c/bookbinders

Overheard a guy at the bindery supply shop say something that clicked for me

I was picking up some PVA glue at the shop last Tuesday and this older guy was talking to the cashier about his rounding hammers. He said something like 'you gotta let the spine tell you where it wants to go, not force it.' I been struggling with my rounded spines looking lumpy on my last 3 books. Turns out I was just pounding the crap out of the leather instead of feeling the sections settle. Has anyone else had that moment where a random comment fixed a problem you been fighting for months?

My glue pot exploded on Tuesday and I actually cried for 5 minutes

Ngl, I was trying to heat up some PVA in a double boiler and forgot to vent the lid - popped right off and sent hot glue splatter across my whole workbench. Took me 45 minutes to scrape it off my sewing frame and now I'm scared to use my old pot again. Has anyone else had a glue disaster like this or am I just cursed?

My friend the archivist made me realize I've been trimming margins all wrong

She said 'you're not binding the paper, you're fighting it' and showed me how just 2mm extra on the spine side saves me from that puckering nightmare. Has anyone else had an 'aha' moment like that from someone in a completely different field?

Got a weird tip from an old bookbinder in Philly last month

I was at this little bookbinding meetup in Philly, and this older guy showed me how he uses a wallpaper seam roller to flatten signatures before sewing. Has anyone else tried something like that for pressing, or am I way off base?

Stumbled on a 1920s ledger book at a garage sale in Dayton last Saturday

Snagged it for $3. The binding was shot - staples rusted through, covers hanging by threads. But the pages were intact. Handwritten accounts of a local hardware store from 1922 to 1926. Now I'm thinking about rebinding it myself. First time doing something this old. Any tips on cleaning decades of dust and grime off ledger paper without wrecking it?

Tried wax thread for the first time last week and now my fingers are killing me

I switched from the standard linen thread to a beeswax coated one for a 400 page journal I'm binding and the tackiness made it so much harder to pull through the signatures, has anyone else had trouble adjusting to wax thread or am I just using the wrong tension?

Overheard a guy at the craft fair say he uses PVA glue for leather binding

He said it holds better than hide glue and dries faster, but I've always heard PVA gets brittle over time on leather so do you stick with traditional hide glue or make the switch for convenience?

Wasted $60 on a cheap bone folder that left rust marks on my paper

I figured a bone folder is just a bone folder, right? Picked up a no-name plastic one from a craft store for $60 and within 2 weeks it had this weird rough edge that scratched my endpapers. Worse part was the metal core inside started rusting through the plastic somehow and left orange stains on a whole stack of handmade paper I was using for a project. Anyone else had luck with a specific brand of bone folder that actually holds up?

I finally had to pick between glue and stitching on a rebind project

I was working on a 1970s paperback that was falling apart and I got stuck choosing between using PVA glue or going full stitch through the fold. The glue route would be faster, maybe 45 minutes total, but stitching felt more authentic for the old paper. I went with stitching and it took me 2 hours but the spine opened way flatter than I expected. Now I am wondering if glue would have held up just as well or if I wasted time for no reason. Has anyone else faced this choice and regretted one option?

Appreciation post: The difference a good backing press made on my rounded spines

A customer told me my glue was showing on the spine hinges

I had a customer at a craft fair last month point out that my glue was seeping out between the spine and the cover on three of my journals. She was polite about it but it made me realize I was using way too much PVA and not cleaning up after pressing. Has anyone else had to adjust their glue application method after getting this kind of feedback?

Gluing a text block upside down cost me 3 hours last night

I was in my basement shop around 9pm, rushing to finish a rebind of a 1960s sci-fi paperback. PVA glue applied, spine lined up, pressed it into the case. Only after it sat for an hour did I realize the headband was on the bottom. Had to carefully peel the whole thing apart, scrape dried glue off the boards, and redo everything from scratch. Anyone else ever zone out and mess up a simple step like that?

Showerthought: My first leather hinge job fell apart after 6 months

I used to glue leather hinges straight onto the spine board, thinking that was standard. After a customer brought back a book where the hinge peeled off clean, I switched to recessing the leather into a shallow groove cut into the board. Has anyone else had better luck with a specific hinge attachment method?

