A conversation with my neighbor changed how I trim book cloth corners

Was cutting covers for a batch of 40 journals and kept getting frayed corners on the buckram. My neighbor, who did bindery work in Seattle for 30 years, saw me struggling and said "you're cutting against the grain, flip the blade." Tried it on the next stack and zero fraying, took maybe 10 minutes to adjust. Why did I never think about cloth direction before, anyone else have a simple fix like that that just clicked?

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lisat6027d ago

Wait, thirty years in a bindery and he just now tells you about flipping the blade? That's like some kind of secret society handshake thing. I've been fighting with book cloth for years, thought frayed corners were just part of the deal, like taxes or finding cat hair in your coffee. Buckram specifically, man, that stuff is ruthless when it fights you. Gonna go dig out some scrap pieces tonight and test this out, because honestly, my mind is a little blown right now.