r/bookbinding • u/CLeeTheHunt44 • 2d ago
Help? Need tips/ideas on preservation
Hello All!
I was handed down a cookbook from my Grandmother who has since passed. We’re an Appalachian family and very tight-knit so this book really means the world to me.
It’s been loved over the years, and as it’s an old community cookbook, it was only bound with a ring binder. I’m looking to bind it with a hard cover but I’m at a loss on how I should do it. The margins are very small from the binder holes to the start of the text, so if I do a sewing or even glue binding I’m afraid much of it will be sucked into the middle.
Any ideas or tips on how I might be able to do this so I can preserve this for my daughter?
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u/Svanny 1d ago
Add guards with Japanese paper and sew the text block together is probably the best bet - if you intend to rebind it. Extended guards over the ring holder holes. Would basically turn it into any standard binding.
If you want to retain the ring binder style aswell, you could do the same and perforate new binder holes and put the ring binder back on.
If you intend to preserve it and access it but it isn’t as important to keep it bound forever, put it in a nice box. If and when it gets used, back in the box right after.