Hot take: I used to trim book cloth with scissors like a fool

For the first three years I was binding, I cut all my book cloth with regular scissors. I thought it was fine until I spent a Saturday trimming a whole run of 15 journals and ended up with frayed edges on half of them. Then a guy at the Austin book arts meetup handed me a rotary cutter and a straight edge, and I tried it on a batch last November. Now I never touch scissors for cloth - the cuts are clean and I save about 45 minutes per set. Has anyone else made this switch or are you still team scissors?

2 comments

2 Comments

thea_carter10d ago

So you're saying scissors are a fool's game, huh? I actually still use scissors for book cloth and I'll tell you why. That rotary cutter setup sounds nice in theory but I've had too many instances where the blade drifted on a curve or just skipped over a stubborn bit of glue, leaving a jagged mess. Scissors give me this tactile feedback where I can feel the fibers and adjust my cut in real time, especially on those tricky corner notches or odd shapes. Plus I don't have to clear a whole tabletop to use a straight edge, I can just sit on my couch and snip away while watching a movie. Sure it takes extra time but I'd rather spend that time than deal with a blade that decides to wander when I'm halfway through a run of 20 notebooks.

richard_ramirez10d ago

That bit about "tactile feedback with the fibers" hit me hard. Last week I was trimming some handmade paper for a gift and my Swiss army knife just laughed at me. Snapped a blade clean in half. Had to finish the whole job with a pair of rusty kitchen shears and a prayer. Your couch and movie method sounds like a dream compared to my disaster. You got a favorite brand of scissors for book cloth?