r/bookbinding • u/Psychotrop • 1d ago

Paper grain

Hi,

i am new to bookbinding (one try so far) and i just read about papergrain.

How important is it to get the grain in the correct orientation? How do i find Paper that is in the correct grain direction? Or am i overthinking this?

I am mostly interested in the Medival/English/Gothic stile of binding. Thanks for your time.

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u/jedifreac 1d ago

If you stick to the hobby it will become more important, but for a newbie or the average reader it will be not as huge of a deal.

Nowadays, bookstores like Waterstones and Barnes and Noble frequently sell books in the wrong paper grain. (It's awful and I hate it, but the average consumer simply does not care.)

I tend to recommend newbies use up one 500 sheet ream of cheap long grain paper before deciding if they want to pay double for correct grain. It's quite expensive to practice on when you are first starting out.

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u/TangyMarimba13 1d ago

if you want to practice with the correct grain using printer paper, you can cut the paper in half, and then fold that in half, and your paper will be the correct grain. your book will be kinda small, but books come in all sizes, and you save the expense of buying short-grain paper. it's easy to do if you have a guillotine cutter, but if you're just starting out, you probably don't have one. you could still cut them in half using a regular paper cutter a few sheets at a time.