I quit gluing spines flat after a guy at the Richmond bindery meetup showed me his 1890s ledger

Spencer Park · 2026-09-30T06:10:04.301692+00:00

For 6 years I glued every spine flat because that's how I learned it, and my books always cracked at the hinge after a few months of reading. Last month I went to a small bindery meetup in Richmond and an older binder pulled out a ledger he rebound in 1998 where he left a hollow back, and it still opened flat with no cracks. He walked me through rounding and backing the text block first, then attaching the case with a hollow tube, and I redid 3 of my own books that way at home. It takes me about 40 extra minutes per book now, but they open so much nicer and the hinge is not doing all the work anymore. Has anyone else switched from flat spines to hollow backs, and did you bother with a spine lining cloth or just go with paper?

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I quit gluing spines flat after a guy at the Richmond bindery meetup showed me his 1890s ledger | Bookbinders - Thought Shares