ben402•29d ago

Just realized my grain direction mistake after a whole edition of 50 books

I was binding a poetry collection for a local author, using a nice 120gsm paper for the text block. I cut all the sheets and sewed them up, but when I went to round and back the spine, the boards kept warping like crazy. Took me a full day to figure out I'd cut the paper with the grain running the wrong way, parallel to the spine instead of head to tail. I had to re-cut all the paper and start the sewing over, which set the project back almost a week. Has anyone else had a grain direction disaster this big, and how do you double check before you start cutting?

2 comments

2 Comments

lily_craig29d agoMost Upvoted

Feel your pain, that's the kind of mistake that haunts your dreams. I mean, fifty books is a whole new level of commitment to the wrong grain. Maybe try the simple bend test on a scrap piece before you commit the whole stack next time.

barbaraschmidt29d ago

Haunts your dreams, really? It's just paper grain direction, not a life choice. I've messed it up before and the books still worked fine, just a bit less flexible. People get so intense about perfect craft details sometimes. A bend test is smart, but it's not the end of the world if you skip it.