|
Some time ago I posted in the self-publishing thread in CC about book-binding at home, but think starting a discussion here would be more fitting since the other thread is mostly about e-publishing. To start, I want to say that I have just this year been attempting home binding projects, and am in no way a pro (yet!), though the art sort of runs in my family. I can show you what I've done so far, but I think I have more questions than answers, so would appreciate others stepping into this thread with their own projects. Maybe we can learn from each other. I got into book-binding because I opened a small press a couple years ago and found that my commercial printer is not very cost-effective when doing small print runs (their minimum run is 200 books). It's expensive really to print less than 500 or 1,000 books. Before going on with the to-do part of my first project, I'd like to say that this thread should be open to anyone in the book or other publishing arts, whether it's creating home-made books, comic books, chapbooks, broadsides, journals, scrapbooks, home-made literary magazines, or other art (plate-making would be interesting too!). Learning how to create paper, experiences using alternative paper (rice paper, for instance), and restoring books would also be pretty  to explore here.If we can focus on the art of book-making and publishing rather than the commercial aspect of it, that's probably a good direction for this thread. (Let's stay away from e-books, since there's another thread for that.) While my first home-made bound book was a full-length novel glued together, my next project is a children's short story and early next year I'll be publishing a chapbook by a local poet. I'm pretty sure after my first project I'll stick to books 50 pages or less. Here's a cleaned up version of my previous notes on the project: Book-binding is a learning process, and for my first project I was short some tools I needed. The book I bound was a full-length novel at 324 pages, and I did a glue-bind, not a stitch (though I am going to experiment with that soon). Tools: Tools needed for book-binding depend on what sort of binding you will be doing. 1. Software for printing booklets (Word, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe InDesign) 2. Printer: digital, inkjet, etc. 3. Paper: generally a 20-24lb. paper for the book itself. I use recycled or FSC-certified paper only, and find this at Staples. I am not too happy with the stiffness of this paper, so have ordered hemp paper to see how that works. 4. Space. I’m using an old, large wooden desk that has been falling apart for some time. For this reason I doubt I’ll need a mat for cutting, but a mat is a good idea. 5. Book jig: There are several types of jigs that help hold your book together while gluing. For smaller projects, you may not need a sturdy jig–a few clamps or binder clips will suffice. We made our own (as shown below) and are working on another one that has a completely different style. 6. Tools for cutting and trimming: paper trimmer, exacto knife, industrial paper cutter (such as a guillotine cutter), scissors. I recently ordered a guillotine desktop cutter that will cut 400 pages at a time. 7. Adhesive tools: PVA glue (polyvinyl acetate) for gluing the spine, book tape 8. Sewing tools: awl, book thread, beeswax (for facilitating the punch of the awl or needle), book needles 9. Paper manipulation tools: bone folder, which helps to crease paper sharply without defecting the paper and can score paper as well 10. Cover tools: cardboard, cardstock, cloth, leather, wood, other fabrics, ribbons, etc. (many creative ideas can be introduced here). For my commercial books I've used a 55lb Enviro paper for the cover. 11. Miscellaneous tools: masking tape, wet sponge, dry cloth, metal ruler, pencils for light markings, apron Types of book-binding: There are several ways to bind books: glue, hot-melt, sewing, stapling, coil-binding and other punch-and-bind methods, and more. My project describes a glue-bind, but I have now gotten a few tools for stitching and might try that on my next project. There are fairly reasonably priced hot glue (thermal binding) machines, but for now I'm sticking with pressing the book in a jig and gluing it together the old-fashioned way. How to make a book jig 1. Go to your local lumber yard, Home Depot, or whatever, and have them measure out two equal sized pieces of hardwood or pressboard. I bought pressboard for eight bucks at Home Depot (it was actually a stair that I had trimmed to size). Softwood might warp, so I'd recommend not using it. The size I had mine cut to was large enough to accommodate the biggest book I'd ever print, so I wanted to go a little bigger than 8.5 x 11, and had the boards cut to 10x13.  2. Line up the wooden pieces and clamp them together in place before drilling holes. Note a third larger piece of wood underneath is simply there for catching any extra drilling. The top two boards are going to become the book press. 3. Mark with a pencil at least a half inch inside of each corner of the top wooden piece (you can safely just drill through both as long as they are lined up correctly). This will be your drill area. It's best to get some threaded, long bolts (I got six inch ones because each piece of pressboard is thick, and you have to make sure there is room also for a book, which, depending on how big your books are, can have up to one-inch deep spines, or even bigger). For each bolt, you'll need a fitting washer and wingnut. Basically, the bolts allow you to adjust the wood pieces up and down as well as clamp down the book when it's being glued and hold it together like a press when the glue is drying. So your drill bit should be slightly larger than your bolts, but not too much larger in order to avoid too much play. The bolts I used were 3/8ths inch; the drill bit was slightly larger.  4. The above boards show where the holes are drilled. I ended up having two extra holes in order to make smaller adjustments in case I work with really small books. These holes are where the bolts attach the wood pieces. The holes will of course always be on the outside of the actual book block, which is why it's important to allow extra room on the wood above what size book you're printing.  Another view above of how the jig looks when you get the bolts, washers, and wingnuts in place. *Note: After using such a thick book jig as the one shown here, I've gotten some lighter-weight wood and am working on another style that would not be so heavy and would also have a flexible back-piece where the paper could rest and line-up.  