(Part 2) Top products from r/bookbinding

There are zero reasons not to start with printer paper. I'd even say raid the recycle bin next to a shared printer for your first couple of books, so you can trash them without guilt.

That starter kit is more than I would spend on those things, but it does look pretty nice.

Check the art store on campus (or whichever art store does the campus supply) for awls and bone folders, you'll probably get a discount. I used a used-up gift card for my first folder, though.

Pretty much the only thing I'd spend money on initially is the awl. Excel has a very reasonable price for a very good one. Even that's not necessary, but the hand-cramp savings are worth it in my estimation.

For bookboard, you can use the back of sketchbooks as openparenthesis suggested, check the art store for free chipboards, use cereal boxes, etc. Once you get to the point where you want to spend money on this, keep an eye out for Grafix brand chipboard. It's super cheap and good quality.

For needles and thread, check the local quilting/fabric/craft store for embroidery needles and cotton embroidery thread/floss. The needles should have an eye that is as narrow as the shaft of the needle and short, and thicker needles will do better (slightly thinner than your awl, basically). Linen thread is very nice, but not worth investing in unless you're making archival quality stuff.

For cutting, get yourself a utility knife and replacement blades, or a snap off knife. I still use my utility knife for most of my cuts, even with a guillotine in the mix. Also get a cutting surface, even if it's super cheap it's better than paying damages on campus furniture!

In general, your best bang for the buck will be the following:

• Dickblick.com for art supplies
  
  
• Books by Hand for bookbinding specific materials
  
  
• Excel for hand tools (Xacto is so overpriced for knives, avoid!)
  
  At college, talk to your librarians! Many university libraries still practice hand binding. Also check the stacks for books about bookbinding. You're going to be in an ideal place to get going, take full advantage of your resources.
  
  Also, come back and show us your stuff!

If you can find some nice, thin leather (2mm thick at most), that might be a great gift!

I'm a hobbyist bookbinder and I just got given a really beautiful book of paper. It's one of the most thoughtful gifts I've had in a really long time! It's a book full of high quality gift paper that you can pull out that's perfect for making book covers or inlay sheets.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/BARCELONA-TILES-creative-Vol-36-Wrapping/dp/9460090486

If you're making Japanese books, find a copy of Kojiro Ikegami's book. It's a great resource in English. There's a ton of stuff on how to do things properly there.

And I'll second Canis_lupus' suggestion on a sturdier awl. For things like these bindings and punching through things like board, they come in really useful. I like the #4 awl from Talas for a stuff like that.

And if you're not skilled with power tools, look into getting a good hand drill. Just make sure you steer clear of the crappy fiskars one with the plastic body.

Check the links in the side panel. Some good resources there. Other than that I can recommend some good text books but nothing will ever compare to a course.

There is a lot of stuff that is extremely difficult to describe but simple to demonstrate. Look for local bookbinders guilds or society courses. Not sure where you live so can't recommend any.

Unfortunately I haven't found any youtube stuff that really demonstrates everything you will need to know. There are some good tutorials on specific bits but none overall.

As far as books go I highly recommend https://www.amazon.com/Thames-Hudson-Binding-Manuals-Paperback/dp/0500680116

I got a copy for $10au on ebay. Fantastic information on all types of binding and the skills required. I would suggest starting with a cloth bound case binding and working up from there.

Good luck

I got the border and the sun on the front cover from this book, the peacock on the front and the fairy on the back I found on Pinterest (currently the board that I have them pinned to is private, so I can't share the links, but I think I searched for coloring pages).

I traced them onto tracing paper, then turned the paper over and used a soft lead pencil to trace the design (backwards) on the back of the paper. Then I placed the tracing paper, soft lead side down on the brown craft paper for the cover, and went over the design again with a regular pencil, which transferred the soft lead from the back of the tracing paper to the craft paper. Then I went over it (again.....) with a pen or marker depending on how thick I wanted the lines. There are ways I probably could have skipped a step - like if I didn't mind having the design "backwards", or of I had the ability to print the designs mirrored (or directly onto the craft paper) I could have just started by tracing with the soft lead pencil and saved myself a tracing.

Once it was drawn, I crumpled the paper a couple of times, rubbed over it with the side of a brown crayon, then ironed it - it almost came out to be too small to fit - the crumpling shrunk it a lot more than I thought it would (half an inch of both length and width).

2x A3 and 1x A4 sketchbooks of the good sketches from 2 uni projects, covers are card with a printed front and coloured end page, hinged at the spine so they open up nicely.

I followed a tutorial in this book which is great for anyone who draws/ designs/ creates stuff.

It looks to me a bit more like cloth than paper, but either way, you can see the design wraps around the edges of the book, so the design is on whatever the wrapped their cover boards in. I can't tall you whether this was custom made or commercially bought, but it wouldn't be too hard to make something similar yourself:

• Lay out your cover material, including length to wrap around the boards.
  
  
• Stripe adhesive for gold foiling.
  
  
• cover the whole material in gold leaf This looks like rose gold leaf to me.
  
  
• brush away the excess leaf with a dry paintbrush
  
  Alternatively, you could just get paint in the metallic color you like and stripe it on yourself. These lines don't look perfectly uniform, so i wouldn't be surprised if someone just took 15 minutes to paint it all on by hand with a paintbrush.

Yeah, it worked well enough to do four or five simple case bindings. Then I bought a couple of these ratchet clamps at Walmart to press books between a board (you could use a sturdy clipboard for starters) and my desk. It doesn't have to be super heavy, so don't worry about not having equipment to start.

The book(s) itself is not particularly valuable. They are simply huge tomes of reference material.

This is one of the books in question:

Woodworking Wisdom
B&N
Amazon

I have a few different big tomes like this on different topics. The pages are almost like that which newspapers are printed on, so thin and easily absorbs oil from the fingers. I am hoping to keep them relatively protected so they do not get damaged as quickly and I can enjoy them for as long as possible.

I was trying to link pictures but Imgur doesn't seem to want to let me register at the moment. Dx

I hope this helps. Let me know if I can provide any other information.

You can also try HP 32 lb paper.

I've made at least one notebook with it and it works great with fountain pens!

I just bought some 24 lb Hammermill HAM104604 (Amazon link), which I'm liking so far. I picked it in part because some reviews recommended it for making books.

Check out Keith Smith's book - Non-Adhesive Binding, Vol.1: Books without Paste or Glue. His book has a variety of different types of book bindings that don't use glue.

Good luck!

Here's the book that I'm wanting to re-bind: https://www.amazon.com/American-Pageant-History-People-AP/dp/0547166621

• Hardcover: 1107 pages
  
• Language: English
  
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 2 x 10 inches
  
• Weight: 6.4 pounds
  
  ​
  
  I'd want to keep as much of the original cover as possible.

Enjoy!

There's also this (which is hilariously expensive on the UK site), but maybe you could find something similar locally; then you just need a base board and a press board, and it'd be really heavy-duty.

I am looking at this handheld:

Hot Foil Stamping Manual Handheld Leather Printer Embossers Branding Embossing Tool(US Plug) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07M91R8CD/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_yCqVCbGTYGM8H

I don't know if this helps, but for comparison:

I just stitched a few textblocks of 50# paper (about 180gsm) using 8 signatures of 4 sheets each (32 folded sheets total) for a thickness of about .5 in (1.27cm).

Edit: this is the paper I used - http://www.amazon.com/Canson-Biggie-Jumbo-Sketch-sheets/dp/B000HT98DO

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957