My book press was crushing my spines and I never noticed

I've been hand binding for about 5 years now, mostly repair work for local libraries. Last month a customer brought in a 1940s novel with a cracked hinge, and while I was rebacking it, I noticed the spine was completely flat, no shoulder at all. I realized my press had the boards set too tight, so it was squashing the sections flat before I even added the cover. I backed off the pressure and used a proper spine lining with a bit of give, and the difference was night and day. Anyone else had to relearn their press setup after thinking they had it right for ages?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

wadeowens1mo ago

Wait though, if the spine was flat coming out of your press, the boards being too tight isn't really what did it. Board pressure squeezes the fore edge, not the spine. What flattens sections is clamping the book with the spine edge hanging off the press and then pressing down on the text block itself, or pressing the book after rounding and backing without the backing boards in place. I've seen guys crank the press down on a sewn block and turn a nice round into a brick, and they always blamed the boards. The shoulders come from backing, not from how tight your press holds things. So backing off the pressure probably saved you from some other damage, but the round and shoulders are a separate step.

4