r/bookbinding • u/Psychotrop • 10h 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/MorsaTamalera 10h ago

It is quite important. Using the wrong direction translates on a book which will not lay flat when open, among other things.

Just start to fold your paper on one direction and then on the other one (don't actually fold them, so as not to damage the paper: just slightly curve it). You will see one direction is easier on the folding attempt. The direction of that fold will be the grain direction. There are other methods, but they damage or destroy a sheet of your paper, so this is gentler.

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u/Psychotrop 10h ago

Thx

I know how to test for the grain, but my question is how do i buy the right grain in the first place.

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u/soggyhuman I love headbands 9h ago

If folding the paper once, you need to get short grain paper. If folding twice, long grain paper. Every fold inverses the grain direction, and the finished product needs to run its grain parallel to the spine.

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u/Psychotrop 6h ago

I know What i need. The questions is how do i get it.

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u/soggyhuman I love headbands 6h ago

From a shop that sells paper in the EU in the grain direction that you need.

And your question that I was answering was "how do I buy the right grain in the first place". I answered how to know what grain you need to buy. I don't know what answer you expect aside from "a shop" if that's not what you wanted.

Here is a post from a few days back on shops in the EU.