That feedback about my bookcloth grain direction was a wake-up call

I had a customer in Portland return three journals after two weeks because the covers kept warping. I figured it was the glue or the humidity, but she said the grain on the cloth was running the wrong way. I went back and tested a few scraps from the same batch, and she was right. Now I check grain direction on every roll before I even cut, and I haven't had a single warp since. Has anyone else dealt with a callback on this and what did you change?

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simon_coleman6d ago

Same thing happened to me with some linen cloth a few years back. Portland customer too, funny enough. I started taping a little arrow on the back of every roll showing the grain direction before it goes into storage, saves me from second guessing myself when I'm in a rush. The real fix was testing it the same way the customer must have, wetting a scrap and seeing which way it curls. Now I do that with every new batch before I cut anything, takes two minutes and costs me almost nothing. Havent had a single complaint since, and it forces me to slow down and actually handle the material before I trust it.