Serious question: do you sand signatures with sandpaper or not? One bookbinder told me I was doing it all wrong.

So I've been bookbinding for about 2 years now, mostly just my own journals and presents for family. I always used fine grit sandpaper on my signatures before sewing, just to rough them up a bit so the glue could grip. Then last month I went to this little bookbinding meetup in Portland and this older guy who's been doing it 30 years told me I was ruining my books. He said sandpaper creates dust and weakens the paper fibers over time, and I should just use a bone folder or a metal ruler to score the folds instead. I tried it his way on my last project and honestly the pages felt cleaner but the cover seems less stuck on. Has anyone else gotten this feedback and stuck with it, or did you go back to sanding?

2 comments

2 Comments

emma_mitchell18d ago

Actually I was team sandpaper for about a year. I used 220 grit and thought it was the best way to get the glue to bond. But then I watched a restoration video from this guy in the UK who showed how the dust from sanding actually gets trapped in the spine and creates hard little bumps over time. That kind of blew my mind because I noticed my older books had these weird stiff spots where the pages met the spine. So I switched to just using a bone folder to really burnish the folds before sewing. It took me like 5 tries to get the pressure right but now the pages fan out better and the glue holds just fine. I think the older binder was onto something even if it feels weird to change your whole method.

violafox18d ago

Strongly disagree, sanding takes off the slick folded edge and lets glue actually soak into the paper fibers.