c/bookbinders

Finally got my sewing frame aligned after months of frustration

Used to just eyeball my sewing stations on a piece of scrap wood and hope for the best. About 3 weeks ago I picked up a small 6-inch carpenter's square from Home Depot for $8 and spent an afternoon marking everything out precise. Now my signatures line up perfectly every time and no more crooked spines. Has anyone else found a simple tool that changed their binding process?

Was totally against foam board bookbinding till I tried it on a gift project

I always thought foam board was some kind of cheat code for hobbyists who couldn't do real bindings. But my buddy asked me to make a custom scrapbook for his mom's 70th birthday last month, and the dude needed it done in like 4 days. I gave it a shot with some 5mm foam board from the craft store and honestly? That thing came out lightweight, sturdy, and the covers felt great. Has anyone else caved and found foam board works better than you'd expect?

Shoutout to the old timer who showed me a better way to trim endpapers

Last week this retired bookbinder named Frank came into the shop where I work and watched me cut endpapers for a rebind. He just said 'you're fighting the grain, kid' and handed me his bone folder. Showed me how to fold the paper first, then cut with the grain instead of against it. My edges are way cleaner now and I'm kicking myself for not learning this sooner. Has anyone else had a random stranger change how they do something basic?

Now I get why my granddad stuck with those old leather binding strips

I spent years rolling my eyes at the older binders in this shop I go to in Portland. They all swore by these crusty old leather strips for spine hinges, and I was all about modern synthetic adhesives. Then I had a batch of books fall apart after just 4 years because the glue got brittle. Last week I recased a 1920s novel that had those same leather strips and the spine was still flexible as ever. Has anyone else had a modern material fail on them while the old school stuff held up?

The day my sewing machine needle snapped on a 200-year-old folio was the moment I realized I'd been using the wrong thread all along

A conservator at the Met told me I needed unwaxed linen thread after I showed her my work, and now I'm questioning every book I've bound in the last 5 years - anyone else had a basic material swap totally change their results?

Guy at a bookbinding meetup told me he 'doesn't believe in grain direction'

PVC versus leather for book spine repairs on a 1920s novel I restored

I tackled a 1920s novel last month and used PVC for the spine repair on one copy and leather on another, and the leather held up way better after a few weeks of handling. Anyone else have strong feelings about which material wins for durability on older books?

PVA glue disaster on a leather spine last night

I was binding a Shakespeare folio in my garage around 11 PM and the PVA soaked right through my morocco leather, leaving sticky stains everywhere. Had to stop mid-bind and use a heat gun to peel it off before it ruined the whole thing. Anyone else had PVA bleed through on thinner leathers?

Showerthought: Why does everyone on YouTube use PVA glue like it's the only option for bookbinding?

I was watching a tutorial last night from a guy with 200k subscribers, and he was using basic Elmer's white glue to attach mull to a text block. Said it was 'perfectly fine.' Now I've been binding books for almost 30 years, started at a small shop in Portland back in the 90s, and I can tell you that PVA has its place. But it's not great for everything. It dries too rigid, and over time I've seen it crack on spines, especially with thicker books or any kind of use. I still prefer a good wheat paste or a PVA/wheat paste mix for most steps. The bond is stronger and more flexible. Has anyone else noticed this trend of people treating PVA like a one-size-fits-all fix? Or am I just shouting at clouds here?

Why does nobody talk about how much grain direction messes up new binders?

I was reading that old book 'Bookbinding: A Manual' by John Mason and it says like 90 percent of bookbinding mistakes come from ignoring grain direction. I've been doing this for 2 years and never paid attention until last week when I tried to rebind a paperback and the cover kept curling. Any other beginners have this catch you off guard too?

That moment a customer asked me to 'fix the smell' of their antique book

So this lady walks into my little bindery shop last Tuesday, holding this 1920s poetry book all wrapped in a towel. She hands it over and says 'it smells like my late uncle's attic, can you fix it?' I open it up and whoa, it hits me like a wall of old mothballs and musty paper. I had to explain that you can't just spray Febreze on a 100 year old cloth binding (though I bet she wanted me to). I spent about 45 minutes airing it out on my rack with a fan, then gently brushed the pages with a soft brush. She picked it up two days later and said it smelled 'acceptable' which I guess is a win. Has anyone else gotten weird requests like that, or is it just my corner of the trade?

Spent 3 hours trying to fix a wonky headband on a vintage book

I was working on rebinding an old novel from the 1920s and the headband kept sliding off center no matter how many times I glued it down. Tried different PVA mixes, clamping it weird, even used a hair dryer to speed up drying. Finally realized I was using way too thick of a thread for the style of the book. Swapped to a thinner silk thread and it sat perfect in like 15 minutes. Has anyone else had a tiny detail like that eat up half a day?

The 'saddle stitch' tutorial that took me 8 hours to figure out

I was trying to bind a 64 page zine for a friend's band, and every guide online made saddle stitching look like a 15 minute job. Well I sat down with my awl and thread and spent 4 hours just getting the first signature to not look like a mess. The needle kept pulling through the paper wrong, and my thread kept knotting up on itself. I finally realized I was using too thick of a thread, the wax was gumming everything up. After switching to a finer thread and pre-punching my holes with a smaller awl, it took another 4 hours to redo the whole thing. Has anyone else dealt with a simple stitch taking way longer than it should have just because of the wrong materials?

