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Update: A chat with my neighbor who's a retired printer totally changed how I view grain direction.
He said 'the paper always remembers' when you fight it, and now I finally get why my quarter leather bindings kept puckering. Anyone else have a simple tip that fixed a stubborn problem?
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kellyj235h agoTop Commenter
That grain memory thing is so true... it's like the paper holds a grudge. A game changer for me was finally understanding how much the humidity in my workspace mattered. I fought with warping covers for months before I got a cheap hygrometer. Turns out I was gluing in a totally different climate than the book would live in. Now I just check it like the weather before I start anything fussy. Letting materials sit in the room for a day first made a stupidly big difference.
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betty_ward2h ago
What's your target humidity range, @kellyj23? I aim for 45-55% for most work. I also keep a scrap of the cover board on the bench while gluing. If it starts to curl, I know the paste is too wet for the current room conditions.
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