c/bookbinders

The week I had to rebind a whole set of waterlogged cookbooks for a client

Last week a regular client called me in a panic because a pipe burst in her kitchen and soaked a set of twelve vintage cookbooks she inherited. She brought them over in a plastic tub, and they were still damp and starting to swell. I had to carefully separate every single page, press them flat between blotting paper and weights for three days, and then re-sew all the bindings. The worst part was the smell, like wet cardboard and old glue. I spent about 25 hours total on it, and my fingers were sore from all the hand sewing. She was so grateful she paid me double my usual rate, which was nice, but man, it was a grind. Has anyone else had to deal with a big water damage job like that? What's your process for drying pages without them sticking together?

Found out some medieval bookbinders used cheese glue and I'm not sure what to think

Honestly, I was reading this old book from the library about historical craft methods. It said in some 15th century monasteries, they'd make paste for binding from cheese mixed with lime. Tbh, part of me thinks that's a clever use of what they had, but another part wonders how smelly and bug-prone those books must have gotten. Has anyone here ever tried a historical adhesive like that, or is it just a weird fact best left in the past?

Why does nobody talk about how long it takes to fix a bad hinge?

I had a custom order for a leather journal with a hidden hinge. The first try was a total mess, the leather tore right at the joint. I thought it would be a quick fix, maybe an hour. It took me THREE FULL DAYS to get it right. I had to scrap the whole cover, re-cut the leather, and hand-sew the new hinge with a different stitch pattern. The client was patient, but I lost so much time. Has anyone else had a simple hinge repair blow up into a multi-day project?

My partner swore by using a $5 wallpaper brush for applying paste

I always used a proper paste brush from the art store, thought his idea was a joke. Tried it on a small repair job for a 1920s copy of 'The Great Gatsby' and the coverage was actually smoother with less streaking. Has anyone else found a weirdly perfect tool for a specific bind?

My neighbor told me to use a bone folder for scoring, not a butter knife

She saw me trying to fold heavy paper with a kitchen knife and just shook her head. I bought a cheap bone folder from the craft store for about five bucks and tried it on some book board last night. The crease is so much cleaner and I didn't rip the surface layer. Anyone have a favorite brand for these, or is the basic one good enough?

I keep seeing people skip the rounding step on book spines and it drives me nuts

I was at a small craft fair in Portland last month and looked at a few hand bound journals. Three different sellers had books with flat spines that looked stiff and would not open well. I asked one of them about it, and she said she thought rounding was just for looks. That's not right at all. A rounded spine, done with a backing hammer after sewing, makes the book open flat and last longer by spreading the stress. I learned this the hard way when my first dozen notebooks started to crack at the hinge after a few months of use. Now I spend that extra ten minutes per book to shape it properly. Does anyone have a favorite method for getting a nice, even curve without a fancy press?

Appreciation post: That one stubborn headband that took me a whole weekend

I was putting a headband on a new leather binding and the glue just would not set right. It kept peeling up at the corners no matter how much I pressed it. I tried three different types of paste over two days, thinking it was the adhesive. Turns out, the leather piece I cut was just a millimeter too short, so it was under constant tension. I had to recut it perfectly and it went on smooth in ten minutes. Has anyone else had a tiny measurement error cause a massive headache?

My neighbor told me to use a regular glue stick for endpapers and it was a disaster

I mean, my neighbor Carol is super crafty, so when I was working on a small journal last month and ran out of PVA, I tried her tip. The pages started peeling off after maybe two days, and the whole thing warped. Has anyone else gotten terrible advice from a non-binder that you actually tried?

I was reading a book on 19th century bindery practices and found out they used to size paper with actual animal glue, not the synthetic stuff.

A comment on a cooking blog got me thinking about book spines

I was reading a recipe post (for sourdough, if you're curious) and someone wrote 'the spine of my cookbook is completely shot from laying it flat'. It made me realize how many people don't know you can rebind a book you love instead of replacing it. I've fixed three family cookbooks this month alone, all with the same split spine issue. Has anyone else noticed a specific type of book that always seems to need the same repair?

Serious question, has anyone else tried using a hair straightener to press book cloth?

I was in a real bind yesterday with a custom order due today and my regular press was acting up, so I grabbed my wife's flat iron from the bathroom. The results were actually pretty good for the small piece I needed, but the smell of hot hair product mixed with book glue is something I can't forget. What's the weirdest tool you've had to use in a pinch?

