A library patron's question made me rethink my whole spine prep

Last Tuesday this older guy watched me round the corners on a stack of folios and asked why I wasn't using a sanding block instead of my fingernail test. I laughed it off, but then I tried his trick on the next batch and it caught a rough edge I'd missed on three different books. Anyone else had a random stranger's tip totally flip their routine?

1 comments

1 Comment

alices166d ago

Three years at the bindery and I still use my thumbnail. Sanding blocks are for woodworkers, not book people. That old guy got lucky on his batch, your hands know more than a flat tool ever will. Plus you can't feel the grain direction with a block, and that matters on those cheap modern covers. Keep the fingernail, save the block for the workshop.