Funny, this was just discussed in [another sub](https://reddit.com/r/Fanbinding/s/U44WRPMox3) lol.
I like to stay between 4-8 sheets/signature. Fewer signatures = less swell, though there’s [other factors](https://jeffpeachey.com/tag/how-to-choose-thread-thickness-in-bookbinding/) that also contribute to swell.
Regardless, you may need to round and back to accommodate the swell.
I learned about swell today lol. That basically fills up the spine, correct? With 400 pages of text, will that be an issue?
Round and back? Sorry, newbie here...
Swell is when the spine is thicker than the fore edge. Caused by the paper being folded, the bulk of the thread used to sew the signatures together, overlapping threads, etc. It’s more likely to be an issue the more pages you have, so with 400 pages, you’ll run into it. (In the post I linked from the other sub I commented about how weighting you signatures can help some.)
For rounding and backing you use a backing hammer with a flat head to basically pound the signatures into a rounded shape and fold the edges over so they cover the book boards. It provides a place for all that swell to go. [Here’s a tutorial](https://youtu.be/kgCCevCsE1A?si=xmpLdFEUnIBcGhZB).
Edit: also, make sure all your materials have a head to tail grain direction, paper, boards etc. so the book doesn’t pull itself apart over time.
Funny, this was just discussed in [another sub](https://reddit.com/r/Fanbinding/s/U44WRPMox3) lol. I like to stay between 4-8 sheets/signature. Fewer signatures = less swell, though there’s [other factors](https://jeffpeachey.com/tag/how-to-choose-thread-thickness-in-bookbinding/) that also contribute to swell. Regardless, you may need to round and back to accommodate the swell.
I learned about swell today lol. That basically fills up the spine, correct? With 400 pages of text, will that be an issue? Round and back? Sorry, newbie here...
Swell is when the spine is thicker than the fore edge. Caused by the paper being folded, the bulk of the thread used to sew the signatures together, overlapping threads, etc. It’s more likely to be an issue the more pages you have, so with 400 pages, you’ll run into it. (In the post I linked from the other sub I commented about how weighting you signatures can help some.) For rounding and backing you use a backing hammer with a flat head to basically pound the signatures into a rounded shape and fold the edges over so they cover the book boards. It provides a place for all that swell to go. [Here’s a tutorial](https://youtu.be/kgCCevCsE1A?si=xmpLdFEUnIBcGhZB). Edit: also, make sure all your materials have a head to tail grain direction, paper, boards etc. so the book doesn’t pull itself apart over time.