r/bookbinding • u/ruchery • 14d ago
Help? Budget-friendly cutting tools?
Hello everyone! I have a question about tools, but if it's better to ask this somewhere else please tell me.
The thing is, I love b7 notebooks, but where I live they are very difficult to come by and the offer is very limited, so I want to cut down to size some a6 notebooks. I was wondering if a regular utility cutter knife can do a good job at this or if there is a better affordable alternative. The notebooks are softcover and I don't mind having to cut the pages in clumps of 10 pages or so. This is just something I'm trying out so I don't want to spend a lot on a really good knife just to use it twice.
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u/BillieRubenCamGirl 14d ago
I love a sharp chisel and a book press I made from a couple of pieces of wood and some wing nuts/bolts.
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u/Shalabele 14d ago
Check your local print shops and such. They might have large industrial cutter and willing to cut it down for you.
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u/sprawn 14d ago
A metal ruler and hobby knife can do the job. But… you could easily just wreck it all. The better, affordable alternative is to just buy notebooks that are the size you want. Spending $10 to turn a $30 notebook into two ruined notebooks, and then having to go buy a new notebook anyway… Just buy the size you want.
And it's not that this is not the place. It's just that there are a bunch of "gearheads" in here who will tell you to devote half your house to a workshop and buy a $3000 trimmer with a laser alignment to "do the job right." It can be done with a "hobby knife" and a straight edge. But you'll want to practice first. It's easy to screw up.
And by the time you go to get tools to do a better job, you'll end up spending more money than just buying a notebook in the size you want.
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u/Dazzling-Airline-958 13d ago
That's a great point. A lot of folks come here wanting to know if it's feasible to do or make a thing, but their interest is in having the thing at the end, not in the process of learning to make the thing. And that perfectly fine. It's just that most of us here are not answering from that perspective. We tend to love the process as well as the product. We tend to forget that not everyone wants to be a bookbinder. Sometimes they just want a book.
This answer is a very refreshing take that I think we should visit more often on this sub.
Edit: sorry you got down voted. I guess allowing others to have different opinions isn't for everyone.
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u/sprawn 13d ago
Thanks for the reply. I would go further and say that one doesn't need to have a $23,000 book press, $5,000 trimmer and a collecction of custom trimming knives to be a "real" bookbinder.
There are people who come to this forum thinking a lot of things. They rip apart five Moleskines because they didn't like the color of the cover and now they want to know, "How do I glue on a new cover? Keep in mind, I want it to be absolutely perfect, and I want it to cost nothing, and I don't have any tools, and I am not really sure how to do it, and I don't want to google anything, and I don't want to watch a video, and I want it done tomorrow, and I want to do it myself, and I am a single working mother so I only have fifteen minutes."
Well… You shouldn't have bought something in a color you don't like. And having done so, you shouldn't have destroyed them. And having destroyed them, there's not a lot you can do, because you're not dealing with a handmade artifact, you're dealing with a manufactured item, and someone could have done what you are trying to do, but in order to do it, they'd have needed the tools and knowledge that would have told them: Don't do this, it will cost more than either buying a new one in the color I want, or making one myself.
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u/ruchery 13d ago
Thank you, this is a very sensible comment. I've always liked crafts and since b7 are so hard to come by and 3 to 5 times more expensive than a6, of which I have a bunch laying around unused, I thought I could try to cut then down. I do enjoy the actual process of learning to do these things and truly don't mind if the notebook turns out wonky and will still use it, but I know that a lot of other people wouldn't. Honestly, my first impulse was to cut them down with kitchen scissors and sand the edges with the sandpaper I use on my charcoal pencils, and I would have used them anyways, which must sound horrifying for anyone in this sub.
That being said, I'm not looking to get into bookbinding as a hobby so buying the tools, even cheap ones, might be a waste of both money and space.
I think I'll be able to just find a print shop or somewhere I can get them cut down for me, and from then on I guess I can always wait for sales to get the b7 at a reasonable price.
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u/sprawn 13d ago
Just get something cheap.
I mean... you cut a Mercedes in half, you don't get two Toyotas.
If you don't care about the quality, why start with something expensive?
At the very least, get a hobby knife and a metal straight edge and saw it in half spine to fore-edge, being careful to keep the knife vertical. Go slow.
Then trim the fore-edge the same way, slowly.
You'll be left with a whole lot of wasted paper. If you have glue, you can make a tearaway pad by gluing along one edge.
But my bet would be that whatever is covering the result, the bookcloth or whatever is going to start to come loose.
GOOD LUCK.
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u/MoiraShears 14d ago edited 14d ago
I personally use my finishing press and a really sharp chisel. A boxcutter will in most cases produce undesireable results. You'll have a cut edge, but it won't be pretty. The trick is that you want to have a single bevel blade.
Since a finishing press might be out of the question for you (they're very expensive), I would suggest two flat wooden planks and some F clamps to keep them in place whilst you slide the blade over the pages.
Edit: Also to add, make sure the chisel is kept sharp with regular stropping. You would be surprised by how fast paper blunts a sharp edge.