# Book binding



## popsprocket (Mar 9, 2014)

I've always been a hands on guy. I can use any tool you can name and I've never met anything that I couldn't make. So I was looking at my stupidly expensive moleskine and noting just how quickly I was burning through the pages. Decided to have a look at book binding and that's how we got here.






Pages folded and stacked. 40 sheets makes 160 pages. Picked up a stick in a local park, split it a couple of times with an axe, and then spent 20 minutes with a sander turning it into a folding tool. Works really well for a bit of low-tech toolery. I was concerned the wood would mark the page, but even unvarnished it doesn't leave a single spot. I'll finish sanding it properly one day soon.





Stitched the pages together. Took right on an hour. Judging by how fast I got through the last couple of signatures I'd be able to do the stitching in half the time and make it neater when I try again.





Spine glued and sat under a heavy weight for half an hour.





Added end pages of thick black paper and reinforced the spine with another piece of paper. I had been wanting to add in a bookmark ribbon but was unable to find the stash of ribbons that I know are around this house somewhere. If I were a more patient man I would have waited until I could buy some before putting on that bit of paper, but no one's perfect.





Opens perfectly flat from the first page to the last. Which I'm very impressed with.

It's at this point that I really don't have what I need to finish it. Need to source some board to use for the cover pages, and I also need some vinyl to cover them with...

Once I'm done with this one I think I'll actually digitise mother's recipe collection and turn it into a nice hard-bound book as a birthday present. Just thinking of how carefully I'm going to have to arrange the pages for printing is making my head spin.


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## Schrody (Mar 9, 2014)

Nice work, pops!


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## Bloggsworth (Mar 9, 2014)

Very professional. My late English master's wife runs courses on bookbinding in Launceston, Cornwall. I last did that kind of bookbinding in 1956 in primary school! Now I'm old and idle, I just find a bit of cloth, smear PVA adhesive on it, and put on a clamped wadge of paper endways till it's dry, then I chop the spare cloth off with a guillotine...


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## popsprocket (Mar 20, 2014)

Alright, well it took me way too long to find some cardboard to use for the cover, and it was even difficult to find vinyl to use in covering the book for some odd reason. I swear I could find vinyl in every fabric/crafty/arty type shop last time I needed it, but had to make a specialist trip to get it this time. Other than that it took me a couple of days to digitise mother's cookbook like I wanted to. Took me about 4 hours to type it up and about as long again to put it all together in InDesign. Thank god for owning high end program suites. There is no way I could have made this without the help of InDesign.





So I made my cover(s). I was doing the practice notebook first, but the cookbook looks identical except for having printed pages. Stuck it all together and no, it's not as crooked as the picture looks. My phone has quite a wide angle lense, so everything looks distorted because of how close I was holding it to the book.





And the finished product. The vinyl on the cover isn't perfect, but that's why I was doing a test copy first!





A final size comparison to my moleskine. If I had been able to find a round corner punch I would have rounded the corners on both the books I made. I'm quite disappointed that I couldn't find one. There were some on ebay but by the time I realised that I really couldn't get one in the shops, it would have been too late to buy one and wait for shipping.





The cookbook. I bought some ribbon to use as a bookmark.





Very carefully laid out interior which is totes #professional. Okay, maybe not. Page layout is only tangentially related to my skill set and I didn't have a photo for every dish to make it look all pretty.

I'll just have to wait and see what mother thinks of her gift!

Thank you for joining me on this short and anti-climactic journey.


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## A_Jones (Mar 20, 2014)

This is amazing!  Ever since I read _Inkheart_ I have wanted to learn how to make books like this!


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## Moxis (Mar 24, 2014)

This is really usefull. In the sieres I'm writing there is an important book that is past between a lot of the main characters I have been wanting to make a prop of that book for a while now so this will be vary helpful thanks


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## vangoghsear (Mar 25, 2014)

I made a homemade bound book for my wife of some of my poetry.  I wish I had had better materials than I used (wrong type cardboard for the covers).  Other than that, it turned out okay.


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## White Rabbit Ninja (Apr 6, 2014)

That's amazing!   It looks really nice.  How do you use the folding stick?


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## popsprocket (May 9, 2014)

Ever since I bound those two books this is all I seem to do with my procrastinating time.

Made these little notebooks with some orange card I had left over from something else. 10 sheets, which makes 40 pages, about the same size as a Moleskine notebook. No complex stitching like in the large notebooks though, these ones are a single stack of pages folded in half and stitched down the middle. Any more than  about 12 sheets and the books don't stay closed until they've sat under a weight for a month or so.

They're quite fun to make.


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## EmilyCook9410 (Jul 4, 2014)

How Cool, Definitely Need To Try This Out One Day.


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## Emily Logan (Jul 5, 2014)

White Rabbit Ninja said:


> That's amazing!   It looks really nice.  How do you use the folding stick?



They show book binding on YouTube. With a "bone folder" (so named because of what it was originally made of; these days made of plastic or, in this case, wood) you simply fold the paper and increase the fold by pressing the bone folder along that crease. Did you follow that? 

That is a really NICE folder. Wouldn't mind one of my own. Is wood working another one of your hobbies? I would love one of those folders.


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## mraven (Jul 17, 2014)

These look really good - I'm jealous!


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## Morkonan (Oct 7, 2014)

OOoooooohhhhh....

That's so darn awesome! A long time ago, I watched a really neat documentary on some of the last book-binders left in the Untied States. It was fascinating. Since then, I've always had an interest in it.

