Took me 8 years to realize I was lining up headbands wrong

I’ve been binding books since 2015 and always glued my headbands flush with the spine edge. Last month a customer brought in a 1920s novel with the original binding still intact and I saw the headbands were set about 2 millimeters in from the edge. That small gap let the cloth tuck under neat and clean. I felt like an idiot because for years I’d been fighting with frayed edges and bumps. Now I measure that gap with a caliper every time. Has anyone else had that moment where you just assumed your method was correct until you saw an old book done different?

1 comments

1 Comment

aaronf401h ago

Man my buddy restores guitars and had the same facepalm moment about fret wire.