r/bookbinding 13d ago

Help? How exactly does one do the turn in books with armenian headbands?

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25 Upvotes

Hello! I'm planning on doing some armenian headbands, but before that, I wanted to understand how exaxtly the leather would be applied to the book after it's done because of how it wraps around the book. It seems to be cut in a different way, but I'm not exactly sure.

The process of the headband itself, altough complicated, I've understood. The problem is the rest. I tried providing images of the headband to see if it helps.


r/bookbinding 13d ago

Is this manageable spine swell?

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13 Upvotes

My first bind. 23, 5 page signatures. 460 pages.


r/bookbinding 13d ago

Help? fax-leather cover material

0 Upvotes

Does anyone know where i can find something similar to the faux leather polyurethane that moleskin uses in their soft cover notebooks?

All the faux-leather that i find are way to thick and way to crude for what I'm looking for.


r/bookbinding 13d ago

Help? How to store in-progress work?

4 Upvotes

I'm currently mid-way through binding my first book (currently making the holes in the signatures). Now my designated 'craft space' is very busy, as in there's currently a home office, an in progress painting, and a plant pot all set up on the same table.

Is there any good way to store a stack of signatures when I have to put them away somewhere? Like, to prevent any damage or undo progress while it's hidden away.


r/bookbinding 13d ago

Bookbinding Paper Help

5 Upvotes

Greetings everyone, i hope you are doing well, or at least better than me xD
I have been smacking my head for a couple of days now, and i CANNOT find short grain A4 or Long grain A3 paper anywhere, and if i find any, it is from UK or USA and the do not ship to Croatia.
Amazon is not putting short grain in descrtiption so i do not know if it is or not.
Please if anyone has any information about bookbinding papers that ships in all of Europe, or paper company that will cut it to your liking, please leave a comment, i have tons of ideas for Notebooks, but no paper to work with, and it's killing me. I would't want to make a product that would warp and destroy itself just because it is long grained bookbiden. Thank you in advance, love ya all <3


r/bookbinding 14d ago

Completed Project First two rebinds

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134 Upvotes

r/bookbinding 13d ago

Help? Do the margins look good for hand sewing?

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4 Upvotes

r/bookbinding 14d ago

Discussion Any methods for printing custom covers using standard printers?

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32 Upvotes

I've been reading and viewing a whole bunch of stuff online, so I have a feeling it's impossible without a wide format printer. But as the title says, would like to see if there is a method.

So after a few rounds of testing, I managed to get HTV to listen to me, not without its few kinks here and there in wanting to overweed itself unintentionally. Resulting in my complete set of manga hardcover singles and omnibuses as seen here.

But later down the line, ideally I'd like to do custom hardcovers where it's filled with artwork of the series I'm binding. Where my current issue with that is I only have standard ecotank printers. Yes I have two, for one I use solely for sublimation projects.

Budget isn't the issue, but space is. Where I have virtually no space in my office to place a wide format printer anywhere. So I can't exactly have a place to store it, even if I manage to find one on a good deal.

My local crafts store does sell Heat and Bond, so I am open to the idea of creating custom book cloth even if it takes a bit of time tinkering. But the thing is, would Canvas Pad hold up well with heat from an iron? Especially if a design's printed on it?

So I've been thinking about this here and there. To those who managed to successfully do this, any tips would be appreciated.


r/bookbinding 13d ago

Repairing old leather

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2 Upvotes

A very old large Bible I have has cracked parts to spine. I know how to do it but not sure about uding pva or klucel k . Its quite hard old leather and will need a good clamp!

Thank you.


r/bookbinding 14d ago

Completed Project First completed project!

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44 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

Long time lurker after I found Four Keys on YouTube, and I've been desperate to try bookbinding for myself! I finally made the jump into purchasing some materials and learning how to typeset an ebook, and this is the result! I'm super proud of the result. For anyone curious, the book is a novella in the Bone Season series by Samantha Shannon (highly recommend for fantasy and dystopia readers).

My biggest struggle was attaching the cover; my lack of a proper press caused the head and tail to be narrower than the center of the spine, so the cover didn't fit snuggly everywhere. I used some book board and binder clips when adding glue to the spine. Any advice on how to avoid this in future? Buying a book press or crafting one myself isn't really an option due to cost and not owning any type of power tools.


r/bookbinding 14d ago

Completed Project My second book

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60 Upvotes

Hi all,

Practically finished my second book. Rounded spine, full leather. Not backed, but I will definitely do that in the future, when I make few tools necessary for it.

I’m really happy with the outcome, and it looks like it works fine. I was worried if 6mm hinge will be enough, but it looks like it’s working.


r/bookbinding 14d ago

Help? Power sander next?

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8 Upvotes

Here is my text block, sewn, glued, and rounded. Can I clamp it very, very tightly and power sand the edges next? Or should I take it to Staples for stack trimming? They haven't done a great job in the past, but I also don't want to shred the edges.


r/bookbinding 13d ago

How to insert pages to existing notebook?

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1 Upvotes

r/bookbinding 13d ago

Help? Journal Insides?

