Finally tried the paring knife trick for spine linings

I've been struggling for months with spine linings that just wouldn't lay flat, especially on thinner books. Kept getting these little bubbles and creases that drove me crazy. A guy at my local bindery meetup in Austin told me to use a paring knife to thin out the edges of the stiff fabric before gluing. Tried it on my last project, a 200-page poetry collection, and it worked like a charm. Has anyone else had luck with this method or do you use something different for stubborn linings?

2 comments

2 Comments

thompson.reese1mo ago

Oh man, that trick is a total game changer right? Same thing happened to me with some stubborn book cloth on a batch of journals. I actually started using a tiny bit of water on the edges after thinning them out and it helped even more with those air bubbles lol.

price.gavin1mo ago

total game changer" - yeah you're not wrong. I was always skeptical about using water on book cloth but I finally tried it on a tricky spine piece and holy crap it made a huge difference. @thompson.reese you might be onto something with the edges thing, I've been fighting bubbles for way too long.