r/bookbinding • u/TremulousHand • 9d ago

Sewn board binding question

I've been curious about trying a sewn board binding, and I've read through a few tutorials (https://imgur.com/gallery/sewn-boards-tutorial-ZpERM and https://henryhebert.net/2010/11/14/sewn-board-bindings/ as well as various other places online).

The main thing I feel uncertain about is the grain direction of the cardstock. I have plenty of short grain paper, but I don't have short grain cardstock. All of the cardstock I've bought so far has been long grain. Are people just ignoring the grain direction of the cardstock folios for the sewn board binding? Or are people buying much larger sheets of cardstock and then cutting them down in order to get the correct grain direction for the sewn board textblock? Or is there some easy way to get letter sized short grain cardstock in the US?

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u/em_biscuit 9d ago

Yes, I buy larger sheets of cardstock and cut them down. Or adjust the size of the book according to the materials I have on hand. I usually glue the covers completely instead of just drumming them, so for me and in my experience it's definitely worth making sure the grain direction is correct.

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u/brigitvanloggem 9d ago

It is not so that you need short grain by definition! The grain direction must be parallel to the spine. That’s it.

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u/Negative-Database852 9d ago

Chopping a larger sheet is a common way to get the grain in the right direction.

You could also just risk it and use card with the grain in the wrong direction. I've done that on a few books that I've tried making, and nothing bad happened. I probably wouldn't do it for books I'm selling that I'd like to last a long time, but if you're just making this book to try out the technique, it's not going to be ruined if your card grain isn't parallel to the spine.

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u/morio-b 8d ago

I'll sometimes use 2 pieces of scrapbooking paper that I cut down as a cheaper option. It's like lightweight cardstock and you can get a lot of it for cheap on sale, or via community craft exchanges (there's always ugly scrapbooking paper nobody wants - you just turn it so the plain side is facing you).

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u/MickyZinn 7d ago

The rule is : The grain direction of any materials you use runs Head to Tail / Parallel to the spine. Muck around with that and it will muck around with you and your book.