Hit 500 spine repairs and found out my hands know more than my brain

I keep a log book for every book that comes through my bench. Last Tuesday I hit number 500. That's a lot of cracked hinges and wobbly text blocks. The weird part is I dont think about the steps anymore, I just do them. Has anyone else hit a repair milestone that made them realize how much was muscle memory?

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keithbennett15d ago

I used to think muscle memory was just an excuse people gave for not paying attention, but 500 repairs will change your mind fast. There was a point around maybe 200 where I stopped looking at the grain direction and just felt it, and that felt wrong at first, like I was cheating somehow. But now I catch my hands doing the right thing before my brain even finishes telling me what the problem is. It's almost like my fingers have their own library of past books and they just know which glue to reach for. Still mess up from time to time, but yeah, your hands definitely know more than your brain after a while.