Printing and layout: As mentioned above, you can use the booklet option in either Word or Adobe Reader (PDF) for printing your book without doing anything different to your manuscript. I used the Adobe option. Basically, when you print a book, you'll have a sheet of paper with pages 1, 3 on one side and 2, 4 on the other. You may have to manually turn the paper around if you don't have a duplex printer (I don't), but Adobe prompts you when to do this after it prints one side of the book. You just flip the paper when prompted and the printing will automatically resume by printing the back side. Some terminology: A book is made up of pages, which may also be termed leaves. The pages, excluding the cover, make up the book block. A commonly used term, folio, means a piece of paper folded in half. If binding by stitching, I'd probably do book fold printing using the folio method — a sheet of paper comes out of the printer, and I would either fold (or cut it if just gluing) exactly in half before binding. Each sheet of paper in my projects will have four book pages. Two on one side of the paper, two on the other. The way these pages appear depend on how many signatures you select when book fold printing. I am also using letter-sized paper. Many printers use different sized folios or sheets of paper. The standard paper size is 8.5 x 13.5 inches. Printers may also fold or trim paper in more than half. Folio refers to half; but other folds are used, such as octavo (folded three times). A signature is a group of folded pages that are printed in a special order to allow them to be folded inside another folded sheet. The minimum number of pages in a signature should be four. Standard signatures are eight or twelve. Signatures are used for grouping together a limited number of sheets of paper that can be stitched together. My pages were each half of 11 inches and 8 inches long. So the book size is larger than a mass paperback (which is generally only about 4.5 - 5 x 5 - 7 inches). My final book is 5.5 x 8 inches, more like a trade paperback and what I consider a good size. You could make your books smaller by adjusting the page size in Word, however. Remember that booklet printing just prints two pages per each side of a sheet of paper. If you make your manuscript size smaller, each page size will therefore be smaller. You'll of course have to then do more trimming, or just find smaller than letter size to print on. You can also go bigger by using tabloid or legal size paper. If you have access to a more commercial printer, you would be using a reel of paper most likely. I recently began reading some on newsprint paper, and that seems like another good option, but I don't really have the printer for it. Trimming the book: Use a paper trimmer for a few sheets of the book at a time to cut precisely down the middle. Because each sheet of paper is 11 inches wide, I marked with a pencil where the 5 1/2 point was on both sides of the sheet of paper, and trimmed down the middle.  A neat trim down the middle. *Note, I don't have my paper cutter yet for the above project, but will soon. It is a desktop guillotine cutter that will slice through 400 pages. Next is the hard part. I had about 324 pages of cut paper that I had to manipulate for quite a while to get it as even as I could, where all the pages are in line with each other. This is where a heavy-duty paper-cutter and "softer" paper would come in handy. Regardless, eventually you have a book block that is as even as possible.  Gluing the book and letting it dry in the book jig: Before putting the book block in the jig, put some painting tape on each wood piece to avoid glue getting on the wood. Remember too that you don't want to get this wood wet. With the clamps up, insert the book block into the jig, and even it up as best as possible. Then tighten all the wingnuts so that the book is really sturdy.  Once you have the book block in place and clamped down, you can start the glue process. I spread glue on the spine with the glue tip and then began working it in with a q-tip and later a paintbrush.   The main thing is not to get glue on the sides of the book block, but also to work in the glue so that it's getting into the book's spine at a reasonable depth. I don't know technically just how deep the glue must get worked in, but if your book's gutters are reasonably standard (.25 inch, for example), I think that spreading with a q-tip and then brushing glue in so it starts working down in the pages some is a good idea. Your glue should say on its label how long to let it dry. Mine said an hour. After an hour I took the book out of the press and folded the cover around it (using a bone folder for creasing and an exacto knife for trimming the cover), and then put the book back into the press to brush the glue on the cover and let it dry for an hour too. You probably shouldn't handle the book too much for a full day after gluing, even after taking a book out of the jig for good.  Working with covers: I printed the cover of my book on some leftover cardstock I used a couple years ago when making a scrapbook for my sister's wedding. The cover width should be your entire book width + spine depth + trim size (.125 inch per each four sides is standard). The cover length should be the length of the book + trim size. If you're not sure about the spine depth, here is a spine calculator. As you can see, my spine is empty except for a design element. Usually I put the author's name and title on the spine, but really didn't bother because this is my experimental copy, which will be used for proofing the book. There are some imperfections in the spine.  Once I glued on the cover, I put the book back into the press and began smoothing out the imperfections with the bone folder (you can use a butter knife, but sometimes metal affects paper).   Wala, a book. As you can see, there is some trimming that needs to be done. Did I mention that I am patiently awaiting my paper cutter to arrive? If this thread lives at all, I'll post my next project, the children's story, which is much smaller and will be easier to deal with. I hope to have it done by mid-August to sell at a local art fair. Here is the cover draft: 
|
| # ? Jul 17, 2012 06:44 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2013 16:22 |
|
|
Cool write up, I supervise the printing dept in an OfficeMax and I do a lot of binding. We don't have the glue set up though for our binds, only comb and coil. In my first store we had wire binding and a setup for stitching along with the combs and coils. I think I'm going to try and make a setup like yours and demo it to my store manager to try and get glue binding in store. I think this way looks more professional than the punch-and-bind methods.
