Appreciation post: An older binder at the Portland show gave me a tip about paste consistency.

I was struggling with a limp spine on a leather rebind, and she came over, dipped her finger in my paste, and said 'too thick, it should drip like honey, not cling like glue'. I thinned it out with a bit more water and the next cover went on perfectly. How do you all check your paste before a big job?

My new bone folder snapped clean in half on a simple fold

Just got a new Teflon bone folder last week, was working on a small batch of leather journals. I was pressing down a fold on some 120gsm paper, not even that thick, and I heard this tiny crack. Looked down and the tip had just sheared off about an inch from the end. It wasn't cheap either, cost me almost $40. I wasn't putting crazy force on it, just steady pressure like always. Now I'm stuck finishing the job with my old plastic one that leaves shiny marks. Has anyone had a bone folder just give up like that? What's a good brand that can actually handle daily use?

Just read that a mature oak tree can transpire over 40,000 gallons of water a year. Found that in an old forestry textbook.

Realized I've been sharpening my boning knives wrong for a decade

Tbh, I always just used a steel and thought it was fine. A guy at the trade show in Kansas City last month watched me do it and said 'You're just polishing a dull edge, man.' He showed me the proper angle on a whetstone and the difference is night and day. Anyone else have a basic skill they were totally messing up?

My city's new bus map uses only red and green lines to show routes, which is a real problem for me.

I'm red-green colorblind and I literally can't tell the difference between the two main lines on the map they just put up at the downtown station, so has anyone found a good tool for checking public transit maps for these issues before they get printed?

I finally figured out why my isometric view kept looking wrong

Spent almost 4 hours yesterday trying to get a simple isometric block to line up in AutoCAD. Turns out my UCS was rotated 15 degrees from a project I did for a brewery in Asheville last year and I never reset it. Has anyone else had a weird setting from an old file mess up a new drawing for that long?

Vent: My best shot of the Orion Nebula got ruined by a neighbor's porch light

I was out in my backyard in Phoenix last night, about two hours into a 30-minute exposure. Everything was tracking perfectly. Then my neighbor came home and flipped on his bright white porch light, flooding my sensor. The whole frame was washed out. I had to pack up and start over from scratch. Has anyone else dealt with sudden light pollution like that? What do you even say to the guy?

TIL my armchair was eating my microphone sound

On a team video call, everyone said I sounded like I was in a tunnel. I messed with all my audio settings for like twenty minutes. Then I saw the big fluffy armchair right by my desk. I guess it was soaking up all the noise from my mic. I pushed it into the corner and my voice came back clear. Felt pretty dumb for not thinking of it earlier. Now I always scan my room before hopping on calls.