c/bookbinders

Took me 8 years to figure out I was gluing my book cloth wrong

Always used PVA for everything. Then at a workshop last spring, another binder said to try wheat paste for cloth instead. The difference in how flat the covers lay is night and day. No more bubbling or peeling at the edges. Has anyone else had a better experience with paste over PVA for certain materials?

Thought I was being clever using a heat gun to speed up glue drying on a spine...

I was working on a 16th century style binding replica last Saturday and decided to use my heat gun on low to hurry up the PVA on the spine. Well, I got distracted for maybe 45 seconds and ended up charring the leather right through the mull. Now I have a crisp black patch that looks like I dropped a cigarette on it. Has anyone else melted something they shouldn't have with a heat gun?

Pro tip: waxing your thread changed my whole approach to sewing

I was talking to a guy at a bindery meetup in Columbus last month, and he said something that stuck with me. He told me "if your thread isn't waxed right, you're fighting the book from the start." I had always just used whatever came with my kit, but after trying his method of beeswax with a little pressure, my stitching feels way smoother and more consistent. Has anyone else found a specific wax blend that works better for certain spine sizes?

Old bookbinder at a guild meetup told me my thread tension was all wrong

I was at a guild meetup in Portland last month and this guy in his 70s watched me sewing a text block for like two minutes... he said I was pulling the thread way too tight and it would warp the spine over time. I always thought tighter was better for a firm book, but he showed me how to let the thread sit looser and let the sections breathe a bit. Tried it on my last rebind of a 1920s novel and the spine opened way flatter... anyone else get feedback that totally flipped their technique?

Question about how long you let your book press sit before opening

I left a rebind in my press for almost a week last month and the pages came out way flatter than my usual overnight. Does anyone else experiment with longer pressing times or is that just overkill for most projects?

That time a retired bookbinder told me I was doing my spines wrong

I was at a shop in Portland last month talking to this old timer who was looking at the rebinds I had with me. He asked why all my spines were so tight and perfect, and I said because that's how I was taught to make them look clean. He laughed and said I was making my books harder to open and more likely to crack down the line. At first I blew him off because I thought tight spines meant quality work. But he showed me an example he had in his bag where the spine had a tiny bit of play in it and let the book open flat. I tested it and honestly the difference was huge. Now I'm trying to unlearn years of muscle memory. Has anyone else had to go back and fix a habit you thought was the right way?

Stopped by a used bookstore in Portland last weekend and spotted something wild

They had a whole shelf of books where someone had rebound them all in matching red cloth with gold foil titles. Anybody ever run into a collection like that in the wild?

Almost ruined a first edition with cheap glue

Paid $12 for some bargain PVA glue at a craft store and had it eat through the spine of a 1920s poetry book within a week. Has anyone here found a decent archival glue that doesn't cost a fortune?

Old timer at a bindery in Chicago told me my sewing frame tension was way too tight

I was showing him my latest project last Tuesday, a 16th century style binding, and he just reached over and loosened the cords by a full turn, no warning. He said I was crushing the signatures and that the spine would crack inside a year with that much stress, which honestly made my stomach drop because I had been doing it that way for like five years. Have any of you gotten a seemingly small critique that completely shifted how you approach a whole part of the process?

Talked with a retired binder from the 60s last week and he laughed at my PVA glue setup

He told me he used to make his own wheat paste from scratch every morning and said the smell alone taught him more about paper grain than any book ever could, and now I'm wondering if I rely too much on modern stuff - anyone else ever switch their glue method and notice a real difference?

A guy at the Seattle bindery supply shop warned me about that cheap PVA glue.

He told me it dries brittle in six months and showed me a book he had to rebind that fell apart because the previous guy used the dollar store stuff, has anyone else seen that happen?

Those expensive Japanese bookbinding knives? Total game changer, I was so wrong.

I used to think spending $80 on a single knife was ridiculous. Ive been using a cheap $15 x-acto for years and thought it was fine. Then I got a Hasegawa blade at a craft fair in Seattle last spring just to see what the fuss was about. First cut through some handmade paper and it was like butter. No tearing, no crushed edges. I even got cleaner corners on my spine pieces. Has anyone else tried a nicer knife and felt silly for waiting so long?

Picked up a tip from a lady at the Portland Book Festival that saved my endbands

I was at the Portland Book Festival last month checking out the vendor tables, and this older woman who restores antique books saw me struggling with a wobbly endband on a rebind I brought to show. She told me to try using a darning needle instead of a regular sewing needle for the thread path. It sounds stupid simple but it actually kept the tension even and I didn't lose the shape. Has anyone else gotten a random trick like that from a stranger at a show?