|
| # ? Jul 17, 2012 13:39 |
|
|
I'm actually in the middle of a traditionally-stitched tight-leather-bound book project right now. Gotta take my pages down to a print shop to have them folded on a machine, because gently caress making 208 careful folds (It's a big book). I'm running with this and these two books as references. The first book has excellent advice on building some of your own tools; the second is, I feel, a better reference on the real nitty-gritty of doing a full binding.
|
| # ? Jul 24, 2012 07:47 |
|
|
Edit: Herp derp wrong thread.
SuzieMcAwesome fucked around with this message at Jul 27, 2012 around 01:04 |
| # ? Jul 27, 2012 00:10 |
|
|
Oh snap, I've never been in this subforum before. I had posted this in the 'stupid little questions' CC thread, not knowing this subject was already covered here. I'm starting to dip my hands into the art of bookbinding, for my comic book collection. However, I'm not going all-in. Instead of actually making a book, complete with sewing the pages and everything, I'm instead simply making hardcover book covers, with an interior of a box where the comic issues rest in. I got the idea from this:  This was my first attempt today:    Not bad, although I hosed up three of the four interior corners. I think I know what I was doing wrong. What I want help with are some ideas for the exterior labeling of these 'books'. I want to achieve what you see in that image that inspired me to do this. Basic single-color text on the spine and single-color logo on the front. With being at JoAnn Fabrics a lot today, I've got the idea of using a Cricut cutting machine with adhesive vinyl.. but I question the strength of the adhesive. I could just go with a 2/3rd width full-color image on the front cover like this, but honestly, it's the spine that I'm concerned about. A color image printed (professionally) on photo-quality paper would look good on the front, but having that done on the spine doesn't seem viable.
|
| # ? Jul 29, 2012 21:01 |
|
|
Those covers and boxes are a great idea. Check here for more adhesive ideas: http://www.adhesivesmag.com/article...nding-adhesives
|
| # ? Jul 29, 2012 21:38 |
|
|
Thanks. I'm going to need to make a lot of them for all the comics I want on my bookshelves. I estimate at the very least 30, maybe closer to 50. This first one I made for the first 11 issues of Grant Morrison's epic Batman run. His entire run will take a total of five of these books. I'm thinking for the future, though, I might condense more issues into each book. I'm happy with the glue I got now, Fabri-tac. The concern I have is with the adhesive back of the vinyl paper I saw at JoAnn. I'll expand on what I'm thinking. They sell Circuit machines, which can cut paper into shapes and letters based off a CAD like program. So, I'm thinking I use this to cut out the text, in the layout it'll be on the book spine. They sell a transfer paper I think I see use to apply it. It seems it would work well... except I question the strength of the adhesive on this paper. And there is no way I am applying glue to each letter or something.
|
| # ? Jul 29, 2012 23:29 |
|
|
Another book that might be of use: Conservation Book Repair: A Training Manual
|
| # ? Aug 2, 2012 12:05 |
|
|
If I had my dream job it would be book repair in a sacred old library or something. Thanks for the link. I got some new tools and have had a little success at stitching, so onward with another project that I'll be selling at a craft fair next weekend. First off, here's a good video on how to do a simple Japanese stitch, which I think looks fine for casual home-made projects: http://youtu.be/mUD0iKBkCVo. Move to the second part to see the actual stitching. This is the stitch I tried for a 40-page children's novella. I invested in an 858A3/A4 guillotine paper cutter that will slice through 100s of sheets of paper at a time, great for trimming an entire book. It was less than 200 from Amazon and does a decent job. My only complaint is that it only goes down to 1/8 inch on the ruler.  My husband designed and made a new book jig for me, good for helping align paper and not as bulky as the one in the first post above:  I also got some PVA glue, recommended for book-binders:  I did two projects: one glue and one stitch. I won't go much into the gluing the book block with a jig, since I did that in the op, but this time, for stitching, I was really impressed with how well the bone folder works for creasing and folding paper.  The book is exactly 40 pages, so I made 10 signatures with 4 pages each.  With 4-page signatures, you just slide one page into another and then stack up the sigs like above. Next are some tools for stitching: book thread, an awl, and a needle.  The video I posted above shows how to make a paper ruler for knowing where to create the sewing holes with an awl.  Punching a hole with an awl:  I love how the stitching turned out for my first try, but the cardboard stock I used for the cover really wore thin fast, and was more noticeable on color. The stitch is strong though and will hold.  In order to ease the wear shown on the colored portion of the card stock, I changed the cover to have a white background instead. Another idea is to get some really thin book tape to just reinforce the spine some. Below shows a glued book (left) with the white background and the Japanese stitch with the green cover (right).  I've decided I much prefer stitching than gluing, but will have a little of both for the fair and will work with the lighter cover only. Also, I tried both hemp paper and recycled paper for the book blocks, and both are fine as paper type. Hemp paper, however, stuck to the masking tape on the book jig, whereas recycled paper did not.
