PSA: Stop sanding your signatures before sewing

I keep seeing people online say they sand the folds of their signatures to make them lay flatter before sewing, but that just weakens the paper where the thread goes through. I tried it once on a batch of 20 signatures and had 3 tear out during sewing because the fibers got too thin. Anyone else think sanding before sewing is a bad idea or am I missing something?

3 comments

3 Comments

fionanguyen2d ago

Light sanding is one thing. But sanding until the paper's fuzzy is asking for trouble. Had a friend whose book fell apart because every signature tore at the fold. They said it felt smooth before sewing too. Seems like a lot of risk for a tiny bit less bulk.

cora_west52d ago

Nah, light sanding saves me from bulky spines with no tear outs.

pat_harris2d ago

@cora_west5 light sanding is fine, but you're skipping a key step if you're not also checking the grain direction first. Sanding against the grain can weaken the fold more than the bulk ever would.