Bookbinding Tips : Grain Direction

Fancy some tips if you’re new to bookbinding, or even just need a reminder? Sure you do. Keep reading for this weeks tip, with more to follow next Sunday.

If you’ve ever attended a bookbinding workshop, you will have come across the term ‘grain direction’ before. It’s the holy grail of bookbinding and no bookbinder would ever ignore this mantra. If you haven’t, then here’s an introduction to Grain Direction and why you should never ignore it.

What is Grain Direction?

Paper is made up of a mesh of fibres and just like wood, it has a grain direction. The fibres will travel in one direction. You can see it easily on wood, but it’s pretty invisible on a piece of paper. We know that when wood gets wet, it can make the wood bow or curve. Exactly the same thing happens to paper. So when we use glue to cover our hardboards it will bow the cover.

To avoid making bendy books, we bookbinders rule of thumb, isthat the grain direction must always run parallel to the spine of the book. Not just the cover but also the signatures within a book. If you’re using bookcloth that has a paper lining, this is also true.

Here’s a diagram to remind you.

How to check your paper

An easy way to check your paper is to do the roll test. Take a sheet of paper, card or greyboard. Gently flex the paper holding it landscape first, then do the same turned to a portrait position.

How did it feel?

You should feel more resistance in one direction. Flexing the paper where there is more resistance, breaks the fibres and over time will damage the paper. You should always fold and glue paper in the direction with the least resistance.

Papers are cut differently too, so you won’t know the direction of grain until you do the test. Try it and let me know what you think.

Save this post to come back later. You can also join my Introduction to Bookbinding course for other tips on getting started in Bookbinding.

Do you have any bookbinding questions? Leave them in the comments and I’ll answer them in a future blog.

Let’s make books!