|
| # ? Aug 6, 2012 00:24 |
|
|
I've spent the last week reorganizing my comic collection, to get together the collections I'll be making using my 'faux-bookbinding'. Here's what I've ended up with: In total, I'm planning for almost 70 of these book holders. Only one of these boxes have collections that are complete and ready to be made up. Two of them are old collections that I'm missing stuff for, and the first on the left are all books that are still coming out right now. I think I found my solution for labeling the spines: stamping. It seems to be the only cost-effective solution that isn't going to look like complete rear end. I've already bought one stamp pad (gold, must have for my black Batman books) and the cheapest stamps at the store to test the ink on the vinyl. Looks like it dried well.  The consistency of the ink is sorta all over the place. Hopefully I can figure out how to fix that. At least it's only noticable on the thick text, which I won't be using here. I've ordered alphabet stamps on Amazon in two sizes, along with more stamp pad colors.
|
| # ? Aug 9, 2012 02:49 |
|
|
I love your collection and think stamps are a good idea. It's too bad camo stamps are more expensive, but they're probably less messy than ink:. http://www.tandyleatherfactory.ca/e...x?countryid=998 Edit: I broke my awl and have to recommend anyone using one has a mat instead of an old desk on the other side of the hole.
|
| # ? Aug 9, 2012 05:31 |
|
|
Desmond posted:I love your collection Those stamps looks really great, but you have to apply them one at a time. The great thing about the stamps I'm getting, is that they're clear acrylic, and they work by using another clear acrylic base that the backs of the stamps adhere to. It should allow me to stamp entire words out together at once. As long as I can manage to get the ink on even and the stamps aligned straight, I think this'll come out looking decent.
|
| # ? Aug 9, 2012 12:42 |
|
|
I'm giving up on using the comic book boards for the bookbinding process. It saves money, but it's just way too tedious to glue 5 boards together, especially when I need to do it 6-7 times for the book and the box. I'll quickly run out of the large supply I have now anyways. So I want to do bookboard, but man do I hate ordering poo poo like this online. I have to pay like half the price of the poo poo in shipping, and even then it doesn't come in until next week. How can I find this local? Michaels nor JoAnn seem to sell it, or anything similar. I actually thought about using hardboard, like you get at Lowes, but I don't have a reliable, clean way to get it up.
|
| # ? Aug 13, 2012 15:26 |
|
|
Revol posted:I have to pay like half the price of the poo poo in shipping, and even then it doesn't come in until next week. How can I find this local? Not sure where you are but Opus (Vancouver) sells stuff like that. Also Amazon has decent shipping rates and has some bookbinding associates. I would also suggest finding a group of bookbinders in your area. I found one on Facebook, and they have some good advice. Like, my awl broke and they had some "home remedies" until I got another one. On a side note, I had learned of a village craft fair from the group and went over the weekend, finding myself amongst a real gypsy wagon, beaders and jewelers, fair trade clothing, etc. Being the only publisher/bookbinder there I felt slightly out of place but was happy to have finished (and gotten better) at stitching many copies of the children's novella. I sold a couple books and met some cool people.
|
| # ? Aug 13, 2012 16:34 |
|
|
I found some on Amazon that I ordered since I was already purchasing some Kaspersky licenses, so I got the free shipping. And the stamps are coming this week. I'm excited to get them so I can finally get some of these books 100% completed, to see the how the final result works out.
