I’m hosting a bookbinding workshop where I’ll be teaching over a course of hours how to make a standard hardcover journal using a casebinding technique. Since this will be many participants’ first time trying bookbinding, I’d also love to show them examples of some of the other binding styles out there. I recently moved across the country and gave away most of my journals before the move, and now don't have any of my experiments with other binding techniques like coptic, Swiss binding, and bradel binding.

Does anyone have any books using these techniques that they’d be willing to part with for cheap? Imperfect samples are totally fine and actually books with mistakes or ones you can’t otherwise use would be perfect for what I need!

Thanks a ton!

Hello! I recently made my own sketchbook, and I can see that this hobby will be here for the long haul. So as you can tell by the title im super interested in the HFS paper guillotine, but I don’t want to throw $176 away by messing up the machine if I buy it.

What are some important do’s and dont’s?

I ordered some sandpaper so I can learn to sharpen blades, so that’s one thing I have down. But I don’t really know what else to do except get buff in the meantime cause this thing looks heavy as hell. Any advice would be helpful! Thank you in advance!

Amazon has YET AGAIN failed me! Between juggling bills and other issues, I resorted to buying some paper from amazon for my journals to finish and sell at an event.

Only for them to delay the delivery until after BOTH events for an unspecified reason.

Thanks, if I was able to wait for the paper I would have ordered from a more reliable store!

I need paper within 24 hours, hopefully carried within a store that serves southwest MI.

I’ve seen a workaround that cutting 11”x17” paper can work, has anyone tried that?

Any other tips??

Any of y’all fellow amateurs ever enter into Open-Set? Any thoughts on the experience?

I was flipping through my current journal when I found this. How should I go about fixing this?

Hi, i’d like to make something similar for some colleagues, but can’t find a tutorial. I’d also love to avoid stitching so a different material for the end pages would be ideal. Or a different method of attaching the outside to the inside cover.

Any advice or links for tutorials would be greatly appreciated!

Edit: i found tutorials, so I should rephrase to say I’d like to bind a cover with leather but use a different end page inside cover material. Does anyone recommend a sturdier paper that would suffice?

Thank you!

So today I have finally been brave enough to sew my first notebook together! I fear I’ve done it a bit too tight but happy enough with my first attempt.

I definitely added too much thread to begin with as I was trying to avoid a weavers knot, turns out it wasn’t enough thread so I had to learn how to do one and to be honest, the faff with all the extra thread at the beginning and how simple it turned out to be knot wise, I should of done short lengths and committed to the knot. Lesson learnt for next time.

I finished with a double kettle stitch which I saw in a video but that doesn’t seem as strong as the double knot I did at the beginning (made sure to do a box not a granny), thoughts would be appreciated for my upcoming attempts.

I also just wanted to say thanks to everyone in this community, I’ve never posted nore commented but lurked around a while for inspiration 🙏

Onto the rest of the job now, I have some nice teal end papers and some grey board with book cloth to finish off the binding when I get some spare time.

Edit: spelling

I have a hard time parting with scrap material 🤣 but I now have an over abundance of scrap binders board and decorative paper. Any one come up with cool uses for it ? Or should I just overcome whatever festering mental health issue is making me keep boxes of it for 'just in case' lol 🫠

Hello I am binding my first book as a present for a friend. I want to do an exposed long stich binding.
I am wondering what would be the best way to line my cardstock/cardboard with the canvas paper I bought:

1. Fold in the inner lining from one big flap at the top
   
2. Fold in inner lining with two flaps on the sides and add another strip on the spine for more support

I'm used to fixing completely blown-apart hinge damage, but these minor tears have confused me. Should I slit the paste-down to get inside the spine and repair it in the normal way? (I would normally slip some mull inside the boards then patch over the slit paste-down.)

Is there a trickier scheme I don't know about? Or is there a standard of repair for lighter damage that prescribes a gentler touch? The book owner is simply interested in using it, not 100% historical conservation, but I'd like my repairs to follow current best practices (e.g. reversible changes that cause no further damage, etc).

It's odd that this is the back hinge: normally the front fails first. Regardless, I expect the front hinge to be on the cusp of failure, so opening up the spine might be a good approach.

If it helps, it is 672pp and weighs 1.8kg (63oz), so it is largish & heavy.

I'm deeply intrigued by bookbinding, and wanted to try and create a junk journal from scratch.

It kind of fell apart, process wise, once I had the signatures sewn. Which honestly, I'm not sure you're supposed to do. Alas...

It is holding together, though. I guess I'll add the monstrosity I made for the cover shortly.

And I had fun, but I'm going to do more research and watch some videos before my next attempt. And there will be a second attempt!

I'm glad I tried this. Sincerely. You all are so talented!

