Pro tip: I stopped pressing signatures flat and my spines stopped cracking

Everyone in my local guild in Portland keeps saying you have to press a folded signature hard before sewing, and I did that for 6 years. Then I read a post from a conservator at the Folger Shakespeare Library saying pressing crushes the paper fibers right at the fold, which is exactly where a book wants to flex. I switched to just tapping the folds with a bone folder and my spines stopped cracking on the 4 books I rebound this spring. Has anyone else been taught the opposite, or am I the only one who missed this?

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caleb_ross121mo ago

Oh man, same here, my old guild swore by hard pressing too.

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