I thought Japanese stab binding was just for looks until I actually tried it

For years I figured Japanese stab binding was one of those decorative techniques that looked nice on social media but wasnt practical for real books. I was dead wrong. Last month I had to bind a stack of loose calligraphy prints for a customer in Portland, and western coptic stitching just wasnt holding the pages flat enough. Gave the four-hole binding a shot with some waxed silk thread I had sitting around. The result was cleaner than anything Ive done with a needle and thread before. The trick is getting the tension right across all four holes, too loose and your pages get wavy, too tight and the paper tears. Has anyone else found a specific stitch count or spacing that works best for thicker paper stacks?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_fiona20d ago

Seems like a lot of effort just to bind some paper.

william_henderson20d ago

People act like it's life or death or something.

thompson.nathan20d ago

Hang on, think about it like this - the effort isn't just about binding paper, it's about building a physical record that's gonna last longer than any hard drive or cloud server. My buddy runs a small printing shop and he says there's been a huge uptick in people wanting their stuff bound because they got burned when Google shut down some old photo service and they lost everything. You can't hack a book, you know? It's sitting right there on your shelf, doesn't need updates, doesn't crash, nobody's gonna accidentally delete it with a wrong click.