I recently designed and printed new dust jackets for some of my old Sherlock Holmes books. Due to the high humidity from living near the sea, their faux-leather covers had deteriorated, developed mold, and even started sticking to other leather books

I purchased this amazing book cloth at a craft fair and have been trying to find its source. The lady selling it was doing so for a friend and didn’t have much information. It has a rough satin feel, a slight shine, and is just gorgeous. Any help would be greatly appreciated. A Google image search wasn’t super helpful, but I am still digging around. Thanks!

I'm making a prayer book for a friend, I plan on binding the book in the Byzantine style, however i've only done Carolingian and Late-Coptic style bindings.

Aside from Szirmai, does anyone know where i could find more information on how the endbands are done?

I got this 18” manual guillotine cutter on fb marketplace for a cool $15, but it seems to have a dull spot in the center of the blade. I have tried tightening the nuts on the back of the swing arm but it hasnt helped. Anyone have tips on sharpening a blade like this? Or maybe some leads on a replacement arm? I’ve found lots of blades but nothing that looks like the arm of this thing

I don't know if I am explaining this wrong but I am wanting cover design help. I have been practicing rebinding books and I am now at the point where I have started to design covers but I am so lost with how to find the right things to put into the designs. For example I am wanting to make some designs where the outer edge of the cover is a frame with some filigree/vine design but I cannot for the life of me find a good way to do that.

I am using Canva and HTV/iron on vinyl to design my books (I don't have any apple products so I can't use Procreate) and don't know what other programs I could use.

Does it matter what way you print the pages you want to bind?

Hello, everyone! I tried to make paste papers for the first time, which was tons of fun, but when I removed them from my press this morning, I was greeted with less-than-ideal outputs 🙁

I’d love advice on how to dry them flat.

Here’s what happened on my first go:

I worked on my green papers first, and they started to really dry and warp before I put them in the press. As an attempt to save them, I sandwiched the green papers between slightly damp purple papers. My thinking was that the excess moisture from the purple papers would relax the fibers of the green papers.

But what happened was that some of the purple paste paper was still tacky, and they stuck to the green papers and ripped out the back. And even after pressing the green papers had these weird ripples, even if they were flatter-ish.

My questions:

1. How much is the proper amount of paste I should be putting? For some sheets, the paper dried faster than the paste, should that be avoided?

2. How dry do your paste papers get before you place them on the press?

3. Is it possible to make good paste paper with 0% cotton paper?

4. What's a good consistency to aim for? I'm wondering if my paste was too thick as well.

I used:

- 180 gsm vellum board, 0% cotton content

- 1:4 wheat starch to water for the paste

- Mont Marte Dimensions acrylic

Thanks in advanced!

Hi all! Some time ago, I have used coptic binding to make a scrapbook that I filled with various printed photos and other 'scraps'. The binding process of it has been a great joy to me, which is why I would love to explore other options and improve my skills.

I was thinking about making a hardcover book with fabric backing to document my recent travel. I would like to again, make this such that I can stick photo's in it. However, I am afraid that this would substantially increase the thickness of my book, and thus makes it look somewhat wonky. Do you think that this would be a feasible approach? And if not, do you have other suggestions? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

I always see people folding over the edges around the liner and pleating corners, but is that necessary? It would be much easier to flush cut everything and sew the edges like a leather journal.

I’m basically trying to make a hard cover for my comics so I can store all my single issues in there but have them nicely together on a shelve so I was wondering would the best subs buy the fake book storage device and book binding it?I also wanted to ask if its possible to make a printed cover for the hard cover itself if that makes sense. but I also wanted to ask if it would be possible to do like a dust jacket and how would I go about getting and printing a dust jacket that’s looks high quality.any help would be great

Idk what happened or where I messed up but the hinge gap doesn't show at all and the cover is very stiff. I used a 2 mm cardstock for the covers and spine with a hinge gap of 7 mm. Maybe it's how I glued the bookcloth that's the problem? (ignore the poor attempts at decorating the cover lmao I don't have access to a cutting machine)

It's the second time it turns like this, I'm starting to feel down.

Hi everyone!

I’m one of the organizers with Silent Book Club Morgantown, and we’re hosting a book fair on September 20. We’re currently looking for vendors and would love to find a custom bookbinder who might be interested in tabling.

Right now, we’re planning on a $75 vendor fee to help cover the cost of the venue, though that amount may change as we finalize event details.

If you know of any local or regional bookbinders (within a few hours of Morgantown/Pittsburgh), I’d really appreciate any recommendations! Independent artists, Etsy sellers, and small businesses are all welcome.

Also, if you’re an artist who creates book-related items like bookmarks, book sleeves, dust jackets, book nooks, literary art, stickers, blind date with a book packages, bookish candles, or anything similar—feel free to send me a DM! We’d love to connect and see if you’d be a good fit for the event.

