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TIL my spine liners were backwards for 2 years and a lady at the Cleveland show spotted it in 5 seconds
I was at the Midwest book arts fair in Cleveland back in March and this older binder named Ruth picked up a coptic I brought to show off. She flipped it over, ran her thumb down the spine, and asked me why the grain on my liner ran across the spine instead of with it. I had been cutting liners crosswise off the roll for 2 years because it was easier to get a clean cut that way. She explained paper has a grain direction just like book cloth and cutting it wrong makes the hinge stiff and fights you every time you open the book. I went back through the 14 journals I bound since 2023 and sure enough most of them crack when you lay them flat. Spent Saturday re-cutting liners with the grain and the difference in how a book falls open is night and day. Has anyone figured out an easy way to test grain direction on thinner papers without tearing a corner off?
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perez.barbara4d ago
Ruth sounds like she knew her stuff but the whole grain direction thing gets treated like gospel when it's really not that simple. Paper grain does matter for how a book moves but it depends a lot on the paper weight and what you're gluing it with. On thin papers like 80lb text the grain is barely gonna fight you compared to something like a stiff cover board. Plenty of binders cut crosswise on purpose for certain structures and the books hold up fine for years. The cracking you're seeing on those 14 journals might have more to do with your glue and how thick you laid it than which way the liner ran. Testing grain without tearing is easy though, just bend the sheet gently both ways and the direction it bends with less resistance is the grain, no need to wreck a corner.
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