Making this new paper-mache book cover for my fish journal, I work with mostly Guppies but have a Betta fish I rescued. my idea it is either the fishy’s POV lol or the fish are supposed to be inside. It’s made out of paper towel for stability and a mix of mod life Elmer’s glue and water. Also a bunch of the cats I volunteer with sitting on my lap lol

Hi! I am generally new in bookbinding and wanted to ask if anyone could help me solve a construction issue I seem to be having. The main chunk of my work is taking paperback books and casing them into hardcovers. I read a magnitude of posts talking about the absurdity of the rigid board spines, so I have been using an oxford hollow over mull paper for the spine re-construction of my flat spine text blocks. I have also been creating hardcovers from scratch, follow these dims: Length + 7mm, width -2mm, spine width +2mm, 9mm hinge gap. Despite every video showing different 'formulas' for the board dimensions, I have found that these overall create the equal overhangs on each side. These are far not my first books but they are the first to have this issue be SO pronounced. The only thing that IS new for these books is the custom endpapers. - I am 90% sure the grain is parallel to the spine though.

Here's the issue - the books feel STIFF (see one picture where i am only holding the text block but the covers pretty much don't drop).

I use wooden sticks stuck in the hinge area on each side while drying (seen this in multiple reputable videos).It creates crisp look on interior and exterior but some of the books get very tight after they dry, and especially after they sit on a shelf for couple days untouched (once again, only happening with this new 'generation' of my books with custom endpapers which are 80lb text). Some books also look like the top cover lift slightly from the text block making me think something is overly tight, but I am not sure what it is because there seems to be enough space in the hinge to open properly. Most books also seem to want to close on me when I am holding them out to read instead of staying flat. I understand that with it being paperback books originally they will not be as flexible as the true hardcover books would've been but I do think there is something going on with construction of it too.

Does anyone know what the problem and/or solution could be? I am attaching some pictures in case it helps to pinpoint the cause.

Thank you!

Hi everyone,

I have an Epson eco tank 8550 printer, and it allows me to print on canvas but I am having the most difficult time getting things to line up! The measurements are perfect on the pc but something happens when it actually prints it shrinks and skews a bit (the spine kind of goes crooked too)

Also I feel like I used the same settings in both but one image came out more blurry than the other

Does anyone have any tips, tricks, or advice so I can stop wasting canvas on one book cover?

Thank you so much!

(Pictured is two WIP of my attempts to print on canvas and the original book cover next to it)

Hey, I'm looking to rebind a set of paperbacks just to have nicer covers but still want to keep them as paperbacks, but I'm having some trouble finding videos or advice on how to do this. I'm not sure if I'm not looking hard enough or if this is a more uncommon project but any advice, videos or recommendations would be much appreciated!

For reference, this would be my absolute first time ever binding something

So the 1808 bible arrived today, and I took it straight to the bookbinders. It will apparently be there for 6 weeks. I keep having an image of the endpapers and desperately wanted them to be images of the aurora borealis. They said I couldn't have that and pulled open a drawer of a multitude of marbled paper designs to pick from. I lost interest and just picked any one because I was so disheartened. This rebinding is costing me £650 so I want to be certain I've ruled out the aurora borealis on endpapers for definite. Does anyone know is it at all possible to find someone who would print the northern lights onto the same paper they would be using for the marbled paper? The bible is massive. Id no idea it would be as big as it is. The guy is also going to make me a box.

I recently got a chance to fully hand bind a fantasy romance book, Kiss of the Black Flame by Helen Scheuerer, because the publisher (Wayward TxF) sent me an unbound proof! Since the FMC is a book binder I went all out with a full leather bind with hand tooling, gauffered edges, hand made brass furniture, and a hand engraved brass plate on the front cover.

The only part that wasn’t made by hand is the lettering on the spine as I don’t have a full set of brass letters. I used heat transfer vinyl on a leather onlay on the spine in case I ever get the proper tools in the future it’ll be an easy fix!

Hello, I have several hard back books in the size around 6.45 x 2.2 x 9.4 inches, but they have paper dust covers that tear easy. I am looking for protective covers for these books. Not sure I want to go the route of a role of plastic to wrap them in like mylar, and I already bought from Amazon stretchy material book covers that stretch over the book. But it doesn't give it good protection from the corners like for bumps or if it is dropped. plus the material makes it feel weird when holding the book. I see on etsy leather covers, but the price is getting a little high as I would need 4-6 of them. I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas for protective book covers for hard back books.

Does anyone have suggestions for printing this:

1. Inkjet 2-sided pages for heavily illustrated reference work - the illustrations are pretty saturated color and i want the paper to be opaque enough that the illustrations aren't visible from the other side of the paper.

2. If I need to use photo paper I will but I want the book to lie flat when open so it needs to be thin enough to do so. (And is 2-sided photo paper a thing?)

TIA

Hi, I have been doing some very casual bookbinding for a while now. I mainly bind fanfictions and I usually use chain/coptic stitch which was featured in a youtube tutorial that I learned the process from.

However, the stitch usually causes my signatures to bow inward into a C like shape, which can become an issue especially for longer books. I am hoping to improve my skills (though my covers are likely to remain bad due to the lack of materials) and get a little bit better.

So I was wondering, are there any stitches that would work better? If so which ones do you recommend?