Revol fucked around with this message at Aug 14, 2012 around 13:48 |
| # ? Aug 14, 2012 13:41 |
|
|
There's also literal book art, made out of books. This page has some interesting examples. One example is below. I'm not so talented, but did do a fun scrapbook once for my sister. I'll upload a picture if she can send me one.
|
| # ? Aug 14, 2012 17:10 |
|
|
 I got my stamps and pads in today. I have two alphabet sizes. The large letters look great, although I fear they're going to be too large for a lot of my titles. 'BATMAN' fits fine, but after a few more letters, I'm going to run out of room. Plus, if the spine gets any skinnier than the one I have on the first book, it wouldn't fit. A lot of my books will be fatter, but some of the collections will be small. One will be just three comics. I think I need to get a 'medium' size. The small stamps look good too, but are more of a pain to use. They're 1MM big. The small ones I applied one at a time, because I'm unable to get the spaced closed together at the same time on the application board. But because of this, they sometimes got applied unevenly. You can see where I used a cue tip to dab black ink to redo two letters. But beyond that issue... the small alphabet looks good, too. They're just a loving BITCH to clean because they are so small. I don't think I like the metallic ink, it doesn't come out bright enough. I think I'm gonna buy a flat yellow pad after work. Revol fucked around with this message at Aug 15, 2012 around 13:27 |
| # ? Aug 15, 2012 13:24 |
|
|
If you're having problems with the stamps and ink and don't want to bother with foil stamping, another option is to remove a few layers of the bookboard before you cover it with book fabric. If you press the fabric into the indention well, you can print a nice paper label and paste it in that area. Since you removed a few layers of bookboard before you covered it as well, it should end up being flush to the cover. This is what we always ended up doing in my bookmaking classes if we didn't want to get a stamping die made. I'd also recommend Keith Smith's books if you would like more reading on book binding as well as alternative methods. A few titles I've read and recommend are Bookbinding for Book Artists and Structure of the Visual Book. On the topic of working at an old library like the OP mentioned earlier in the thread, many of the classes I took were at the Lilly Library at IU, taught by their curator. The archival side of bookmaking as well as repairing really old books is fascinating. silversum fucked around with this message at Aug 15, 2012 around 18:17 |
| # ? Aug 15, 2012 18:13 |
|
|
That's an interesting idea. And you don't even need the paper cutout; I've seen that you can put paint in there. That said, it would still require lining up letters. Instead of stamping ink, I'm stamping indentations. Since I'm already invested in this, I may as well just stick with it. I just need to figure out methods to make it work better.
|
| # ? Aug 15, 2012 18:45 |
|
|
Desmond posted:
Thank you for the information on the press, I have been playing with binding books and I wind up with the signatures going anywhere, and that makes me swear. I started out trying different binding styles and I like the stiched books better, they are more sturdy. I have a couple of short-cuts that are not really kosher, but...I don't use an awl, I use a denim needle (unthreaded) on my Singer sewing machine. It makes regular holes and keeps the paper all pressed together when I make holes. I also used waxed dental floss for binding, it is cheaper and faster than the binding thread or waxing your own, and sometimes it smells like mint. It also fits into the blunt needlepoint needle I use for sewing nicely. I have tried to use cardstock and tried to use paper to cover the end-boards, and I find that for a journal type book both wear too fast. I have resorted to gluing fabric over the thick cardboard using the white glue. The insides of the covers I use a heavy paper. The old recipie and how-to books say to use a doping material to make the covers less stainable but I have not gotten that far. I may try to use linseed oil, or thinned out elmer's.
|
| # ? Aug 16, 2012 00:43 |
|
|
Rule .303 posted:great stuff Thanks for all the tips, which I now want to try! So you actually use the needle on your sewing machine? Just curious, are you sewing all the sigs together from the outside or down the center of the book? I think this is worth a shot, and then gluing on the cover later, I assume. My next project, outside some personal playing around, is a local poet's chapbook (about 50 pp.) early next spring. So I love your cover ideas but also will have something printed onto the cover...the title, a piece of art, her name, etc. I want to find a really creative way to make her cover that won't cost an arm and a leg, keeping in mind I like to use sustainable materials. Also, the video I posted above had the woman stitching with ribbon instead of thread. (I really like the idea of using floss!) I got some ribbon, but it wasn't really small enough or thin enough for the book. I'll keep searching. Dollar stores around where I live have really cheap ribbon. Revol, your covers are looking excellent, and Califa, I would also love to see your scrapbook. All kind of book arts are welcome here, as posted in the OP. Silversum, I'm envious of your classes. I work at a college and can take a certain number of courses for free. They have a pre-press management degree, but I am not sure I'd want to take all the courses. Maybe just the two bindery ones. Though I'm certain the bindery is based on commercial bindery, it may help in my business. Now and then there's some more traditional home-made kind of bindery seminars in my city, which I'd love to go to.
|
| # ? Aug 16, 2012 02:30 |
|
|
I can't believe I did not take photos of that scrapbook, but have emailed my sister to see if she can send me some. Not that it was that great or anything. Also I never got into making scrapbooks. That was the only one I ever did. You might try smyth binding for bigger books (I like the Japanese stitch for the smaller one though), which is a little of sewing and stitching. I have never made a book but want to try a no-content journal book with a leather or neat patterned fabric cover and with blank pages this way. It would be a gift. In smyth bound, the signatures are sewn together individually and then the stitching is done outside all the sigs put together.
