Serious question, has anyone else had a book spine just refuse to round properly no matter how many times you hammer it?

I was working on a leather rebind of 'Moby Dick' and that whale of a spine took me nearly four hours of careful hammering and adjusting in the press before it finally took a decent curve, which got me wondering if certain paper types or grain directions are just more stubborn than others.

3 comments

3 Comments

alexw751mo ago

Serious question? Sounds like you just need a bigger hammer. Four hours on one book sounds like you're fighting the materials instead of working with them. Maybe the paper was too thick or the glue was setting up wrong. I've seen some older books that just won't bend right no matter what you do.

thea8571mo ago

What kind of hammer would you even use for that?

the_zara25d ago

Oh man, the whole bigger hammer thing reminds me of that time I tried to fix a stuck drawer on an old dresser I found at a flea market. I spent two hours just pounding on it with a rubber mallet, and all I did was dent the wood and make the drawer jam even harder. Finally my neighbor came over and said, "You know you gotta take the drawer out and sand the runners, right?" And I'm just standing there with a busted knuckle and a bruised ego. Sometimes you get so focused on the one problem you forget there's a whole different way to look at it, you know?