c/bookbinders

Customer feedback on my endpapers made me ditch the glue stick

Had a customer in Portland return a book last month because the endpapers wrinkled after 2 weeks, said it looked like I'd used a glue stick. They were right, I was using one for speed on small runs. Switched to a PVA brush with a 3:1 water mix and doing 2 coats, letting each dry 10 minutes, and the next 50 books came out flat as glass. Anyone else had a similar wake up call about adhesives? I'm wondering if I should just buy a proper backing machine now.

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barbara_baker57•5d ago

Is there a real difference between wheat and corn paste for book repairs?

I've been using corn starch paste for years on hinges and spine repairs, but a binder in Cincinnati told me last month that wheat paste is the only way to go for archival work. He claims corn paste gets brittle after 5 years and I've seen some of my older repairs crack too, so am I just lazy or is he actually onto something? Has anyone else switched and noticed a real difference in how long the fix holds up?

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nina_jenkins•6d ago

My sewing frame finally stopped squeaking, took 3 tries to figure out

Kept oiling the hinges but it was the screws on the posts loosening up, so I added a drop of thread locker to each one on Monday. Has anyone else had a frame that only got louder after oil, or is that just my luck?

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rowan_roberts49•9d ago

Book press screw stripped at 2am, ended up using a C-clamp stack

Finished a rebind job at my kitchen table, went to tighten the press for the last glue-up, and the threads just gave up. Handed screw spun in place, no traction at all. Grabbed three C-clamps from the garage and clamped the stack between two pieces of scrap plywood. It held fine, but the edges of the boards left dents in the covers I had to sand out later. Has anyone switched to a different press setup after something like this, or do you just keep a backup screw on hand?

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lindamartin•15d ago

My bone folder was a paint stirrer for 3 months

Turns out my cheap plastic bone folder from that craft store in Portland was actually meant for paint cans. I kept wondering why my folds looked rough, then a friend at the bindery pointed out the handle shape. A real bone folder cost me $14 and went through the same paper like butter. Anyone else start with the wrong tool and not catch it for way too long?

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haydenbutler•15d ago

My mentor's 'stop forcing the spine' comment finally clicked

I've been binding for about 4 years and always struggled with stiff, creaky spines on my case bindings. Last month my mentor watched me work and said 'you're pressing down like it owes you money, let the grain do the work'. I switched from heavy pressing to a lighter touch with a backing board and started using a bone folder more gently. Honestly, my last 3 books opened flat without that horrible cracking sound. Has anyone else had to unlearn a heavy-handed habit after a specific comment like that?

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the_james•17d ago

That week I bound 12 books in 5 days and my back still hurts

Last month I took on a rush order from a local library in Portland, 12 hardcovers with cloth covers and foil stamping. I thought I could handle it since I usually do 3 or 4 a week, but by day 3 my wrist was cramping from the rounding hammer and I messed up two spines because I was rushing the glue. Turns out the librarian just needed them by Friday for a display, but the real lesson was that my normal pace exists for a reason. Has anyone else tried chaining a bunch of bindings together and regretted it, or am I just weak?

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sarah531•17d ago

Can we talk about the day everything went wrong with my book press?

Last Tuesday I had a perfect run of 12 bindings in the morning, then after lunch my press started squealing like a stuck pig. I thought it was just the hinge, so I oiled it up, but the noise got worse and the spine creases started landing crooked. Turns out the platen had shifted a quarter inch, probably from years of use and me never checking the alignment. I spent 3 hours tearing it down, realigning the bolts, and testing on scrap boards before I trusted it again. The weird part is that same press gave me my best batch of journals the day before, all sharp corners and tight joints. Has anyone else had a tool fail spectacularly right after a great streak, and did you manage to fix it or just replace the thing? I'm still half convinced I need a new press, but this one has been solid for 8 years.

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ruby450•18d ago

PVA glue disaster on a 40-year-old family Bible

Last Tuesday I was rebinding my grandmother's 1960s Bible and used regular PVA instead of wheat paste on the spine. The pages started buckling and the leather cracked right down the middle, I had to carefully peel everything apart and start over with fresh mull. Has anyone else had a sticky situation with the wrong adhesive on an older book?

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zara572•19d ago

Hit 500 coptic stitch bindings and I'm calling it a plateau, not a win

I counted my bindery log yesterday and I'm at 500 coptic stitch books since I started two years ago in Austin. Everyone posts about hitting numbers like this as a milestone, but honestly I feel like I stopped learning around book 350. The last 150 all came out fine, but they look identical to each other, same thread tension, same cover alignment, same mistakes I couldn't be bothered to fix. Is there a way to break out of a rut when you've done the same stitch that many times, or do I just need to switch to a different binding style for a few months?

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umamartin•19d ago

One critique on my thread tension changed my whole process

Last month at the Austin craft fair, a customer pointed out that my Coptic stitch covers were wavy near the spine. She said it looked like the thread was too loose, and honestly I thought it was just the paper shifting. I went back and started pulling each stitch tighter, 25% more than I used to, and now the spines lay flat every time. Has anyone else had a stranger point out a flaw you couldn't see yourself?

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matthewkim•20d ago

Saw a pro bookbinder fix a torn hinge with a teabag at a Portland workshop

I went to a weekend binding demo in Portland and the instructor showed a trick for repairing a cracked hinge on an old paperback. She cut a used teabag open, flattened the paper, and glued it over the tear with wheat paste. It dried flat and the texture matched the cover better than any repair tape I had tried. I have used that method on 3 books since and it holds up fine. Has anyone else tried tea paper for hinge repairs or am I just cheap and weird?

