Picked up a trick at a library sale that saved my rebinding projects

I was at a library sale in Portland last spring and this old volunteer showed me something while I was flipping through some beat up books. She said to use a wallpaper seam roller instead of a bone folder for pressing down the spine when you're doing a rebind. I tried it on a 1940s novel I was fixing and it worked way better for getting into those tight gutter areas without damaging the paper. The roller cost me like $8 at a hardware store and it's been a game changer for my flat-backed bindings. Has anyone else used random tools for bookbinding that you found by accident?

2 comments

2 Comments

joseph45517d ago

A wallpaper seam roller is a good find. I started using a cheap plastic spackle knife for applying glue to book cloth instead of a brush. You get a real smooth, even layer without any bristles getting stuck in the glue. Also its easy to scrape off any excess that squeezes out along the hinges.

stone.simon17d ago

And the spackle knife trick works great for getting glue into the corners of the book board too. I use a 1 inch putty knife for that and it reaches way better than a brush. Just gotta wipe it clean fast before the glue dries. Also doubles as a scraper for old glue residue off the spine if you let it harden a bit first.