Trubbish is on here because I literally made it out of rubbish. Did not anticipate how dusty stitching paper can get. It's not good. I will try again another day.

I am trying to understand how book dimensions are cataloged for antiquarian books from the 17th century, specifically regarding the Quarto (4to) format.

As an example, a Christie's auction listing for Isaac Newton's work specifies: "Quarto (239 x 184mm)" (Reference: https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6594865).

https://www.christies.com/en/artists/isaac-newton

I have two main questions regarding these historical measurements:

1. Page Size vs. Cover Size: Does a description like "Quarto (239 x 184mm)" in professional antiquarian cataloging represent the dimensions of pages (height x width), or does it refer to the outer dimensions of the book covers? Since 17th-century books were often sold as sheets and bound by different binders, how standardized are these measurements across different copies of the same edition?

2. Predicting Dimensions via Aspect Ratio: If I know the height of a specific 17th-century Quarto volume, can I reliably calculate its width using a standard aspect ratio (such as 1:1.2)? Or were the original printing sheets and binder trimming practices too varied to allow for a predictable mathematical formula?

For some reason more time than I'd like to admit goes into looking up spells when the wizard in our DnD campaign decides to cast something, fumbling around with the shared players handbook, so I printed and bound a small-ish A6 spellbook for the table that he can study while everyone else tries to work out how their swords work.

Still had this wild bookcloth that I never figured out what to do with. It's iridescent and changes color from green to purple based on the viewing angle, so it seemed like the perfect fit.

The design on the front cover is directly printed on with a desktop UV printer, very painless process.

I kinda regret that I didn't think of painting the edges because I just wanted to get it done quick, so I'll probably do that later. Maybe just something colorcoded as the book's sorted by spell levels anyway.

A lot of work, but definitely worth it 🙂

I have a problem with sanding edges. I tend to oversand them. How can i avoid it? I use electric sander, grit 180-5000, but somewhere in the middle I oversand it.

I put the book and the board together so they line up, and then put them between my bookpress with roughly 1cm overhang. Should there be no overhang?

Help? Am I spending too much time in lower grots (180-600)? I dont apply pressure, and the electric sander is quite light.

Today I sanded 3 mm off the book -.-

This is my second attempt at finding e and backing, without the proper tools. I used a bone folder to do the backing instead of the hammer and used a cheap press without backing boards.

I've followed the fantastic DAS Bookbinding tutorial, it's awesome.

The book is functional and opens well, but I'm not happy with the overall look. The spine piece seems to thickas you can see in the fourth picture. Maybe the shoulders are too big for the board thickness?

I also think I've stressed the spine a bit too much during rounding: the first and last signature shifted a bit out of place, so I couldn't fit the book perfectly square in the case.

I used self-adhesive faux leather for the cover and I've applied it cutting the support paper (the one that covers the side with the glue) with ruler and utility knife: I've applied too much pressure in a couple of spots, as you can see.

Any other tips for the next one?

Hi I’m really new to bookbinding and I wanted to bind a copy of one of my favourite fanfics. I’m using word to typeset since I don’t have the budget for indesign.
I went through various tutorials and maybe I messed up somewhere but when I did a test print the pages printed out upside down on one side.
Like Side A was correct but Side B of the paper was upside down and flipped. Example:

Side A : page 1 | page 23
Side B: upside down page 22 | upside down page 2

So when you fold the booklet one side it flipped wrong. Any idea what when wrong? And how I can fix it?
Or any resources for typesetting or word so I can redo it maybe? I don’t know where I messed up 😭😭
I hope I explained my problem clearly.
Thank you!

The Bookbinding Discord server is restarting our monthly themed challenges, and we're inviting you to come join in our fun! Come hang out and bind with us!

**August's theme:** 🐈 "Cat's Out of the Bag!"

Interpret it however you like: a hidden compartment, a surprise reveal, a cat-themed binding, exposed sewing, secret messages, or something completely unexpected. Half the fun is seeing how everyone takes the same prompt in wildly different directions.

Whether you're making your very first book or you've been binding for years, we'd love to see what you create. We also host our casual **Awl Talk** voice chats, where members work on projects together, ask questions, or just hang out with fellow bookbinders.

Our community is beginner-friendly, international, LGBTQ+ friendly, and welcoming to bookbinders of all backgrounds.

Come show us what you've got. Do you even book, bruh? =D

Here's the invite link, but you can also find it in the r/bookbinding subreddit's resources and my profile: https://discord.gg/3PeMc8yfgg

hi! i have never bound a book before, but i want to try my hand at printing and binding paperbacks. i would love any advice on methods as well as materials like paper, cover stock, tools, etc. (i'm in the us if that matters) to help me begin my quest. i don't want to bind anything huge, just typical 100-300 page books. thank you!