Unpopular opinion: I was wrong about using a bone folder for everything

Honestly, I used a bone folder for every single fold for like two years. A client in Tacoma brought me a book to fix last month, and the paper was all creased and cracked along the spine. She asked if I'd used too much pressure, and that was the lightbulb moment. I tried a teflon folder on some scrap and the difference was huge, way smoother. Has anyone else switched tools for different paper types?

2 comments

2 Comments

claire_ramirez2215d ago

Two years of using the same tool on everything? That's wild to me. You must have gone through so much paper before the Tacoma client showed up. I can picture the cracked spine, that's a total nightmare for a book repair. Makes me wonder what else we're all doing wrong without realizing it.

spencer_ross15d ago

That "cracked spine" line got me. Reminds me of a guy at a flea market last year. He had a whole table of old cookbooks, all with the same weird bend in the covers. Turns out he stored them flat in a plastic tub with a brick on top to "keep them flat." Had been doing it for a decade. Sometimes you just get stuck in a method and never question it until you see the damage pile up.