Book Binding

[BeerDrinkingBurke]

Another update in my adventures in book binding. Until this point, all my work had been glue-free. Just card, paper and thread. But I was itching to push on into hard covers and glue. 

I also had some small offcuts from my re-binding of my innkeep journal, so I thought I'd make some mini books to learn the basics of hard cases! Mistakes were made. Many mistakes! But it was very instructive.


After making a lot of small signatures, I started binding them with the same kind of French link binding that I used for my previous notebook. Only with 1 central place for these links instead of 2, because of how small the book is.


Here's the finished thing! And mistake number 1: My signatures were using quite thick paper (from a sketch pad). Given the size of the book as well, this made "the swell" around the spine pretty big. Less paper per signature would have been a good idea (and a bit of time pressing them before stitching.)


I then applied some glue to create a "text block". And here was mistake number 2: Really, I should have set up some kind of press, even if just out of basic supplies, to hold the signatures closer together. I also should have applied 1 coat, waited a while, then done a second coat. This can let the glue form a much better connection (something I've figured out since then).


Still, our cute little text block was holding together. I used some old ribbon as the "mull" (extra spine support that you glue on), and that seemed to work fine. Something a bit more gauzy would be better but I didn't have anything like that.


I tried my hand then at making a book cover. I applied some cloth just directly to some hard board, and in this case it turned out ok. It's better to use an interfacing material that you iron on (which I got cheaply at a nearby shop since then). But it was OK. However I made mistake number 3 here, in not having large enough hinge gaps. You need pretty big ones (1cm even). Once I stuck everything together, it was clearly not able to open properly, so I had to just remove the spine entirely to get around it.


Luckily, that kinda worked. And you can open the book just fine. Haha. Looks ugly, but still.


And there we have it. My first hard-cover book, mini though it is. I learned quite a bit from this one. And I must say even now I'm very happy with it, warts and all. There's something amazing about being able to turn a bunch of old paper, some cardboard, thread, and bit of scrap cloth into a little pretty thing like this. Out of raw materials, a bit of beauty. I find the smallness of the thing quite endearing too. It's by my computer atm and I can just kinda fidget with it quite happily.  :-) Could be a good thing to stick some poems in. Or maybe tiny pictures or sketches.

Until next time!

[BeerDrinkingBurke]

It's October already? I'm a bit behind in posting my bookbinding experiments.

Here's one I did last month. The first proper hinged book. A little square thing..


I thought I'd do a red/brown kinda look.


Initially, I was planning on having some exposed French links, but when I waxed the red thread with white paraffin wax it kinda turned them pink, and I wasn't loving the look combined with the brown paper I was using. So I ended up going with a cover after the fact.


Adding some glue and pressing it.


Here you can really see how much glue adds to the overall structural strength of a spine. The trick is that you do it in coats. Of course, a full on proper book also has things like support bands and proper mull. Something I've been experimenting with lately, but that's another post.


Making some decorative end-bands using support tape and thicker string + glue.


Going back to an online tutorial (Bitter Melon Bindary), I made sure this time I understood the hinge spacing required. What surprised me was how loose it sits on the book prior to adding the book cloth. I wouldn't have guessed it just by eye-balling, as it looks like a huge gap. But this is actually what we need.


Initially we can use a bit of masking tape just to check the dimensions, make sure it's all fitting snug. Adjustments can be made here. You want a few mm overhang around the text block of course.

Glued on my over-thick jacket fabric "book cloth" (I've got some proper canvas since then but I worked with this for a bit.)

 
And voila. A cute little notebook thing.


This was really where hinges clicked for me. And you can see how with this technique, the spine is free to lift upwards. This lets you open the book wide and flat without issue.


Unfortunately my blade was a bit blunt, and when hand trimming I made a mess. Something I still struggle with, even with a sharper blade, depending on how thick the text block is. A nice industrial strength guillotine would be something. But alas, no space / money for that!


Another glaring mistake I caught after it had dried in the press. Ooops! 


But overall, I was very happy with it as a learning experience in making hard cases.