Rant: That guy at the guild meetup who said my grain direction was 'creative'

Was at the local binders guild meeting last Tuesday in Portland and showed my latest rebind of a vintage sci-fi novel. Some older guy, been doing this for 30 years, looks at my endpapers and goes 'interesting grain choice, very creative.' At first I was pissed because he clearly meant it was wrong. But then he showed me his test board with different grain directions and how the paper buckles when you go cross-grain. I spent the whole next day redoing my endbands and honestly he was right. Has anyone else had a seasoned binder call out a mistake in a way that felt more like a dig but actually helped?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_john7d ago

Skip the whole "grain direction" drama for a second and think about what he actually gave you. That guy handed you a test board with real examples of failure, not just a vague critique. Most old timers just say "you did it wrong" and walk away. He spent time teaching you how to see the problem for yourself. That's rare as hell in any craft community.

robert_jones7d ago

That's exactly right @the_john. Most of the time you get a grunt and a point to the door when you mess up, not a whole hands-on lesson. Must be nice to be able to learn that way, I had to figure it out by ruining a lot of my own material first. A test board is basically a cheat code compared to how I learned, which was just burning through mistakes until something finally clicked. Rare to find someone who actually wants you to get better instead of just proving they know more than you.

sean_martin446d ago

I saw this exact thing happen to a buddy of mine at a cabinet shop a few years back. He was struggling with some oak veneer, kept getting these weird bubbles and the grain was just fighting him. An older guy came over, didn't say a word about what he was doing wrong. Just cut a scrap piece off the sheet, clamped it down, and ran his plane across it, showing him how the tearout happened with the grain and how smooth it was going the other way. My buddy said it was like a light switch flipped, he never fought grain direction again. That hands on demo was worth more than all the YouTube videos and forum posts combined.