Wire Binding Advantages & Disadvantages - The Good and the Bad

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It is pretty common knowledge that wire binding is one of the most popular choices! You can find wire bound books anywhere…on journals and notebooks, in schools, in offices for presentations, on art pads, on scratch pads and mini books…and the list goes on.

But with that being said, can they really be that perfect?

While wire bindings are a premier way to bind documents, they do have some disadvantages to go along with the advantages. And when you know both, you can easily decide whether wire binding is the best choice for your specific needs.

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The most obvious benefit of wire binding is the look! They are not only professional, but they are clean and look neat and organized; perfect for the Maria Kondo style household or business. Compared to plastic bindings, these metal wire binding look like a step up.

The twin loop wire style lets you have lay-flat reading (so you don’t have to hold the book open or create a crease in your pages, as you would with a soft cover perfect bound, tape bound, or sometimes thermal bound). The pages also turn the full 360 degrees, which is perfect for space-saving convenience. Once the pages are turned, you will see that they also have perfect registration. That means that the pages remain square with the entire stack, rather than being offset or skewed (as they would be with plastic spiral coil).

We offer only the top-quality wire binding brand: James Burn. Silver wires are a solid wire, while colored wire (including pewter) are created with a special coating that won’t chip of. Other alternative brands typically use a thinner wire, and we have heard complaints of customers switching over to us saying that the colors chipped quickly.

One thing to keep in mind is that, because they are made of a metal, they can be bend. This makes them able to close, but this also means that they can get bent if handled roughly. That is why wire binding is typically best used for books used by adults, and that might not be handled daily, or passed from person to person. As our binding wires get larger, they also get a bit thicker, making them more durable and resistant to bending, as well as stronger to handle the heavier page books.

Sometimes closing a perfect circle is a bit difficult. Depending on your wire closing machine, this may or may not be an issue for you. To get the best and most perfect close, you will want a closer that has a gliding adjustment (so you can fine tune the placement) rather than just a “click, click” from size to size setting (does that make sense?).

Wire binding is secure because the wire cannot be edited once bound. That means that on order to change out a page or fix a typo, you have to actually cut the wire off (you can use wire cutters) and re-bind them with a new wire spine. This could also be considered a disadvantage, depending on your opinion and application.

One important thing to understand if you’re new to wire binding is that it requires two different punching patterns in order to bind the full range of wire sizes. Called 3:1 and 2:1 pitch (pronounced “three to one” and “two to one”), the hole pattern (and corresponding loop pattern of the wire) will have either 3 holes per inch (32 holes on an 11” edge) or 2 holes per inch (21 holes along an 11” edge). Because these are these two patterns, you will need either two machines, a duo punch, or a disengageable die punch to be able to bind with every wire size there is. 3:1 pitch wires are made for the thinner documents and books, up to a maximum of about 120 pages, using the wire bind sizes from ¼” up to 9/16”. 2:1 pitch wires are made for the thicker books, up to a maximum of about 260 pages, using the wire diameter sizes from 5/8” to 1-1/4” (1.25”).

EXCITING NEWS: We now offer specially-made smaller wires in the 2:1 pitch for select colors! Keep in mind that the large majority of customers have a strong preference of the more tightly spaced 3:1 hole pattern when binding their thinner books.

And lastly, in a spine-by-spine comparison, wire binding is more expensive than the plastic binding alternatives.

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Now that you know the wire bind advantages and wire bind disadvantages, what are your thoughts? Is twin loop metal wire binding the best way to bind?

If you need more information, click the links above or call our experts at (866)537-2244. Or you can buy online at www.binding101.com.


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