Saw a bookbinder in Savannah using dental floss for headbands

Stopped by a small shop on Broughton Street in Savannah while on vacation and the owner was doing headbands with unwaxed dental floss instead of linen thread. She said it grips the signatures better on thin paper and costs her about $2 a spool versus $12 for the thread she used to buy. I tried it on two practice books when I got home and the spine hold is honestly tighter. Has anyone else messed with floss, and does it hold up after a few years of opening?

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claire87219d ago

Dental floss is usually nylon or PTFE, and both of those stretch over time in a way linen does not. I get that it feels tighter right after you sew it, but a spine that holds tight on day one is not the same as one that holds tight in year five. The whole reason bookbinders have used linen for centuries is that it does not creep, and when floss does let go it tends to go all at once instead of slowly. Two practice books will not tell you much, you would need to open one a few hundred times and let it sit for a couple years. I would keep the floss for cheap practice projects and stick with linen on anything you actually care about.

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