kim191•19d ago

My hinge trick that's stirring up the shop

I've been binding for about 5 years now, mostly in my garage in Austin. Last month I started using a thin strip of Tyvek under the hinge when I glue up the text block, and it's cut my cracking issues by like 90%. But my buddy at the bindery says it's just a band-aid and real binders use linen. I swear by it for flex, but I'm wondering if I'm just making future repairs worse. Has anyone else tried Tyvek hinges or is this a shortcut that's gonna bite me later?

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taylor_hayes2519d ago

That Tyvek strip sounds wild. My cousin used to wrap his fishing rod handles in the stuff and swore it never rotted. But honestly, linen always felt like the "proper" thing to me too, even though I've never actually tested it side by side. I just have a box of old shirt scraps I use for everything now.