking a rebind weeks later?

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kim191•19d ago

My hinge trick that's stirring up the shop

I've been binding for about 5 years now, mostly in my garage in Austin. Last month I started using a thin strip of Tyvek under the hinge when I glue up the text block, and it's cut my cracking issues by like 90%. But my buddy at the bindery says it's just a band-aid and real binders use linen. I swear by it for flex, but I'm wondering if I'm just making future repairs worse. Has anyone else tried Tyvek hinges or is this a shortcut that's gonna bite me later?

1 comments

taylor668•19d ago

My sew board vs. cutting mat showdown

Had to pick between a proper $40 sew board and my old self-healing cutting mat. Went with the sew board from Talas in Brooklyn. Way better for rounded spines, the cork surface grips like nothing else. Anyone else skip the mat and go straight to a board?

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michaelchen•20d ago

Sewing frame screw stripped right before a 200 page rebind

Last Tuesday I was in my basement workshop in Dayton, getting ready to sew a 200 page textblock, and one of the wing nuts on my sewing frame just gave up. The threads were completely gone, so the crossbar kept slipping and I couldn't hold tension at all. I ended up clamping the posts to my table edge with two 3 inch C-clamps, which worked okay but made the setup feel wobbly. Has anyone else had this fail mid-project, and did you just replace the hardware or switch to a different frame entirely?

2 comments

thomas275•21d ago

The day I stopped fighting my thread and started measuring twice

Used to just cut binding thread by eye and then wonder why my coptic stitch books wobbled every time. Last month in Portland I finally timed myself, spent 20 minutes measuring and marking each section before sewing, and the spine came out dead flat. It felt slow and boring at first, but the finished book sat square on the shelf without any lean. Has anyone else switched from guessing to actual measurement and seen a huge jump in quality?

2 comments

kim191•22d ago

Forty-one spines in one weekend, never thought I'd hit that

I always figured I was a slow hand at case binding, maybe 15 books tops in a sitting. Then last Saturday in my garage I just kept going, no breaks for football, and hit 41 full cloth bindings by Sunday night. What convinced me was counting my thread waste at the end, less than a third of what I normally toss, so I guess my rhythm finally fixed itself. Anyone else ever suddenly beat your own pace by that much without changing your setup?

1 comments

rileyellis•22d ago

My shears went from butter to rusty garbage in 5 days of shop dust

Left my 8 inch shears on the bench during a leather binding run and the fine grit from skiving ate the edge so bad I had to send them out for a regrind, has anyone else had their cutting tools wrecked by environmental dust in their bindery?

2 comments

henry_martinez•23d ago

Saw a shop in Philly stamping edges with a hammer, is that skill dying out?

I was in Philadelphia last month for a craft fair and stopped by this small bindery near Old City. The guy there was hand-stamping gold on book edges with a brass tool and a hammer, no machine at all. He said it takes him 20 minutes per book just for that step, and he learned it from his grandfather. I got to try a test piece and my lines were all over the place, way harder than it looks. Now I'm wondering, with all the cheap foil machines out there, are we losing something real by not teaching this method? On one hand, speed and consistency matter when you're trying to pay rent. On the other hand, that hand-stamped edge has a character you just can't fake. Has anyone else run into a binder still doing this the old way, and do you think it's worth the time?

1 comments

tyler_bell•23d ago

Glue vs. sewing on a leather journal, which side are you on?

I spent a whole Sunday last month putting together a leather journal for my sister's birthday in Portland. I had all the materials laid out: nice goat skin, some 80lb text block, and two options staring back at me. I went with glue-only because I was short on time and figured a good PVA would hold just fine. It looked great when I handed it over, but two weeks later she texted me that the pages were starting to pull away from the spine. Now I'm wondering if I should have taken the extra hour to sew the sections in, even if it meant a bulkier build. Do you all stick with one method for personal projects, or does it depend on how the book will actually get used? Has anyone else had a glued binding fail on them after a few weeks of daily wear?

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the_dylan•23d ago

Old library lady taught me a hinge trick 5 years ago, still use it today

Back in 2017 I was repairing a beat-up 1940s hymnal at the public library in Eugene and this retired binder named Ruth watched me struggle with the hinge. She said "stop fighting the grain," then showed me how to dampen the spine and let it sit under weight for 15 minutes before pressing. Do you guys ever learn something from a stranger that just sticks with you like that, or is it mostly trial and error?

2 comments

johnson.jesse•24d ago

The $60 bone folder that snapped on week two

I bought a fancy bone folder from a craft store downtown, teflon coated and everything, paid $60 for it thinking it would last forever. Second week in, I'm pressing a leather spine and the thing just cracks in half, clean break right at the handle. I could have bought three cheap plastic ones for that price and probably gotten more use out of them combined. Anybody else had luck with a specific brand that doesn't fall apart under real pressure, or am I just cursed with bad luck?

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grant.sam•27d ago

That moment my book press decided to become a catapult

I was at my home shop in Portland pressing a batch of 6 text blocks and the wooden clamp just snapped mid-crank, sending a bunch of signatures flying across the room, so I spent the next 20 minutes picking up mangled pages off the floor and re-folding them, anyone else ever have a tool fail at the worst possible second?

2 comments

sagep19•1mo ago

My first flatback spine came out crooked and I almost quit

I was working on a poetry collection for a friend last Saturday and my flatback spine went completely crooked. I got so frustrated I almost tossed the whole thing in the trash. Instead I stepped away for 20 minutes, made some tea, and came back with fresh eyes. I realized my glue brush had a dried lump on the tip that was throwing off my pressure. I cleaned the brush and redid the spine on scrap paper twice before going back to the real project. The second attempt came out straight but I still see a tiny wobble near the tail. Anyone else have a specific tool issue mess up their work like that?

2 comments

michaelchen•1mo ago

Question about trimming book cloth on the grain direction

I watched three different bookbinding videos last week and none of them bother to mention cutting book cloth with the grain, so why does my spine keep cockling after a week when I follow their methods?

2 comments

grant.nina•1mo ago

Chat with my mom about old book glue made me rethink everything

She was telling me how my grandpa used wheat paste in the 1950s for his amateur bindings, and I realized I've been overthinking modern adhesives for years. Has anyone else tried a simple PVA mix instead of those expensive archival glues?

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jordang32•1mo ago

That premium leather I bought for $120 was a complete waste

I spent $120 on a top-grain goat leather hide from a specialty supplier for my last project, thinking it would last forever. The stuff cracked and peeled after just 6 months on a journal cover I treated with the same care as my cheaper materials. Has anyone else had bad luck with expensive leather, or did I just pick a bad supplier?

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paulw87•1mo ago

Waited 6 months before trying Japanese paper hinges for a repair

I was dead set against using Japanese paper hinges for a long time. Thought it was just hipster bookbinding hype until a 1908 bible came in with pages so brittle I had no other option. The thing held up perfectly after 4 months of use so who else here was skeptical about something in the trade that turned out to be legit?

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norathomas•1mo ago

Had a customer point out my endpapers were too tight

I had this older gentleman pick up a rebind I did for a poetry collection and he just said, 'the endpapers are choking the text block.' He showed me how the paper was pulling at the hinge. I realized he was right, I had been cutting them too short to save time and money. Now I leave a good 3mm extra on each endpaper for movement. Has anyone else had a customer call out something that made you rework your whole process?

2 comments