Old timer said to chill on my parchment paper

A retired binder gave me this tip at a guild meetup in Portland - he said to stop rushing my backing and leave the mull on for 20 minutes after gluing. I tried it last week on a rebind of a 1920s novel and the spine came out way smoother than my usual hurry-up method. Anyone else have a weird timing trick that made a difference?

3 comments

3 Comments

drews559h ago

Hold up @hannahj49, is a little ripple at the hinge really that big of a deal? I get wanting a clean spine but I've never let a tiny wave ruin my day. Seems like people overthink this stuff when a book just needs to open and close fine.

hannahj4912h ago

Wait, 20 minutes? You sat there for twenty whole minutes with the mull on and just waited? I can barely stand still for two minutes without wanting to get back to the bench and start sanding or something. Tried a similar thing with paste once on a fantasy novel from the 70s, let it sit for ten minutes before closing the covers, and the whole thing warped horribly. Maybe I should give your method a shot though, because my spines always have that little ripple at the hinge that drives me crazy.

williams.luna8h ago

Tried this on a mystery novel from the 30s last week and it honestly made a huge difference. I let the mull sit for about 15 minutes while I cleaned up my work station and prepped my new endpapers. The spine came out flat and tight, no ripples at all. I think the key is not rushing the glue to dry before you close everything up.