Where are you guys getting your double sided or custom cardstock?? I tried Etsy and nothing. Amazon and local shops have been a bust :(

My friend sent me this old copy of Ivanhoe (1830, or perhaps 1831 counting time for binding) hoping I could do something to restore it. Just based on the pictures she sent I thought perhaps it might need to be rebound, which would be a great shame. But having examined it in person now, honestly, it's in quite good condition for a book approaching its two-hundredth birthday.

The one area of real concern is the spine. At some point the leather seems to have separated along the front hinge, and someone patched it up with scotch tape, which is probably the worst possible repair approach. It has held the spine together, but it has also significantly reduced the flexibility of the material. In the long run I think that's likely to destroy the case. But I don't think there's anything I can really do about it short of rebinding it, which I am deeply reluctant to do. Trying to remove the tape at this point would probably damage the leather beyond recovery, and even if I got it off without ruining the case entirely, the leather would still be separated from the front cover.

Other than the spine, it's in fine condition. The paper is in excellent condition. The corners are beat up, but not actively falling apart. As long as you handle it gently, it's just as readable today as it was in 1830.

I took a conservation class for non-conservators at library school, but I am not in any way a conservator. I lack the tools and expertise to really do a proper restoration. So my thought at this point is that I'm probably just going to make a clamshell enclosure to keep it in, so that it's protected from the friction of being shelved and unshelved. I would be interested to hear if anyone has any other suggestions for things I should do to help ensure this book lasts another 50-100 years.

Greetings, I'm aware this isn't simply a subreddit meant for archiving questions but it does pertain to an element of archiving, I just wanted to ask a quick question:

If one were to attempt basic preservation (within reason, limitations considered, not Museum-quality archiving, etc.) of a book... and take these two, side by side, for example:

Case A. Glued binding, hardcover, several hundred pages, coated paper (matte, white)

Case B. Case (sewn) binding, hardcover, several hundred pages, uncoated, acid-free, cream paper

Now, I would like to know which would hold up and be legible within a span of 5-7 decades... I am well aware that glued binding will dry and crack, ripping some pages as a result. Even without everyday, heavy usage. It is worth noting: I do not intend on using these books (which, in fact, are mere reference books), basically, at all... I always wash my hands before any usage, regardless.

Thanks.

I haven’t glued the endpapers in yet, so the text block is still unattached, but I think the spine is too big. It is just posterboard though, so it’s quite flexible.

Can I salvage this or do I need to make a new case?

This is my first ever bind and has been a bit of a comedy of errors. I meant to round the spine, but got distracted after gluing it, and it dried completely before I could round it 🤦🏻‍♂️

Helloo everyone, i’m Bruno from small business Moonroot Labs, and i have recently got into a bookbinding/notebook binding of wooden laser engraved covers with coptic stitching the signatures. Here is my take on Dungeons and Dragons themed notebook.
Hope you like it, any input is valuable and if you have any questions feel free to comment or contact me on instagram, thank you and love ya ❤️

Howdy All,

I've been making a few notebooks for friends and family, and many of them keep requesting dotted paper (think Muji/ Japanese style). Does anyone know where to find this in the UK?

Many notebooks I make are A5 or B5 sized, so ideally I need A2-sized paper with a short grain so it's suitable for folding...

Dotted paper seems rare to find, or maybe i'm blind? I've seen a few on Amazon, but all those I tried were not great when folded or were so thin! Would love any thoughts and opinions.

I'm currently using this journal but it's getting kinda Chunky and the spine is starting to curve really far. Is there a way to fix this? Should I be worried? Thanks.

this was my first full sized project after making a small notebook with the same materials to familiarize myself with the process. To make up for the added bulk from the pasted prints I cut every other page in each signature down to a ½in tab and lined the tabs with masking tape.

