So while at the aforementioned calligrapher, I mentioned that I was helping folks hack up little long-stitch signature-bound books. I explained that it was really hackish, and not for raw aesthetics.

She immediately pegged me with how the grain worked out in our little laser-printed setups. I kind of stumbled for a moment, and she showed me a few demonstrations about how paper grain affects binding.

Basically, machine-made paper is created in a roller, and the fiber particles get stretched in one direction. Typically on standard paper this follows the top edge, so that when you read an ordinary loose-leaf sheet, the grain runs to the right and left.

She handed me a book that had been bound incorrectly, with the grain running perpendicular to the spine. It was noticeably difficult to turn pages and keep them flat. I would have criticized the paper as being "too stiff" or perhaps badly glossed, but it was simply a matter that it was bound in the wrong orientation.

Take a ream of ordinary letter paper (or A4 I guess), and lay a heavy book two or three inches from the top edge. Try flipping through that top edge. Now do the same with the right edge. You should find that it's tougher to flip that way, even if you cut the ream into a perfect square.

Likewise, notice that when you fold or tear a piece of letter paper, the crease or tear is straighter when it follows the grain. It's no accident then that the standard American letter-paper 'zine format has as its spine the 8.5" bisecting line of an 8.5"x11" piece of letter paper.

Another test you can do is to dampen a piece of paper and watch it dry. Maybe you have a phone book that was under the sink for too long, or a favorite toilet reader that spent too much time in the shower steam. Maybe you spilled coffee on a magazine or textbook. You should see that the ripples of the distorted paper are all visible mostly from the top and bottom edge of the monograph, while the foredge and spine are still mostly straight.

This is because the fibers in the paper like to stretch out when they're waterlogged, creating uneven tensions in the structure of the sheet. The importance of this fact is that when you bind with glue along the spine (typically for perfect-binding, though some signature binding techniques have been known to do the belt-and-suspenders thing), you don't want the spine itself to try and lengthen, as that will crack the pages out when the ripples start forming.

I saw this happen many times with the books that the Internet Archive Bookmobile were handing out, and it wasn't until I got religion on paper grain that I realized what had caused it. It's a real pity that they were handing out such poorly-bound books. Had they made sure to make the spine parallel to the grain, the books would have been easier to manipulate and more durable besides.

As my fiancee and I were at our calligrapher's studio the other day, I chanced to mention my interest in bookbinding. We talked for a long time, and she eventually gave me some handouts she'd made for her own bookbinding class. It turns out that calligraphy is often part of a larger discipline of manuscript, and so the creation of the entire book is taught.

This particular technique is for perfect binding without gluing the spine. Regardless of this, it is still important for the grain of the paper to run parallel to the spine.

• Assemble book-block, including one pair of endpapers (same size as book-block)
• Cut two boards: height = height of book-block, width = width of book-block - 1/8". Trim off 3/4" spine piece from each board
• If book is to be covered with paper, cut 2 reinforcing strips: length = height of book-block, width = 1-1.5"
• Make pattern for covering and cut two out of covering material. The angle on the slant around the spine piece should be 45 degrees, and there should be a little bit of a gap between the corners of the spine piece and the left flap's beginning that's a little wider than the thickness of the spine piece.
• Apply paste to the covering and place boards as shown. Apply paste to the reinforcing strip, then rub the strip well into the joint and onto the boards. Tri the corners at foreedge of head and tail. Turn over at head and tail, then at foreedge and spine. Press.
• Cut two more endpapers to fit inside of the boards, allowing 1/8" of book covering to show on all four sides. Paste them up, apply them to covered boards, and press.
• (optional) Make spine strip out of thin chip or heavy paper. Width = thickness of book. Length = length of spine plus 1.5". Trim off two pieces: 3/4" each, from the strip.
• (optional) Make pattern for spine covering and cut it out of covering material. Apply paste and place strip pieces on it as shown on left. Turn over 1/4" at each end and apply paste again. Knock up book-block square at head and spine, clamp it, then wrap spine covering around spine. Press.
• Measure board and mark for sewing holes. The distance between holes is not mandated, but the number of holes must be odd. Allow approximately 3/4" from outside holes to head and tail edges.
• Place boards around book-block and knock up square at head and spine. Clamp it together. With awl, heavy needle, or drill, make holes -- which should be large enough to hold three cords. Flatten edges of holes with your bone folder if necessary.
• Cut cord (6 * book height) and lace up book. Finish off with square knot and poke it into hole, or trim lace ends close to hole and secure with a bit of white glue in hole.

There is a pretty good coverage of how to do the final lacing at http://www.sff.net/people/Brook.West/bind/bindit.html