That time a library board told me to stop repairing their 1890s atlas

I was doing a small repair job at the public library in my town, fixing some worn spines on their reference section. The head librarian pulled me aside and handed me this MASSIVE 1890s atlas of the county, with the binding completely split down the middle. She said they wanted it put back together with duct tape and super glue because it was just 'old junk' they needed to last another year. I spent 20 minutes explaining how that would ruin the paper and the stitching forever. She finally let me do a proper Japanese tissue repair and resew the signatures with linen thread, but only after I promised to do it for free. Has anyone else run into people who treat historic books like they're disposable?

That trick with the bone folder and a heat gun I saw on a forum actually works

I was about 6 months into binding when a guy at a guild meetup in Portland told me to hit the crease with a heat gun before folding, and after 20 test folds on some scrap book cloth I bought for $8 at a craft store, I have to admit it gives you a way cleaner edge than just bone folding dry, anyone else got a tool they were dead wrong about?

Old bookbinder at a shop in Portland changed my mind about using PVA glue

I was dead set on using hot glue for everything because it dries so fast... then I met this guy named Hank at a bindery downtown. He showed me a book he'd repaired with PVA 15 years ago that still looked perfect, spine intact. That one example made me rethink my whole approach... now I switch between them based on the job. You guys ever have someone show you a simple fix that totally flipped your process?

Unpopular opinion: I stopped using PVA glue for bookbinding after reading a 1920s manual

I found a digitized copy of Douglas Cockerell's old bookbinding guide from the British Library site and he swears by flour paste for strength, so I tried it on my last three rebinds and honestly the pages lay flatter than anything I ever got with PVA has anyone else gone back to traditional adhesives for certain projects?

Took me 5 hours to track down a glue issue that should have taken 20 minutes

I was working on a rebinding job for an old 1950s textbook, and the spine just wouldn't hold after I applied the adhesive. I figured I must have used the wrong kind of glue, so I spent hours scraping everything off, checking my supplies, and even driving across town to a specialty shop. Turned out the problem was the room temperature - my workspace dropped below 60 degrees overnight and the PVA I normally use wouldn't cure right. Five hours wasted because I didn't think to check the thermostat first. Has anyone else run into temperature messing with their bindings like that?

Gave up on using a bone folder from a craft store

I bought a cheap bone folder for $8 at Michael's last year and it broke in half while I was creasing a stack of endpapers. The plastic ones they sell are just painted white, not actual bone. I ended up shelling out $35 for a real one from a proper bookbinding supplier and it's way better. Anyone else get burned by those fake bone folders?

Rant: Had to pick between glue and thread for a leather journal

Went with glue on a rush job last month and now the spine is cracking already. Should I just tear it apart and start over with thread, or is there a way to save this mess?

Hit 100 hand-sewn headbands and finally got the rhythm down

Honestly I set a goal to hand-sew 100 headbands before trying a more complicated technique. It took me about 4 months of weekend work to get there. The first 20 were rough and uneven, but around 50 I started seeing real improvement. By the time I hit 100 they looked clean and tight, like something from a shop. It mattered because it showed me that repetition is the only way to get good at this craft. Has anyone else tracked a specific milestone like that and seen a big shift in your skills?

TIL a trick to flatten curled pages with a damp sponge

I used PVA glue on leather for 6 months before a mentor finally pulled me aside

He showed me how the PVA was causing the leather to wick moisture and warp after a week, and switching to a proper flexible adhesive fixed my covers completely. Has anyone else stubbornly stuck with the wrong glue way longer than they should have?

Overheard a bookbinder say grain direction in paper matters more than glue type

I was at a shop in Portland last week and some old timer was telling a new guy that if your grain runs the wrong way, the book will fight you forever. Made me think about all the times I blamed my adhesive when it was probably the paper fighting me. Anyone else run into this with those cheap craft packs from Michael's?

My first time using a sewing frame went totally wrong in my kitchen

I was all set up at my kitchen table last Tuesday, feeling confident after watching a bunch of videos. I got my signatures lined up and started sewing the text block, but I tightened the cords way too much. The whole frame started bending and the tension pulled my first signature right off the threads. I had to stop, take everything apart, and start over from scratch. That took me an extra 45 minutes of re-punching sewing holes and realigning everything. The key mistake was rushing the setup instead of checking the frame was square and level. What helped was loosening the cords to half the tension I thought I needed and going slower. Has anyone else had a sewing frame fail on them mid-project?