A bookbinder in Asheville showed me the thread tension trick that fixed my saggy spines
Three weeks ago I was rebinding a 1920s poetry collection and the text block kept sagging at the spine after gluing, which made the whole book look tired. A binder named Marla at a shop in Asheville watched me work and said I was pulling my linen thread too tight during the final sections, so every signature was basically choking itself. How do you all check tension without stopping every few minutes, or is that just something you learn to feel after a while?