That moment a retired bookbinder fixed my rounding in 10 seconds

I was struggling with rounding a text block at a workshop in Portland last month. An older guy named Frank walked over, saw my mess, and just said "you're fighting the spine, not working with it." He showed me a simple hammer angle trick that I had been missing for 6 months. Has anyone else had a stranger just walk up and fix a huge problem with a one-liner?

3 comments

3 Comments

milesbailey12d ago

Used to roll my eyes at those "old timer just had to say one thing" stories, but now I get it. Guys like Frank have seen everything and know exactly where you're overcomplicating it. Those ten seconds probably saved you hundreds of hours of frustration down the road.

lee_reed12d ago

Six months? You were torturing that poor book for half a year?

the_jennifer11d ago

Oh c'mon, that's not really fair. Not all reading is a race and some books just need more TIME to sink in, you know? I've definitely had novels where I had to put them down for weeks and come back fresh because the story was just that DENSE. Six months might seem long to you, but to someone else that's just giving the book the RESPECT it deserves.