I finally learned the hard way that PVA glue from the hardware store isn't the same as bookbinders PVA

A retired bookbinder named Frank told me to stop using Elmer's for my rebinds last February and I ignored him, now all my 2023 journals are falling apart at the spines because the cheap stuff doesn't flex with the paper over time, has anyone else had a whole batch of books fail on them this way?

Finally matched my headband with my spine after 7 tries

I've been trying to get a clean headband and spine match on this 1890s poetry book for weeks. Finally figured out the leather was too thick for the first 6 attempts, so I thinned it down to about 1mm. Last night I got the gold tooling to line up perfect for the first time ever. Has anyone else fought with a tricky spine and headband combo that just would not cooperate?

Finally figured out my grain direction problem after 6 months of frustration

I've been struggling with my book boards warping after glue up for what felt like forever. Took me 6 months (and like 15 ruined covers) to realize I was ignoring the grain direction on my binder's board. A guy at the local shop in Portland told me to always run the grain parallel to the spine and I thought I was doing it right. Now I double check every single sheet with a bend test before cutting. Has anyone else had a similar dumb mistake that took way too long to catch?

I used to hate sanding signatures but an old timer set me straight

Guy at a guild meeting in Portland told me I was skipping the most important step by not roughing up the folds before sewing. Tried it on my next rebind of a 1910 poetry book and the whole thing laid flatter than anything I'd done before. Anybody else got a simple tip that totally flipped their process?

Just realized my bookbinding thread has an expiration date

I was reorganizing my supplies last weekend and found a spool of linen thread I bought back in 2020. Went to use it on a project and it kept snapping with barely any tension. Looked it up and apparently linen and cotton threads can dry rot after about 3-5 years if they aren't stored right. My thread was sitting in a cardboard box in my garage here in Phoenix and I think the heat did it in. Has anyone else run into thread going bad on them or am I just unlucky with storage?

Took me twenty years to realize I was stitching my spines backwards

I was at a workshop in Portland last spring and a younger binder glanced at my work and asked why my spine piece was facing the wrong grain direction. I had been doing it the same way since 2003. Nobody ever said anything before. Has anyone else had a basic technique flipped on them after decades?

That ph chart in old bookbinding manuals is misleading

I was looking up pH neutral adhesives for a restoration project and found out that most old bookbinding manuals reference a pH scale that's off by about 0.5 points. The Library of Congress put out a paper back in 2021 showing how common test strips can read differently depending on the paper's buffering. Has anyone else run into this with their own supplies?

Tried a wheat paste recipe from 1887 and my book covers looked completely different...

I was digging through this old bookbinding manual I found at a thrift store downtown, and it had a recipe for wheat paste that called for boiling the flour for 45 minutes straight. I figured hey, how different could it be from my usual 10 minute microwave method? Well, after I let that stuff cool overnight and used it the next morning, the glue was way more tacky and held the spine lining like a dream. Usually I get these little bubbles or warping after a day or two, but this batch stayed flat and smooth. The color was even different too, it dried a bit more matte instead of shiny. I'm wondering if the long boil breaks down the starches in a whole other way... has anyone else tried old school paste recipes that just blew their modern technique out of the water?

That shelf life on PVA glue surprised me more than I'd like to admit

I was looking up why some of my older bookbindings were starting to come apart at the seams, and I stumbled across a fact from a conservation forum that really caught me off guard. Turns out most standard PVA glues only last about 5 years before they start breaking down and losing their hold. The specific stat I found from a restoration group out of Boston said that after 7 years, the bond strength can drop by nearly 40 percent. I've been using the same gallon jug of generic PVA for almost 8 years now, thinking it was fine as long as it looked and smelled normal. That explains why a cookbook I rebound in 2019 is already showing edge separation on the spine. Has anyone else tested older glue batches and seen this kind of failure?

Had a customer at the craft fair insist I should 'just glue it' instead of stitching a textblock

Rinsed my bookcloth wrong and ruined a whole cover job yesterday

I was in a hurry binding a novel for a client and used tap water to thin my PVA. The cloth warped like crazy and left weird tide marks all over the cover. Lesson learned: only use distilled water for any glue mix, or even just straight PVA. Anybody else screw up a project with something as dumb as water choice?

Question about book cloth not sticking to board

I tried using a new roll of book cloth last week on a project and it just would not stick to the boards. The adhesive I always use is wheat paste, same recipe I have been using for 5 years. But this cloth peeled right off after pressing overnight. I used a different brand of cloth than usual, some from a craft store that was cheaper than my normal supplier. Is the problem the cloth or did I mess up the paste ratio? Maybe I need a stronger adhesive like PVA for this material. Has anyone else had cloth fail to bond with wheat paste before?