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nina_jenkins•25d ago

Three years ago I botched a leather spine repair so bad I had to start over from scratch

I was working on this old 1890s hymnal for a client in Portland. The spine was completely detached, leather was crumbling. I thought I could just glue it back and patch it. Nope. The glue bled through the endpapers, the new leather didn't match the color, and the whole thing looked like a mess. Client was not happy. Had to peel everything off, order new materials, and do it right the second time. Cost me an extra $60 in supplies and two weekends. Anyone else learn this lesson the hard way?

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grantadams•25d ago

Rant: Spent 6 hours trying to fix a loose hinge on a 19th century ledger

Turns out the screw was stripped from 1892 and I needed a tiny brass thread insert from a specialty shop 3 towns over, has anyone else dealt with antique hardware that just refuses to cooperate?

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abbyg14•26d ago

The thrift store find that saved my spine

Snagged a vintage book press at a goodwill in Phoenix for 15 bucks last weekend. Has nobody else noticed how cheap older equipment is compared to the plastic junk they sell now at craft stores? What hidden gems have you scored on a budget?

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margaret_kelly55•1mo ago

Used cheap endpaper for 3 years before learning my mistake from a torn repair job

I was at a restoration workshop last month in Chicago and this old bookbinder looked at a book I brought in and just sighed. He pointed to the endpapers and said 'you're using printer paper, aren't you?' I felt so dumb. I had been grabbing whatever was cheap and thin from the office supply store for years and wondering why my books never laid flat or lasted more than a couple years. He showed me how proper endpaper has a grain direction that matches the book and is made from longer fibers that don't crack at the hinge. I went home and checked three of my own bindings that I thought were fine and sure enough two of them had the grain running the wrong way and were already starting to split. Has anyone else had that moment where you realize a simple material choice was causing all your problems?

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alicesingh•1mo ago

That time my spine crack ruined a $200 project in 10 seconds flat

I was tipsy on a Tuesday night in my tiny Brooklyn apartment and decided to glue up a leather journal I had been working on for weeks. The spine cracked clean down the middle as soon as I opened it to check the stitch line, right after I had literally just set the glue. Has anyone else had a late night binding session totally backfire or am I the only dummy working past midnight?

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haydenbutler•1mo ago

I finally tried the PVA/methylcellulose blend for my hinging and I'm never going back

For years I just used straight PVA for my spine hinges and book cloth attachments. A guy at a workshop in Portland last fall kept telling me to try mixing in some methylcellulose, like a 70/30 ratio. I thought he was being fancy for no reason. Finally gave it a shot on a rebind of a 1940s encyclopedia last week and the difference in how long the glue stays workable is wild. No more rushing to get the hinge set before the PVA skins over. Have other people found a specific ratio that works best for them?

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simons28•1mo ago

The day a cat decided my bookbinding project was its personal throne

So last Tuesday I was in my garage in Columbus trying to glue up a text block for a custom journal, and my neighbor's cat wandered in through the open door. Before I could shoo it away, it jumped right onto my freshly glued spine and sat there like it owned the place. I had cat hair stuck in the PVA glue and paw prints across the endpapers. Has anyone else had their workspace invaded by a pet mid-project and had to scrap the whole thing?

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finleyw99•1mo ago

Picked up a tip from an old bookbinder about backing hammers

I was at a estate sale last weekend and this older guy who used to bind books for a university library told me something that stuck with me. He said most people pick a backing hammer that's too light and end up spending way more time on the spine than needed. I've been using one my dad gave me that weighs maybe 8 ounces and now I'm wondering if thats why my round spines never look quite right. Does the weight of your hammer really make that big of a difference in the final shape?

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nora_dixon•1mo ago

My uncle said to skip the grain direction on spines - big mistake

My uncle who used to bind in the 80s told me grain direction on spines was overrated. I believed him and went ahead with a 300 page book for a client last month. The spine cracked like crazy after just 2 weeks and the pages started falling out. I had to rebind the whole thing for free and lost about 15 hours of work. Has anyone else had a relative give them outdated advice that backfired?

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grantschmidt•1mo ago

Noticed a huge difference in my endbands after switching to silk thread

I've been binding books for about 3 years now, mostly doing repairs and rebinds for local libraries around here. For the longest time I used cotton thread for my endbands because that's what I started with and it's cheap. About 6 months ago I picked up some silk thread on a whim from a shop in Portland and the difference was night and day. The silk lays flatter, the colors pop way more, and somehow my stitches look cleaner even though I'm doing the same pattern. I thought it was just placebo at first but after doing 15 books with it I'm convinced. Has anyone else made the switch and noticed a similar jump in quality or am I just crazy?

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umamartin•1mo ago

Finally hit 50 perfect spines in a row and honestly didn't think I'd get there

I've been bookbinding for about 18 months now and last week I finished my 50th book in a row where the spine didn't crack or warp. That's 50 books with no mess ups, mostly using just my bone folder and a cheap nipping press from ebay. The milestone mattered because I kept ruining spines early on with bad glue and wrong paper grain direction. Anyone else track their flawless streak or just me?

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xena_fox39•1mo ago

I picked polyester thread over linen for my last restoration job

Everyone in the bookbinding forums swears by linen thread for historical repairs, but I went with polyester for a 1920s novel I worked on last month. The book had heavy water damage and I figured polyester wouldn't rot or shrink like linen might in humidity. It held up perfectly through the resewing and the spine feels solid. Has anyone else gone against the grain with materials and regretted it?

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felix147•1mo ago

TIL I was scorching my book cloth with the iron for years

Last month at a workshop in Portland someone asked why my backing fabric was so shiny, and I realized I'd been pressing the iron flat like laundry instead of a quick 2-second lift and set. Has anyone else had that 'wait, that's not how you do it' moment with a basic tool?

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