|
| # ? Aug 16, 2012 17:09 |
|
|
I've always used a kettle stitch if I'm not going to be using tape or anything to reinforce the spine. Using waxed linen thread (or buying a block of beeswax and waxing regular linen thread yourself) was always what we were told to do. The kettle stitches will lock the ends of the signatures to the previous one, and using waxed thread helps keep the thread taut as you sew and has less of a tendency to move around once it's all sewn together. The books I've made are all packed up, but I'll try to find them as well as all of the handouts we got showing a variety of sewing and binding methods. My favorite site for bookbinding/book arts specific supplies is http://www.talasonline.com/ . I've bought lots of book fabric and headbands and thread and junk from them, and they pack and ship it properly, and have a huge selection. I still have all of this book fabric to use up. I should probably just sell it off, there's so much of it. I believe this is about 20 yards, and it's 41" wide. This is the Asahi brand cloth from Talas:  You can also use wheat paste to make your own paper backed fabric for bookbinding, it's really easy. We got laminate counter cutouts from where they put sinks in countertops for free or cheap, and it gives a large and smooth enough area to do enough cloth for a couple books at a time. And Califa, making blank books to start with is a great idea! You can make pretty good sizes of books just from using a letter-sized piece of paper folded in half, and it lets you do a lot of trial and error to find out what works for you without spending a lot of money on fancy archival paper. Edit - Also, if you want to cover your book in fabric, make sure it is backed with paper or something. If you don't, your paste will leak through the weave and in general it will give it a much rougher and not-as-nice-looking finish. I'd also recommend using davey or binding board to make your book covers with. It's layered and acid-free, and not very expensive. Making your books with archival materials is the best way of going about it, because you never know if they'll still be around in 70 or 200 years, and if they are made with nonarchival materials they will yellow badly, fall apart, fade, and other nasty things. edit 2 - This guy has done some amazing work, and the Lilly Library had a lot of his books in their collection. The things he can do with leather on the covers is pretty amazing. Here are a few of my favorites of his: The Silmarillion  A collection of Psalms and Jesusy things: 
silversum fucked around with this message at Aug 16, 2012 around 17:44 |
| # ? Aug 16, 2012 17:27 |
|
|
Desmond posted:Thanks for all the tips, which I now want to try! So you actually use the needle on your sewing machine? Just curious, are you sewing all the sigs together from the outside or down the center of the book? I think this is worth a shot, and then gluing on the cover later, I assume. I can't help you with sustainability issues, I've been informed that I don't understand and make people mad when I try to. [smirk] My first tries were with paper fished out of the office recycling bin and cut up fiber folders. I have advanced to cheap typing paper and cut up 3-ring binder covers. Oh, and I use cut up slacks for the covering material. I just use a denim needle on the sewing machine to make the holes. I tried to sew the signatures on the machine once but it didn't turn out well. I punch the holes from inside the fold...um, open it up like you were reading it and punch holes into the fold. I use what Califa describes as the Smyth bond, but since I don't have a binding loom (and that is not what it is called but...it is a frame that has cords like a beading loom that you sew the signatures to) to assemble everything I have trouble getting the signatures to sit together. So I glue them as well. If you are looking for very fine ribbon, try a shop that caters to hooked rug makers or the french embroidery, they use a narrow ribbon, and though traditionally you cut them yourself I am pretty sure someone makes a ribbon 1/16th of an inch wide or less. I use dental floss since I used to use it to sew scrap leather projects, it is cheaper than the waxed artificial sinew the black-powder/primitive suppliers sell. (This seemed to make people mad too, so I stopped telling about it.) Desmond, can I make a suggestion based on your pictures? You may want to consider making the central "gutter" of you text broader around the center crease. Your text rides really close to the crease and in a brand-new book it can make it difficult to read the initial letter in each line - it also encourages readers to force the book open further and that breaks the spine. The way commercial printers make the books, if you cut one apart, looks like a huge desert of white space there but when bound the spine and the bending of the page when you open the book to read. If you go down to the local thrift shop and buy a hardback for a quarter that you won't mourn killing, you can cut it apart to look at the spacing and how the binding is done. I am working on a journal now, I will try to re-activate my flikr account and post pictures if that is OK? Rule .303 fucked around with this message at Aug 16, 2012 around 23:43 |
| # ? Aug 16, 2012 23:28 |
|
|
The stamping of the second book was a lot more successful. Was thinking I had to get a different ink. Looks like I just needed to change up the method just slightly. Make sure I have fresh ink on the pad. Even read you can 'huff' on the stamps to add a little moisture, as this solvent ink I'm using dries super fast. I am thinking that I want to position the title differently though, have it aligned to the left instead of centered, because I simply know I won't be able to pull that off cleanly every time, and I'll just end up with off-center titles next to each other. I wasn't planning to put the publisher on the left anyways, so may as well use the space. I'm getting frustrated, though, in trying to find a size between my large and small stamps. There is a good sized set, made by the same company who made my small ones. (The ones I have are actually the 'tiny' stamps, then they have these 'small' ones.) But it's in a Courier-like 'typewriter' font which completely wouldn't work here. It seems like everything else out there is about the same size as my large ones here. Bummer. Silversum, you're right about gluing the fabric. On my outside covers, if you look close enough, you can see the lines of glue. Not quite sure what I could do to fix that, beyond trying a different, softer glue. But I trust this glue, it's made for fabric. That especially means that it's going to hold when it is bent.
