Took a binder's advice about grain direction and it saved my last project

I've been binding for 3 years and always just slapped covers on however. Last month a guy at a workshop in Austin told me I was fighting the grain on every single book. He said my covers would keep warping because the paper grain runs the wrong way. I spent 2 hours re-cutting all my boards and lining them up with the text block grain. The difference is insane. My last 5 books sat flat on a shelf for a week with zero curl. Has anyone else had their mind changed on something this basic?

2 comments

2 Comments

alice_wilson733d ago

Oh wow no way. That grain direction thing is one of those bits of info that sounds so small but it changes everything once you get it. I had a similar moment a couple years back when someone showed me how the paper fibers actually run longways on a sheet. I thought warping was just something you had to live with. Turns out I was just being stubborn and lazy. Now I obsess over grain direction like a crazy person before I even cut my first board. It's wild how such a tiny detail can make or break the whole book staying flat and square.

aaronf403d ago

You ever just stare at a piece of paper and wonder what its deal is? @alice_wilson73 you're totally right though, once you know about grain direction its like a switch flips in your brain. I remember messing up a stack of endpapers real bad because I thought "eh close enough" and they curled up like potato chips. Had to redo the whole thing and it taught me to check grain on everything now, even the scrap stuff. Its one of those lessons you gotta learn the hard way I guess.