Met a retired binder at a garage sale who changed my whole approach to endbands

He just pointed at my glued-on ones and said 'youre killing the spine movement with that much adhesive' then walked off, and now I cant stop thinking about how much extra stiffness I was adding on my last 15 books - has anyone else had a random stranger fix a habit you didnt even know was a problem?

4 comments

4 Comments

matthewkim1mo agoMost Upvoted

But what if the stiffness is actually helping the spine hold its shape better over time, especially on heavier books? I feel like there's a reason a lot of old bindings have that solid feel to them.

garcia.laura1mo ago

Tried switching to linen thread on my last three books - spine moves way better now.

ruby_patel2719d ago

matthewkim brings up a good point about older bindings, but those old books used way different materials than what we have now. modern linen thread is a whole different beast compared to what they had back then. so are you seeing any difference in how the thread holds up on the heaviest books you make? i'm curious because i've been going back and forth on this for a while now. does the flexibility actually make it harder to keep everything aligned when you're working with bigger signatures?

nina_jenkins19d ago

Last year I was all about stiff spines, thought they were the only way to keep books from sagging. But after trying linen thread on a couple of my own projects thanks to @garcia.laura, I totally get what you mean about the movement. The flexibility actually feels more natural and I haven't seen any shape issues so far, even on my thicker books.