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PSA: That debate about hand-stitching vs machine-stitching book spines heated up at my guild meeting last night
I was at the Atlanta Bookbinders Guild meeting on Tuesday and one of the older members said hand-stitching is the ONLY way to get a proper round spine that lasts. Then a younger guy chimed in and said modern sewing machines can replicate the same tension if you adjust the stitch length properly. I sat there thinking about my own books - I do mostly hand-stitching but it takes me 3 hours per book versus 45 minutes with a machine. Has anyone here done a side-by-side comparison of spine durability after 5 years of use?
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thea_bell21d ago
Has anyone actually tried to repair a machine-sewn spine after 5 years? I'm asking because I did a test a while back where I stitched two identical notebooks, one by hand and one on my old Singer. After 3 years of heavy use, the hand-stitched one still had a nice round shape and the machine one was getting flat in the middle. The machine stitching didn't loosen up exactly, but the thread seemed to stretch out differently over time. Hand sewing lets you control the tension as you go and adjust for the sections, while machines just crank out the same stitch over and over. I think that's why the older members are so stubborn about hand work, because they've seen the long term results even if it takes way longer.
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charlieh7421d ago
Yeah that thing about thread stretching differently over time is something I've noticed too. I had a machine-sewn notebook from like 2018 that I used for daily notes and the spine got all wonky, like the thread had memory of being pulled tight at the factory and couldn't relax evenly. Hand stitching lets you feel the sections bunch up or loosen as you go, so you can ease the tension to match the actual paper thickness. Machines just slam the same tension no matter if a section is slightly thicker or thinner. I think the older guys know that the little adjustments you make by hand add up over years of use.
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