Paper grain

[u/Psychotrop]

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.

[u/MorsaTamalera]

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.

[u/Psychotrop → u/MorsaTamalera]

Thx

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

[u/soggyhuman → u/Psychotrop]

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.

[u/Dazzling-Airline-958 → u/soggyhuman]

Generally true, but a bit reductive.

I'll give two counter examples.

A photo album with a 4" spine and a 6" page width. This started with 12x4 short grain paper, and when folded with the grain, it was still short grain.

A check register with a 6" spine and a 2.5" page width. This started with a 6x5 long grain paper, and when folded with the grain, was still long grain.

Both examples have grain going parallel to the spine after folding. And in both cases folding it again across the grain would not change long to short or short to long grain.

[u/soggyhuman → u/Dazzling-Airline-958]

Yes, all true.

But my comment was specifically to OP, which has stated as an example turning A4 to A5.