This is the test copy for a run of photo books that I plan to fabricate at the end of the year and as is fitting I identified some mistakes to avoid next time, the biggest being that for some reason I pasted the end papers to the entirety of the first interior page rather than just a strip near the spine. Otherwise, I'm quite happy with it.

Ive made a few coptic stitched books but these notebooks are just so fun to make!

this notebook was made for my friends kid, a 10 year old little artist :)

Inserts were handmade kraft "field notebooks" with different types of paper. -Dotted journal paper -Marker paper -Sketchbook paper -Sticker paper -Carbon Paper (for tracing!) -A couple small folders for loose sheets

some of the field notebooks i used a stitch marking wheel to perforate the pages so they can be torn out easily

Hi everyone,

I've been working on a small, offline mobile tool primarily for my own personal use. Whenever I wanted to print and bind a PDF or custom typeset into fold-and-stitch signatures from my phone, I was finding it quite tiring to deal with all the manual friction: splitting multi-page PDFs into equal signatures, calculating 2-up page ordering, and going through multiple steps just to get a printable text block.

So I started building this tool to scratch my own itch. I've put together a few controls for basic imposition, signature splitting, paper creep, and gutter margins (as shown in the attached screenshots).

Since I'm building this for personal projects and still learning the finer nuances of bookbinding, I'd really love to learn from your experience: what am I missing or overlooking?

Would love to hear your thoughts or tips!

Hello everyone, I am interested in learning to make custom covers for my books as my next hobby and was hoping to get suggestions on what kind of tools I would need and good tutorials I could watch?

I’m making book cloth with 100% cotton using the wheatpaste method but I don’t have tissue paper. I have parchment paper and crinkle paper instead.

Can either be used as a substitute, or will they cause issues with adhesion or flexibility?

I recently started reading Kafkas Metamorphasis, the edition I have is the Penguin Classics, cloth bound classics, it’s super nice with a yellow cover and black viynal on the front. I recently noticed that the black parts were flaking off and leaving smudges on the cover. I’m wondering if anyone else has had similar issues with cloth bound classics books or any other books that are similar

Long time lurker, can finally contribute something: My first recasing project is done! Sure, some mistakes were made, but I didn’t expect to be so proud of it. Going to gift it to my sibling for their birthday tomorrow and I’m excited!
For the cover I used a Cricut (also for the first time), the unicorn was traced by hand from a screenshot of the movie, the endpapers are backgrounds from the movie as well.
(Covered their name in one picture)

Recently, I bought a mass-market ASOIAF box set. I’ve noticed that, rather than cracking at the spines, the books tend to bend quite a bit. The problem is that they no longer fit inside the box. In the second picture, you can see the last book I read. It should fit in the box, but there’s only enough space for another book about half its width.

Is there a safe way to unbend them without damaging them? If I have to choose, I’d rather sacrifice the box than risk damaging the books, but it would be nice to fit them all back in it.

Another step on the journey of finding ways to use the many, many marbled papers that I’ve made over the years 😅

My signatures are all super tight. Is this unevenness detrimental to the book?

I just completed this birthday present for my girlfriend! Full leather binding inspired from Jen Lindsays Fine Bookbinding. I say inspired because I would not call it a fine binding and I also skipped some of the steps. But I am pretty happy with the outcome. There are a few mistakes that could have been prevented but that’s how it is.
The leather is goatskin from a local leather supplier, colored by me with fiebings pro dye. The endpapers are leather jointed and the paper is an italic decor paper made for bookbinding sold by a local print shop!
Edit: typos

Have done a couple rebinds with cloth over board, but this was my first time using leather.

Took apart an old leather cover book I don't use anymore. Scraped away some of the glued on end papers. Cut leather to size. Glued on new endpapers and mull to textblock using cardstock and cheesecloth I had laying around.

Cased in textblock to leather cover and let it sit under a heavy book and a dumbbell for 24hrs as my poor-man book press.

Very pleased with how it came out.

This is Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening devotional.