Popsrocket - Have you thought about any embossing techniques? What sort of paper do you use?


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## Gumby (Oct 7, 2014)

_*nods*
_
That is so awesome, pops! I've never thought of binding my own book. I am so impressed!

_*copies post for future reference*_


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## popsprocket (Oct 8, 2014)

Thank you everyone for the praise!

I actually sold a small stack of the 10 sheet notebooks (the ones with orange card) to the local Nanowrimo organiser who wanted to give them out as prizes at the kick off party. If only I could make a living doing this. It was so tempting to stamp/emboss a brand mark on there and start my stationery empire too...


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## popsprocket (Dec 5, 2014)

Mother will once again be the victim of a book binding exploit. She has gotten very into journaling over the last few months, so I've made her a traveller's notebook for Christmas.






For those who don't know, a traveller's notebook is a refillable journal that takes small notebooks. There's only an elastic strap for one but it's pretty popular to add in more notebooks like I have done.






These notebooks are similar to the ones above. 12 sheets a piece, lined pages that I had printed. They're stitched a little differently but are basically the same product. I have also included two little folders for loose leaf pages that go in there along with the notebooks.






12 sheets each means 48 pages per notebook. I've made her six notebooks so that she has some refills that will last her a while.

I'm not _entirely_ happy with the colour of the leather, but it's absurdly difficult to get small pieces of leather so I was basically stuck using what I already had. Turns out it's even more difficult to find leather dye and I've left it a bit late to buy any online. It's okay. It looks better than I thought it would at least, and once I iron out a few kinks from being stored it'll be nice.


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## Morkonan (Dec 5, 2014)

Very nice!


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## LadyGrumps (Dec 16, 2014)

Having taken a book binding course, I am boggling at your skill. Gorgeous! I found it really hard on the hands. Have you dabbled in making your own paper? I loved that part of the course, as I made some gorgeous abaca paper, bound my hand made with some 'scrap' (think found papers like maps and stuff) to create a neat little interactive journal.


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## WolfieWriter (Sep 30, 2015)

WOW! These DIY books you guys have made/posted are absolutely stunning! I've been interested in doing something like this for a long time but never was able to get everything I needed for it. I mean, it sounds easy enough and the materials I know aren't super expensive but for someone like me, I just don't have the money to buy anything these days. However, it is still on my list of things to do before I die! I will make myself a DIY book one of these days.


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## Jack of all trades (Jan 26, 2016)

I have been thinking about trying this, so I'm very excited to find this thread!

I'm surprised by the stitching. I thought each section had to be stitched independently. No?


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## popsprocket (Jan 26, 2016)

Jack of all trades said:


> I have been thinking about trying this, so I'm very excited to find this thread!
> 
> I'm surprised by the stitching. I thought each section had to be stitched independently. No?



Not in this style of stitching at least.

If you were going to stitch the signatures to the cover, as you might for a leather-bound journal, then they tend to be stitched individually. Since I was gluing the cover to the book I didn't need to do that.

There are lots of other types of book binding stitches for all manner of applications. It's really down to what you want the book to do and how good you are with a needle and thread!


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## Jack of all trades (Jan 27, 2016)

popsprocket said:


> Not in this style of stitching at least.
> 
> If you were going to stitch the signatures to the cover, as you might for a leather-bound journal, then they tend to be stitched individually. Since I was gluing the cover to the book I didn't need to do that.
> 
> There are lots of other types of book binding stitches for all manner of applications. It's really down to what you want the book to do and how good you are with a needle and thread!



You lost me with the reference to signatures. I have to do some research.


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## popsprocket (Jan 27, 2016)

Jack of all trades said:


> You lost me with the reference to signatures. I have to do some research.



The signatures are just the individual sections you were referring to.

In the book I made in the first post, each signature was 4 sheets, folded in half to create 16 pages. Stack enough signatures on top of one another, stitch them together, and you've got a book.


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## Jack of all trades (Jan 27, 2016)

popsprocket said:


> The signatures are just the individual sections you were referring to.
> 
> In the book I made in the first post, each signature was 4 sheets, folded in half to create 16 pages. Stack enough signatures on top of one another, stitch them together, and you've got a book.




Thanks for saving me research time!

I'm a little confused how 4 sheets, folded in half, becomes 16 pages. Wouldn't it be 8?


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## allyson17white (Aug 22, 2016)

These are amazing. I would love to do this myself.


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## Agrippa91 (Sep 3, 2016)

Super neat. I have a draft I'm working on editing ... I might bind it just to provide a break from the monotony of editing!


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## Ovenproofcorgi (Sep 27, 2016)

I was taught how to do this in high school and I love making little notebooks. Now, I'm not sure if I'm on the outside with this, but I was taught that under the threads holding the pages together you put strips of thin cloth, spread glue on the cloth and then glue those bits to what you'd use for the cover. Is this not a common practice for book binding? I haven't seen anyone else do it the way I was taught.


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## Penny090 (Feb 20, 2017)

Amazing, and what a lovely idea for a gift!


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## Abbey_S (Sep 19, 2018)

I would love to be able to do this.  Ive seen videos on repairing or initial book binding.  Unfortunately many years ago I discovered I was allergic to book binding glue.  I do realize how strange that sounds.  The stranger part is that it was a routine skin allergy test and that is one of the things they expose your to.  Very odd.


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## RadioFerret (Sep 23, 2019)

Ah! What a neat hobby! I'd love to get into this, if only I could figure out what to fill the pages with. Good work!


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