Update: I switched from a bone folder to a Teflon folder for my leather work

Everyone says bone is the only proper tool, but after six months, my leather is smoother and my hands don't ache. The Teflon glides without catching the grain. Has anyone else made a switch they were told not to?

Spent a whole weekend trying to get my head around a French groove

I was binding a small journal and the groove just wouldn't form cleanly, always tearing the covering material. It took me three days of fiddling with bone folder pressure and board thickness to get it right. What's your method for a crisp, clean groove?

A trick I saw at the Portland book fair for dealing with warped boards

I was at the Portland Book Fair last month and watched a binder named Clara fix a badly warped cover board in about ten minutes. She used a small travel clothes steamer on low heat, not an iron, and worked it slowly under a weight. It got me thinking about how much moisture from the air can mess with our work. Has anyone else tried a steamer instead of an iron for this kind of fix?

Watching a binder in Prague use a bone folder on damp paper completely changed my approach to rounding spines.

At a guild meet in St. Louis, a binder told me my use of PVA glue was 'amateur' and that I should only use animal glue. I still think he was wrong.

Appreciation post: my neighbor's old 1950s book press saved a big job

Last month, I was gluing up a thick photo album and my cheap press just couldn't handle the pressure evenly. My neighbor, who used to bind books, let me borrow his heavy cast iron press he got from his dad in Chicago. That thing clamped down perfectly and gave me the flattest, cleanest spine I've ever made. What's the oldest piece of gear you all still use regularly?

After 5 years, I just realized my bone folder was upside down the whole time because a client asked why my creases looked 'fuzzy'.

I was using the rounded edge for scoring instead of the flat side, and it explains why my paper grain tests in Portland always came out weird.

I was reading a really old book on binding and found out about a glue recipe from the 1700s

It was in a scanned copy of a manual from 1789 I found online. The recipe called for boiling parchment scraps with water and a little vinegar to make a simple paste. I tried a small batch last weekend and it held up way better than I thought it would on a test repair. Has anyone else tried using a historical glue like this for a project?

I finally figured out why my headbands kept warping after I switched to a new PVA glue last month.

The pH was way too acidic, which I confirmed with test strips after my third ruined text block, so has anyone else had this happen with a specific brand?

Walked through the old library downtown and saw something that made me rethink my whole process

I was in the reference section looking at a book from 1890. The spine was completely gone, but the pages were still held together by these tiny, perfect stitches along the fold. I always thought sewing on a frame was the only right way, but this book was sewn by hand without one and it lasted over a hundred years. It made me wonder if I rely on my frame too much for simple projects. Has anyone else found old books sewn like that and tried copying the method?

Heard a guy at the library say all modern book cloth is basically the same quality.

He was telling a new binder that brand doesn't matter and to just buy the cheapest roll. I've used cheap stuff from a craft store and Holliston's, and the difference in how they fold and hold up over 5 years is huge. What's the biggest quality gap you've seen between two materials?

I was getting bad spine cracks on my case bindings until I tried scoring the book cloth with a bone folder before gluing.

After three ruined covers, I found that a light score line 1/8 inch from the edge lets the cloth fold cleanly without those ugly white stress lines, so has anyone else found a better way to prevent this?

A workshop in Asheville made me rethink my whole glue-up process

I was at a bookbinding workshop in Asheville last fall, and the instructor had us mix our own wheat paste from scratch (something I'd always avoided). She showed us how to test the stringiness by pulling it with a brush, a trick I'd never seen. I've been using pre-made stuff for years, but this homemade batch gave me way more control over the spine. Has anyone else switched to making their own paste and noticed a difference with certain papers?

Realized I was putting my headbands on backwards for a solid year

I was working on a quarter leather binding last week, trying to get the headband to sit right. I kept getting this tiny gap between the band and the spine, no matter how tight I pulled the thread. My mentor, who runs a shop in Tacoma, stopped by and just watched me for a minute. He said, 'You're sewing from the tail to the head, aren't you?' I was. He showed me that starting at the head and working down lets the threads nest better under each turn, closing that gap. I'd been doing it wrong since I learned from a book. The difference on my next book was huge. Has anyone else had a basic step they learned wrong from a text or video?