TIL the hard way that wheat paste takes about 45 minutes longer to dry than I thought on a humid day

Had a stack of book cloth pieces I glued up at 8 PM thinking they'd be dry by bedtime, but at midnight they were still tacky and I ended up ruining two covers because I got impatient and tried working with them anyway - has anyone found a good trick for speeding up drying time in summer weather?

Picked wheat paste over PVA for a restoration job and I'm still finding flakes everywhere a week later

Chose wheat paste thinking it'd be more reversible on a 1920s novel I'm rebinding, but the spine is starting to peel and I'm wondering if PVA would've held up better long-term, anyone else had bad luck with wheat paste on older paperbacks?

Bone folder vs the back of a spoon - which actually works better?

I got into a huge argument with my bookbinding meetup group last week in Portland about pressing tools. I always use a proper bone folder for my creases and that's what I learned from my teacher back in 2019. But this one guy showed up with a metal spoon from his kitchen and did a whole rebind with it. His corners looked just as clean as mine honestly. I tried the spoon trick on a sewn text block last night and it actually worked fine for the spine folds but I still prefer my bone folder for the hinge area. So here's the question for you all - am I just being old school about proper tools or does the spoon method actually hold up for professional quality work? Has anyone else tested this against a real folder on leather or cloth covers?

I watched a 1980s hardcover fall apart in 3 minutes after I tried to open it flat

Found an old Stephen King first edition at a thrift store in Pittsburgh last weekend. Looked fine on the shelf. Got it home and tried to open it to read and the spine just cracked. Not the cool kind of crack either. Pages started falling out. Realized the glue had completely dried up after 40 years. Guy at the counter warned me but I didnt listen. Anyone else ever buy a book that looked solid but was basically dead inside?

Warning: Don't skip grain direction when you cut bookcloth

I keep seeing new binders online cut their cloth any which way, and then wonder why their covers warp or bubble up after a week. It's the grain pulling the board out of shape, and you can test it yourself with a simple bend test before you glue anything down. Has anyone else run into this or am I just being picky?

Unpopular opinion: glue sticks beat paste pots for spine lining every time

I spent my first two years binding books using a paste pot for spine linings because that's what the old-timers swore by. Last month I finally caved and tried a decent glue stick for a small repair job on a 1900s novel someone brought me. Honestly, the control was way better - no drips, no mess, and I didn't have to keep stirring the pot. Has anyone else switched away from paste and found it works better for certain steps?

That trick with bone folders and wet paper I keep seeing wrong

I was at a workshop last month and watched three people try to crease text weight paper with a bone folder on the wet glue side and it just shredded every sheet. The whole point of bone folders is they don't leave marks, but if the paper is damp from paste it will tear every time no matter how smooth the tool is. Has anyone else noticed this is like a huge blind spot in beginner tutorials or am I just seeing the wrong ones?

Had a week where every single hinge screw stripped out

Last Tuesday was the worst day I've had in my shop. Got a rush job binding a 600-page textbook for a local library. Every hinge screw I tried to set just spun in place. Stripped out 18 of them on the first book alone. Turns out the wood was some cheap particle board they used for the covers. Had to stop everything, drive across town to a different supplier for better backing boards. Cost me 4 hours and a whole afternoon of profits. Has anyone else run into mystery materials that ruin your day like that?

Found a trick for matching headbands without a table saw

So last Tuesday I was trying to match some headbands for a rebind I'm doing on an old Penguin classic, and I couldn't get the width right no matter how many passes I made with my hand plane. I wound up wasting a whole strip of bookcloth before I remembered how I square up fence posts on site. I clamped a straight edge to my workbench as a fence, then ran the headband material against it while trimming with an X-Acto. It worked way better than freehanding it. Now I can get two pieces within a millimeter of each other every time. Has anyone else improvised with construction tools for bookbinding?

Pro tip: I aged my first batch of leather too fast and it cracked like crazy

I tried to rush a full calfskin cover through a 2-day drying process last month and it turned into a brittle mess. Stitching pulled right through it like tissue paper. Anyone else wreck a project by skipping the slow cure?

I switched from PVA to wheat paste for my bookcloth and it fixed a big problem

I was using PVA glue for my bookcloth for about a year, but it kept bubbling on me after it dried, especially on darker fabrics. I switched to wheat paste last month and the adhesion is smoother and the cloth lays way flat without any wrinkles. Has anyone else had better luck with one over the other for spine inlays?

Folded pages backwards for 2 years before I saw someone else's book

I had been binding journals for a hobby business, folding all my signatures with the grain going the wrong way on purpose. Last month I went to a bindery meetup in Portland and watched a guy assemble his text block in about half the time. I asked why he folded his paper opposite of what I did and he just stared at me. Turns out I misread a beginner diagram and never bothered to double check my method. Has anyone else learned a basic skill wrong and stuck with it for way too long?