I've been hand binding as a side gig for about 18 months, and last week I finished my 100th book. It hit me that every single one of those had a different problem to solve - a warped board, a bad spine, or a customer who wanted something totally weird. For anyone else who tracks their numbers, did you notice a big skill jump at a certain count?
I was binding a book in my garage last Saturday and bent the spine on a gift copy for my sister because I forgot the leather pad, now I keep one taped to my workbench and haven't had a dent since, anyone else got a simple trick they swear by?
I always wondered why my book spines had this tiny wave at the top and bottom even though I thought I was rounding evenly. Last month at the Portland Guild meetup, this older binder named Carol watched me work for five minutes and just said "you're pulling the backing hammer toward you instead of letting it fall." She showed me how I was overcorrecting the curve and making it lopsided. Anyone else have a basic motion they did wrong for way too long?
I was using a brand new brush on a batch of book cloth for a client order in Phoenix last week. About halfway through the paste started looking like a porcupine with all those bristles stuck in it. Has anyone else had a brush that just refused to stop shedding?
I had a regular back in 2021 in Spokane who insisted on using cheap PVA glue for every single hardcover rebind. I told him it would crack within a year on books over 400 pages, but he didn't listen. Sure enough, 6 months later he brought back three of them with the covers hanging off. Did he switch to a proper adhesive? Nope, just asked me to re-glue them the same way. Has anyone else dealt with a customer who refuses to change their methods even when the results keep failing?
I thought my glue was too thick so I kept messing with the consistency. Turns out I was just using the wrong brush size, switched to a smaller one and it fixed everything in 10 minutes. Has anyone else wasted a whole afternoon on something that simple?
I was rebinding an old novel last month and used a coated buckram from a big craft store. It peeled right off the boards after two weeks. Switched to a traditional starch-filled cloth I got from a specialty shop and that thing is still solid. Anyone else find the modern fabrics just don't hold up like the old methods?
I was finishing up a leather journal and the thread tension was off on the spine, ended up with these tiny gaps between each stitch. They pointed it out and asked if I could redo it, which felt awful in the moment. Has anyone else gotten criticism that actually made you step back and fix a bad habit in your binding?
After 20 years of doing this I've seen too many books fall apart from someone using the wrong glue on leather or vellum, so has anyone else noticed the newer crowd skipping the old tricks like wheat paste blends or do y'all just stick with one adhesive?
I was commuting back from a client meeting last fall, had a freshly bound journal in my bag I was real proud of. Somewhere around South Station the train lurched and I heard this awful wet crack. The spine had just... split open, glue all over my notes. Turns out I'd used a cheap PVA that wasn't rated for any temperature changes. Took me three evenings to redo that binding with proper hinge reinforcement. Has anyone else had a binding fail in a weird spot like that?
I've been using PVA for years because that's what I learned on. But after finishing binding number 50, I realized over half of them had spine cracking issues. Talked to a guy at the bindery supply shop in Eugene who convinced me to try wheat paste on my last five books. The difference in flexibility is huge and I won't go back. Has anyone else had better luck with one glue over another for different cover materials?
After melting three yards of bookcloth trying to use a standard household iron, I grabbed a cheap thrift store one for $5 and dedicated it to just bookbinding, setting it to the lowest cotton setting and using a pressing cloth, and now I haven't had a single scorch mark in 6 months - has anyone else had to experiment with iron temps after a disaster?
I did a full rebind of this old copy of 'The Hobbit' for a customer, used some nice marbled paper for the cover. Thought it looked great. He pointed out that the grain on the endpapers was running the wrong way, which he said would make the book not open flat and maybe crack the spine over time. Man, I was bummed. I had no idea that mattered so much. He was really nice about it, showed me how to check grain direction using a piece of his own paper. Now I always check before I glue anything down. Has anyone else had a customer teach them something basic they missed in the shop?
