The $12 bone folder that wrecked my whole setup

I spent two years using a cheap plastic bone folder from a craft store, swore it did the job just fine until I borrowed a real cow bone folder from a friend at a guild meetup last month. The difference in creasing and burnishing was so huge that I went back and redid three books I thought were finished. Has anyone else had a basic tool flip their whole workflow like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

brooke_nguyen658d ago

Respectfully, that seems a bit drastic. A nice bone folder can improve your work, but redoing three whole books over a crease tool feels like chasing perfection. Maybe that friend just showed you a better technique, not necessarily a better tool.

amyr578d ago

I mean I saw this thing online the other day about how a lot of bookbinding comes down to pressure and technique more than the actual tool. Like someone used a regular old chopstick and got better results than with a fancy bone folder just because they had the motion down. So yeah I'm with you, it's probably not the tool that's the issue here. Redoing three books sounds like a lot of work for something that might not even make that big of a difference in the end.