|
| # ? Aug 17, 2012 04:01 |
|
|
Revol, I like your stamped spine, that is classy. I have had good luck with both using a paint brush, a damp sponge and damp cloth to float or smear the glue evenly on the end boards. The fabric holds tight and and evenly. The old binding books say to use a wheat based paste, which is essentially wall paper paste.
|
| # ? Aug 18, 2012 04:02 |
|
|
Rule, I would love to see your photos! The gutters/center areas of the books I posted aren't too bad, but the children's story one could have been stitched about an 1/8 of an inch closer to the edge. I am still making just a few at a time, improving on them. Speaking of smyth-sewn, I guess that's just about the best for larger books and having them lay the flatest when reading. I hadn't paid much attention to the kettle stitch before, but just watched a video on how to do it. It looks interesting. Now that I'm considering these stitches might feel better about binding larger books together. I really want to learn how to best glue on fabric to paper for the cover and work with spines better.
|
| # ? Aug 18, 2012 16:07 |
|
|
Desmond posted:I really want to learn how to best glue on fabric to paper for the cover and work with spines better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6SgeLid-rg This video gives a good tutorial on how to back your own fabric. I had mentioned using the cutouts made for sinks in laminate countertops as a surface option earlier, as they're usually cheap or free, and you can move them out of the way to dry. For the adhesive, I'd recommend using wheat paste. It is a mixture of wheat starch/flour and water that you heat and whisk until it is thick and lump-free, and once it's cooled makes for a great paste that will dry clear and is archival. You can also mix PVA or methyl cellulose with it if you like (but I'd avoid doing that for making book cloth because I can't remember if it will give the paste a chance of showing up when dry). Wheat paste takes a long time to dry. I only use it for fabric, PVA is much faster otherwise. As for spines, another reason I like using Davey board is that you can pull off half of the layers for the spine of a book, which lets it bend/move much better when it's all covered up. All you really need to make sure is that the spine's board is about half as thick as the cover boards, about a board's thickness shorter on the tops and bottoms, and roughly 2 board thicknesses plus 2 fabric thicknesses from the cover boards. I ended up making covered boards I glued together for this, it made it a lot easier to quickly lay out the covers on cloth while you're gluing, and they are also precise, which is the most important part. Those measurements may be off, they came from memory. For different spine sewing methods, there are so many different options that it ends up taking a lot of trial and error. Sewing with cords and tape is a good way to start experimenting more, and they are very easy to do. Google has some old bookbinding books available to view that are a good way to get ideas for other methods.
|
| # ? Aug 18, 2012 16:57 |
|
|
Thanks for the info and links. It just so happens I have tons of wheat flour and will try that method in the future. I'd like to get a Davey board, printer paper, and that roller now. But one thing at a time!
|
| # ? Aug 18, 2012 19:39 |
|
|
I grew up in a house where old books were prized, so I've seen a number of books from the 1800s that have been read to rags. The older books used multiple layers of offprints and printing blows stacked and glued together to make the spine. On those books you can read the printing on the paper. (I always wondered if that could be the only remnant of a limited run print; lost documentation like a palimpest or the papyrii that were used to bind cat mummies...but I'm a romantic, they are probably just test prints and old advertising bills.) Thank you for the links. (by the way, I am aware that I am using trash to make books and they may suffer because of it, but I am more interested in learning the techniques before I spring for a spendy supplies. Dental floss is cheap) Rule .303 fucked around with this message at Aug 19, 2012 around 03:18 |
| # ? Aug 19, 2012 02:48 |
|
|
There is absolutely nothing wrong with learning an art form with cheap materials. It's how you're supposed to learn. I've noticed a real problem with that sparkly gold ink I was using on those Batman books. The glitter in it rubs off on your hands, and it's causing thumbprint marks to stick onto the books. Looks like I definately need to order the flat yellow ink on Amazon after all. Hopefully it's only this glitter ink that does that. When I get home tonight, maybe I should build my first Marvel book, which will be using white ink on red fabric. Revol fucked around with this message at Aug 20, 2012 around 14:19 |
| # ? Aug 20, 2012 14:14 |
|
|
Revol posted:There is absolutely nothing wrong with learning an art form with cheap materials. It's how you're supposed to learn. Awesome stuff. This will look amazing as a full collection!
|
| # ? Aug 21, 2012 17:45 |
|
|
philkop posted:Awesome stuff. This will look amazing as a full collection! Maybe, but they'll be mixed in with all my other trade paperbacks and hardcovers on my new, larger bookshelf. I will have to take pictures of them all together as I make more, though. I got the binder board in the mail yesterday. How the gently caress do you cut this poo poo? I was able to do it with a rotary blade, but I have to do like 10 passes on a short area to get through the entire thing. I'm taking pictures of my process, I'll share it here when I've got it completed. So far I have the boards pasted to the vinyl, and the title on the book. (Still debating whether I should put the author on the book. God I hate these tiny stamps.)
