Bookbinding

[Ironrose]

In 2022 I began doing bookbinding. I'd made a couple books in the late '90s and always wanted to do more, but I didn't want to make blank books. No, if I was going to make books, I wanted them to be actual books, meaning books one can read. I began writing in 2016, and a few years later I realized it might be time to start learning to make books. One of the reasons I'd waited so long was because I didn't have a text to work with (I've since realized I can use texts from Project Gutenberg,) but now I realized I had a couple of my own, so I began.

I have made multiple copies of three different texts of my own, mostly different bindings, because it's mostly about the physical object. But I eventually came up with a design that I could use for multiple copies of one small book. It is a set of three stories that together make a unit which I consider to be a triptych. Altogether it totals a little over 10,000 words. Of my completed texts, it's probably the only one that could be of interest to you all on this site.

OFFER: I am offering a copy to anyone who wants one, shipping paid by me, though I only have EIGHT copies. If more than that want one, I'll try to make more. I guess I'm not expecting it to be too many of you, but if so, we'll have to see. If you want one, you can send me an address to mail it to. It's just a small book.

CAVEAT: I am not necessarily asking for feedback, though all comments are welcome. But I am asking that you please read it. And fact is, I'd never know if you didn't, so that is between you and your conscience.

ETA: The title of this little book is Eaten By Birds

 

[Athammaus]

For quite a number of years, I've been fascinated by the art of bookbinding. I've repaired many of the old books in my collection, mostly those with separated hinges or missing spine panels. A few or my rarer books I've had rebound professionally. As I'm a professional woodworker by trade, I have a fully outfitted shop. One day, I will try my hand at bookbinding too. Thank you for your post, it is inspiring!

 

[Ironrose]

For quite a number of years, I've been fascinated by the art of bookbinding. I've repaired many of the old books in my collection, mostly those with separated hinges or missing spine panels. A few or my rarer books I've had rebound professionally. As I'm a professional woodworker by trade, I have a fully outfitted shop. One day, I will try my hand at bookbinding too. Thank you for your post, it is inspiring!

I've been meaning to post this all year, but I guess I've been busy. I too work with wood, though I am more of an amateur, and I have too many different projects lying in too many different fields of interest. Bookbinding was immediately rewarding for me because it incorporated several different interests: the craft of building/constructing things, design, and my tendency toward making images. Plus, it's a way to make manifest some of my writing. As I mentioned above, one can find texts on Project Gutenberg, and there are ways to convert them to Word files, though I also recently got Affinity Publisher, so now I have to learn that (I have begun, but again, I am pulled in too many different directions.) So far I have managed to figure out how to use Word to format/typeset my texts, but it is not really made for that. That was a big project in itself.

My main resource for the actual bookbinding was DAS Bookbinding channel on YouTube. This guy is good at what he does and is also good at explaining it and making videos. I would highly recommend him.

DAS Bookbinding

I teach people how to get started with bookbinding and advance their technical skills. Bookbinding is best taught in person, but everyone doesn’t have that opportunity. My videos are meant to supplement in person training. But if this isn’t an option, I hope they are good enough that they...

www.youtube.com

 

[Knygathin]

I sometimes do little books for texts I can't otherwise find in print. Mostly simple pamphlets, from printed out pages cut to suitable proportions, stacked and glued along the spine and attached to a stiffer paper wrap (usually textured and/or colored). A few times I have made books with hardcover boards, which is a lot more work.

For the hardcovers I have used this Youtube video as a general guide:
DIY Hardcover Book | Case Bookbinding Tutorial | Sea Lemon

Sea Lemon makes her books with blank pages (to be used as a notebook or diary), and has first folded equally sized sections of stacked paper and then sewn together the pages in the professional bookbinding manner. Demonstrated in her other video: DIY Textblock
I don't do that; it is a lot of work and very difficult to get all the text sorted in the right order, and correctly measured layout. I simply use loose sheets (printed on both sides) and glue them together in the paperback manner.

 

[Ironrose]

I sometimes do little books for texts I can't otherwise find in print. Mostly simple pamphlets, from printed out pages cut to suitable proportions, stacked and glued along the spine and attached to a stiffer paper wrap (usually textured and/or colored). A few times I have made books with hardcover boards, which is a lot more work.

For the hardcovers I have used this Youtube video as a general guide:
DIY Hardcover Book | Case Bookbinding Tutorial | Sea Lemon

Sea Lemon makes her books with blank pages (to be used as a notebook or diary), and has first folded equally sized sections of stacked paper and then sewn together the pages in the professional bookbinding manner. Demonstrated in her other video: DIY Textblock
I don't do that; it is a lot of work and very difficult to get all the text sorted in the right order, and correctly measured layout. I simply use loose sheets (printed on both sides) and glue them together in the paperback manner.

Thanks for sharing the video! I do like DAS because he's an old school master, and it gives me an insight into a world I'll never be a part of. But I have made 60-70 hardcover books now, some of them multiple copies of the same design (as I mentioned above). But that doesn't mean every time doesn't feel like a singular event.

Making signatures and sewing them isn't so difficult, though it seems daunting at first. Getting the pages in order is as simple as saving as a PDF then printing as a pamphlet. It does the work for you. If there are too many for a single signature (chapbook?) you just tell it to print a range of pages (1-20 or 21-40, etc.) It took me a couple years to realize it was this simple. Recently I have finally used Affinity Publisher to format a novel, and that made it look professional! Yeah, it was a steep learning curve, but that makes it worth it, doesn't it?

I also found a YouTube video on how to convert an eBook file to a Word file. I did one manually (Dunsany's Tales of Wonder), and it was painful. There was a hard return at the end of each line that I had to remove, but this way it's much simpler. I want to make a copy of Frankenstein. I'll get to it, but I have too many other interests to focus on only one...

 

[Knygathin]

Very impressive, Ironrose! It certainly sounds like you have got the techniques and sequences figured out, and is ready to do some professional publishing of your own, at least in limited quantities as a one-man-project. Exciting!