Five years of backwards grain direction

I was at a workshop in Portland last fall and the instructor pointed out my bookcloth was cut with the grain running the wrong way on the spine. I had been doing it like that since I started binding in 2019. The covers kept warping and I just thought it was the glue. Has anyone else had that embarrassing moment where a simple mistake was causing all your problems?

3 comments

3 Comments

dianaanderson8d ago

Hold up, did you ever check if your grain direction in the paper itself was actually right before all this? That's step zero for a lot of warping.

wells.olivia8d ago

Right on the money. Grain direction is one of those things that sounds boring until it bites you in the butt. I learned that the hard way with a big batch of handmade holiday cards a few years back. Book press did the exact same thing to me as you described, all the folds were crooked and the paper just looked sad. Once I started paying attention to which way the paper fibers run everything got way easier. It really is step zero like you said, skip it and you might as well start over.

kim_johnson517d ago

That holiday card thing sounds rough. I had a similar mess with some wedding invites a couple years back. Spent like 3 hours folding them all, and every single one had that weird wavy edge because I picked the wrong paper. Felt like throwing the whole batch in the trash. It's one of those lessons you only need to learn once but man it stings when it happens. I still check grain direction on every sheet now before I even touch a blade or a bone folder. Feels good knowing it's one less thing that can go sideways.