Had a client tell me my headbands were too tight

A regular customer brought back a journal I bound for her and said the headbands were pulling on the pages. I switched from cotton cord to linen thread and loosened my tension by about 20% and noticed a huge difference in how flat the spine sits now. Has anyone else had to rework their headband technique after feedback?

2 comments

2 Comments

vera_palmer9d ago

Took me a hot minute to figure out what you meant by the headbands pulling on the pages but yeah I get it now. I had a similar thing happen with a thicker thread I was using, it was making the spine all stiff and weird. Swapping to a lighter linen thread and backing off the tension a bit fixed it for me too. Its wild how such a small change can make the whole book lay way flatter. You really gotta feel it out more than measure it I think.

rosebarnes9d ago

Buddy of mine wrecked a whole signature using waxed thread, total nightmare.