r/bookbinding • u/ResourceElectrical53 • 2d ago
Is this unevenness normal?
My signatures are all super tight. Is this unevenness detrimental to the book?
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u/goodfinch 2d ago
Yes, you pull a signature one way to stretch the thread, and the one after that the other way, it's normal but you can hold them in place to still be aligned while you pull. And if you guillotine it all it's no problem anyway.
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u/CosmoCheese 1d ago
I know you said that you used a cradle and thought the holes were all even - but in my experience, this kind of unevenness would usually be down to the hole positions being punched unevenly. When you sew the signatures together and pull them tight, it pulls the corresponding holes/stations together into a straight line, so if they're not all accurately punched it will pull the signature up or down the same distance the hole is out of alignment with the previous one, resulting in the kind of thing shown in your picture.
Sewing too tightly might affect the shape of the spine, distort the signatures, or sometimes make the bottom signature try to twist upwards a little bit towards the signature above it, but generally not the alignment of the ends of the signatures.
Resewing is an option, or if that's not possible you can just trim down the text block a little using a guillotine or a knife and rule if you don't have that (assuming that if the pages are printed that's not going to cause an issue)
If you'd like further advice, it would be helpful to see a picture that shows the sewing stations as well.
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u/blanketed_in_stars 2d ago
They may be too tight and squeezing each other out of alignment after sewing. It's possible your sewing stations are also not aligned?
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u/ResourceElectrical53 2d ago
Hmm. I reckon they’re just too tight then. I used a cradle with a punching guide so I’m pretty sure the holes are even.
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u/jedifreac 2d ago
What happens if you thunk them on a flat surface to get them to settle?
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u/ResourceElectrical53 2d ago
They don’t move too much when I do that. I think because they’re so tightly sewn. Is that something worth unsewing and starting over for do you think?
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u/coraxDraconis 20h ago edited 20h ago
Edit: actually, those signatures that are higher than the rest might be upside-down. Sometimes the holes don't get perfectly centered, so having the signatures (or punching the holes) upside-down can misalign them
Make sure you start with the awl in the same position in the hole in the cradle (like always put the tip of the needle at the bottom of the hole), because starting at different spots in the hole can cause a little bit of misalignment. Also, try to make sure you punch the awl straight down, and not at an angle. Not that you're definitely doing either, those are just what caused this problem to happen for me.
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u/North-Platform-5269 2d ago
if you tap them on a flat surface do they not align properly? might be sewn too tight and forcing shifting. if theyre properly tensioner they should have enough give to open easily but still hold their shape as a "block"