The wax thread tip that saved my spine after 3 cracked joints

I kept snapping my kettle-stitched spines on thicker text blocks, tried everything from different linens to changing my press tension. Then an old binder at a Portland guild meet showed me to run the thread through a beeswax block twice, it cut my breakage down to zero in about a week. Has anyone else had luck with double-waxing on heavy signatures, or is it just me?

2 comments

2 Comments

leo_harris23h ago

Huh, that's a new one on me. I remember an old timer at a shop I used to buy supplies from mentioning that he'd melt beeswax into a tin and just dip the whole spool in, let it cool, and then thread it through a guide hole. Said it saved his hands too, not just the spines. Sounds like the same idea, just way less messy than what you're doing. Might be worth trying if the double pass ever starts leaving too much wax on the thread.

terry_walker3h ago

My grandfather did upholstery work back in the 50s, and he had this old tin coffee can full of wax and turpentine that he'd heat up on a hot plate every morning... smelled like a paint store mixed with a candle shop. He used to dip his whole spool of linen thread in it, and I remember as a kid watching the wax cool into these weird white flakes on the outside of the can. He always said the trick wasn't the wax itself but letting it sit overnight so it really soaked into the fibers instead of just coating the surface... that double pass you're doing sounds like the same idea, just faster. I tried his method once on a batch of heavy book cloth and the thread came out so stiff I could barely tie it off without it snapping anyway... so I went back to your way, the double wax block, and it worked way better for me. Funny how the old timers had their own weird rituals that sometimes work and sometimes don't...