|
| # ? Aug 22, 2012 15:11 |
|
|
Revol posted:Maybe, but they'll be mixed in with all my other trade paperbacks and hardcovers on my new, larger bookshelf. I will have to take pictures of them all together as I make more, though. I usually use a snap-off utility blade to cut them. It takes a lot of passes, and you'll go through some blades. Don't try to cut as deep as possible in each pass; use a metal straight edge and cut along that firmly but without too much force. It'll end up taking 4 or 5 passes. Make sure the blades stay reasonably sharp or you're more likely to tear the edges, or tear any paper you cut. Also keep your thumbs away from the edge of the drat ruler, I speak from experience. The grain on those boards generally runs long, too. So you'll want to try to cut any of your covers with the grain going vertically. For what you're making them for it shouldn't matter so much, but if you're making books, you want to keep all grain in the same direction or the paper can curl and expand/contract unevenly over time. edit - by grain running long, I mean that the grain will run parallel to the longest side of the sheets of board. To find the grain of paper, you can bring one edge of the paper over to the other side and see how big the curled edge is. If you do that with the grain, the paper will bend a lot more and the folded edge will be much smaller than bending it against the grain, if that makes any sense. silversum fucked around with this message at Aug 22, 2012 around 16:09 |
| # ? Aug 22, 2012 16:04 |
|
|
I did cut the spine board on the opposite grain from the cover boards, but yeah, I'm not concerned. I'm just trying to make the most out of the board that I have, try to get the most material out of it.
|
| # ? Aug 22, 2012 18:36 |
|
|
Erm, would anyone happen to know how to cleanly fold a thick board, like binder's board? I'm tired of making the comic boxes by cutting each side of the box and then taping them together. It's a mess, and doesn't feel sturdy. I've discovered scoring boards and bone folders, but I really do not believe that I'd be able to do this on such a thick and strong material like binder's board. But if I do something like normal card stock board, I don't see the box being strong enough. Maybe I could just used something similar to a bone folder, and then just use a mallet to really hammer it down.
|
| # ? Aug 23, 2012 15:30 |
|
|
Are you talking about the inside 'box' that holds the comics? You can't really fold binder board, but one option is to use PVA and glue the pieces to each other with a butt joint. Once it's all try it's fairly strong, and you can wrap it with fabric or whatnot to give it a bit more strength and make it look nice. Here is a PDF on clamshell box construction that hopefully illustrates what I mean. That's the typical way to make a box to put a fragile book in, and it should translate into what you're doing easily. There are also different thicknesses of binding board, a thinner piece may work well for the inside container. silversum fucked around with this message at Aug 23, 2012 around 16:07 |
| # ? Aug 23, 2012 16:04 |
|
|
silversum posted:Are you talking about the inside 'box' that holds the comics? You can't really fold binder board, but one option is to use PVA and glue the pieces to each other with a butt joint. Once it's all try it's fairly strong, and you can wrap it with fabric or whatnot to give it a bit more strength and make it look nice. These are excellent instructions, I'll give it a try. Edit: Keee-rist, this was harder than I thought it would be. I tried to do this with corrugated cardboard. For one, I made the second part too small. But beyond that, gluing the two pieces together is just about impossible. Maybe today I'll try it with my comic book boards. They're a lot more flimsy, but maybe built together like this it'll be strong enough. Revol fucked around with this message at Aug 24, 2012 around 13:14 |
| # ? Aug 23, 2012 17:08 |
|
|
Speaking of corrugated cardboard, I still have a shitload at my house. I used to package books with it, but now ship from the USA. I should try to find use for the roll I have. I read this article about a papermaker a few months ago, which got me really interested in making paper. I just recently found the link again on the bookbinding page I frequent, and I'd really recommend reading this as it gives a brief history of papermaking and how good fibers were compared to today as well as goes into this one guy's experience in trying to save the tradition of papermaking. If I didn't have a day job on top of publishing I would look into this too. The idea of making paper, writing a book, publishing it, and printing and binding it at home is something I hope I can accomplish in my lifetime.
|
| # ? Aug 24, 2012 15:05 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2013 16:22 |
|
|
Good news/bad news! Good news is that I tried making the box out of comic book board, and it came out perfectly. Still don't know if it's going to be strong enough. I think that depends more on the adhesive than the actual box material. The only difficulty is pressing down on the box to get the glue to adhere right. Bad news is that I've hit a huge setback with the stamping. The ink comes off so easily by simply scratching it with my nail. I think I'm going to need to put a layer of... something on top of that ink to make it stick, but I don't know what I could use that wouldn't be apparent on the vinyl cover.
|
| # ? Aug 25, 2012 01:42 |
|