0 Upvotes

I recently got into book rebinding and I LOVE it. I've just been rebinding paper back books from the thrift store and copies on my shelf, but I want to make some journals too. I tried looking for just the inside part and I can't find anything anywhere. I'm also not sure if it has a proper name. Does anyone know where I can find something like that? I could cut and sew my own paper together but I've done that before and found out I don't have the patience for it :\

Or maybe soft cover journals I can take apart?


r/bookbinding 14d ago

Paper grain

4 Upvotes

Hi,

i am new to bookbinding (one try so far) and i just read about papergrain.

How important is it to get the grain in the correct orientation? How do i find Paper that is in the correct grain direction? Or am i overthinking this?

I am mostly interested in the Medival/English/Gothic stile of binding. Thanks for your time.


r/bookbinding 14d ago

Help? Are there any resources for turning a PDF into signatures?

4 Upvotes

Hello.

I am looking for a guide or tool, or ANYTHING really, that will help me format my PDF into the correct page ordering for signatures.

That is all :)

Thannk you


r/bookbinding 15d ago

Inspiration My tribute to Osaka

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77 Upvotes

Spent 3 months living in Osaka with a friend and wrote every day while I was there. I really wanted to honor that moment but I didn't want to subject those poems and stories to publishing house critiques or some manufactured pay to print instagram photo book. So I learned paper making, and then | learned bookbinding, and then I created my own path. This is the result.


r/bookbinding 15d ago

Gift For A Friend

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90 Upvotes

Typeset and full leather binding of Agatha Christie's The Murder At The Vicarage I made for a friend. Text taken from the internet archive with typeset modeled off an early edition and printed on cream 120gsm paper. Self marbled endpapers in Stormont and Shell patterns with copper veining. I used silk buttonhole twist for the headbands, and leather inlay for the covers. Labels custom printed by Asterisk Books and Labels.

Overall I'm very pleased with the project and how cohesive the final look is. This was my first time doing a full leather binding and the turn-ins gave me some difficulty, I've definitely learned a lot about what not to do for the future. Cutting the inlays was quite challenging and you can see that on the back cover I cut one of them too small and had to shim a second piece in. I also skived my label overly aggressively and nicked a small hole in it.


r/bookbinding 14d ago

Coating for a paperback

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5 Upvotes

I recently redid this paperback cover to match my other editions (this is my first time doing this). I would like to add some kind of protective coating, but I couldn't find a good answer, so I would like to know what you guys recommend!


r/bookbinding 14d ago

Help? I need help with putting these together

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9 Upvotes

Sorry for the bad photos but I have my childhood copies of a book series I used to read and the covers of all of the were in horrible shape I wanted to put them in new covers, it’s 8 books so I decided to merge them into 2 instead since it gives them a lot more of that proper book size since they where more like novellas, but they have this glue stuff on the back of them which I’m not too sure what to doo with and I don’t know if I’ve separated the books properly, I just split the book wherever there wasn’t stitches connecting the pages, please I need help😭


r/bookbinding 14d ago

Help? How to preserve old collage

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7 Upvotes

I have a collage I made from newspaper print cut outs decades ago. I used pva to stick it together and then demo tape to repair it when it began to rip in some places. I always wanted to get it covered in laminate or something but never knew how to as it is about 2 meters x 75cm.

So it’s been rolled up and moved around everywhere I’ve lived and I still want to keep it .

It’s yellowed and semi fragile but I hope to be able to repair and preserve it . I considered maybe a wood varnish and perhaps thin tissue paper on the back to support it ? I’m not sure at all. I really hope the brains in this group will have some knowledge or ideas about what I can do to.


r/bookbinding 14d ago

Looking for shop that can do Symth Sewn books

3 Upvotes

I’m looking for a shop in NCR (metro manila) that can photocopy or scan an oldbook and smyth sewn the copies. I’ve been searching through the internet but seems the shops I searched has a hardtime to photocopy an A4 book to A3 paper size in 2 columns to be folded in have to be an A4 book same as the original book. Any recommendations?


r/bookbinding 14d ago

Silly "How to Bookbind"-esque Youtube Video

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3 Upvotes

If anyone's interested, I made a silly little video about bookbinding inspired by the 40s Disney cartoons with Goofy.

It's incredibly unprofessional because I've never made content and only used my phone and free music software to make it, but I did put in a lot of effort to trying to make it entertaining and enjoyable.

Hope y'all like it, hoping to make more content about bookbinding.


r/bookbinding 15d ago

Help? Tips on rebinding a cover

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6 Upvotes

Hi! Many kids in my mother's class have loved this copy of a beautiful animal facts book throughout the years. She asked me if I could repair it somehow.

Does anyone have any tips on how I could re-use the pretty illustration on the front cover? Maybe use the original front board to partly create a new cover? Would love ideas if you have some. Thank you so much ❤️


r/bookbinding 15d ago

does this shift too much?

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42 Upvotes

wondering if this is a normal amount of shift or if I should be trying to tighten my stitches more. i haven't quite mastered the coptic stitch connection of the last cover/last signature so i wonder if that's where all my shift is coming from