I was working on a 1940s novel that had really fragile paper and I didn't want to stress it with standard glue. A guy at the Austin book arts center suggested I try wheat paste since it's reversible and way gentler. It took longer to dry, like overnight, but the pages laid flat and nothing puckered. Has anyone else switched to wheat paste for older books?
I was digging through Powell's last weekend and found maybe 30 books that clearly got booted from some bindery for crooked spines or misaligned gold stamping. Half of them were perfectly fine to my eyes. Got me wondering - do we as binders toss stuff that any normal person would never notice? Or is it good to hold ourselves to a high standard? Curious where the rest of you draw that line.
I was at a workshop in Austin last spring and this old timer saw me creasing with my fingernail. He handed me his bone folder and said 'you're gonna mess up your spine doing that.' Tried it on a sewn text block and the difference was night and day. Cleaner creases, less wear. Been using one ever since. Anyone else have a tool they ignored at first that turned out to be essential?
I spent 5 days straight rebinding a set of 1940s encyclopedias for a local library in Portland, and by Wednesday I'd ruined 3 covers with glue that was too thick. Turns out my shop was sitting at 58 degrees because the AC was broken, and no one told me cold temps mess with PVA cure time. Has anyone else dealt with temperature ruining a batch of work like that?
I had this moment at the Seattle Bookbinding Guild meetup last month. This older lady named Carol saw me setting up my machine and she just said "you're missing the whole point" with a real serious look. She handed me a spine she had hand sewn and it felt totally different from anything I could do with my Pfaff. Now I'm stuck wondering if I should ditch the machine for my next project or if she was just being old school. What do you all think about hand vs machine sewing for durability?
My old mentor told me to try methylcellulose for hinge repairs last month and I was skeptical, but after fixing a 1920s novel with zero spine crack I'm fully converted. Has anyone else found PVA is overkill for certain repairs?
Some dude walks up while I'm rebinding a 1920s poetry collection and goes 'why use real leather when vegan leather is cheaper and nobody can tell the difference'. Told him my last vegan leather book started peeling after 2 years in a dry room. Has anyone else dealt with random people gatekeeping materials while you're just trying to work?
I was binding a 1920s poetry collection and couldn't decide between cotton buckram or linen. Went with linen because it lays flatter on thin boards. The spine lifted clean on the first try with no bubbles. Has anyone else switched materials based on the age of the book?
I was reading this old trade journal from the 1800s and found out that back then about 40% of the animal hide was just thrown out during cutting for book covers. That's nearly half the hide gone to waste. And they only used certain sections like the spine area or the shoulder. Today with modern cutting techniques we get closer to 85% usage. Makes me wonder what other materials we might be wasting without even realizing it. Has anyone else looked into old production numbers for leather or cloth?
I ran into a guy named Frank at the bindery supply store last Thursday. He saw me grabbing PVA and told me to try paste instead for my leather repair jobs. He said PVA dries too rigid and cracks over time on flexible spines, which made sense because I had a book come back after 6 months with a split hinge. I tried his suggested wheat paste mix on a 1920s novel I was working on. The difference in flexibility was night and day, it actually moves with the cover now. Has anyone else had better luck switching glue types for specific projects?
I noticed a few people at the guild meeting last month kept messing up their book cloth cuts. They were measuring each book over and over with a ruler and still coming out off by a few millimeters. I use this trick where I cut a strip of cardboard to the exact spine width plus 10mm for the hinge and just wrap it around to mark the cloth. It takes maybe 30 seconds once you have the template and I haven't had a misaligned spine piece in 6 months. Has anyone else found a faster way to mark cloth without all the measuring?
I always figured bookbinding was something you had to learn from old timers or YouTube videos. Then I walked past the arts building at City College last month and saw a flier for a 6 week intro course. I signed up on a whim and the instructor showed me how to sew signatures properly... now I can't believe I was just gluing everything together. Has anyone else taken a formal class that changed their whole approach?