Post on 03-Jun-2018
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How to bind your own Hardback Book
byKaptinScarlet
The art of book binding is an ancient craft, but actually it is not very difficult to do and with
almost no practice you can get really awesome results. If you are on the lookout for fun
craft projects or quick ways of making nice presents and gifts, then this could be the projectfor you.
I know that there are other Instructables on the art of book binding but this project is meant
to be a simple quick project that will give a very acceptable finish, and a book that lookslike it has been professionally made, yet without the need for any special equipment.
ll you will need is
Some paper
!inimum really is about "# $ or %S &etter si'ed sheets, to make a half $ (half %S&etter si'ed book), although smaller books can be made as can ones with more pages. *ou
can use tracing paper, thick or thin paper and of course colored or even preprinted or
written on paper.
Some glue
*ou will need + (-lmers /hite glue) or a rubber fabric adhesive (in the %K that is
called 0opyde1, perhaps someone could tell me what its called in the %S), (a glue gun ifyou have it, would help with one of the stages, but is not mandatory).
Some stiff cardboard or corrugated (fluted) cardboard
Some fabric or leather
ny old stuff will do for the cover. I have used the fabric from some old pairs of trousers
that were being thrown out (actually nothing gets thrown out in my house, just put to one
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side for later use). 2ut you could use a bit of leather, some old curtains, cushion covers...etc
etc, Im sure you get the idea.
Step 1: Stack your paper neatly in (at least 4) piles of 8
sheets
*ou are going to be binding your paper in eight sheet folios. 3f course you could do more
or less. I have found eight sheets to be a good number. because you are folding it in halfeach sheet is going to make four pages of your book, so this eight sheet stack is going to
make "# pages.
*our book should have at least four of these eight sheet folios which will therefore make4#5 pages. (pologies to all the maths wi'ards out there).
*ou can use just plain paper or paper upon which you have already printed a header andfooter (remember to get this the right way round and remember that there will be $ headers
and four footers per sheet of paper.
If you want to mi1 in different papers then remember that they will appear further into the
book as well. (dont worry, this all becomes obvious as we go through the project).
Step 2: Fold each stack in half
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s neatly as possible and keeping the paper as lined up as possible, fold each pile of eight
sheets in half cross6wise.
Step : !nfold the paper and turn o"er
!aking sure you keep the paper nice and straight, unfold each stack of eight sheets, and
turn over.
Step 4: Staple the pa#es to#ether
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I have a long arm stapler (7bully for you7, I hear you say), but if you dont have one of
those, then no worries, just do the following8
3pen out your stapler
+lace the upturned paper stack on top of an eraser (positioned where you want to staple 6which will be about two inches (9 cm) from the edge of the page e1actly on the crease) and
slowly but firmly push down on the stapler until you have stapled through the pages.
Turn the pages over, pull off the eraser and then fold over the staple ends with the blunt end
of a dinner knife or your thumb nail, being careful not to break it : stab yourself.
;epeat at the other end of the crease so that each page has just two staples in it.
If you, like me, have a long arm stapler, simply staple the eight sheet stack in two places... I
knew there was a good reason for borrowing that thing from work.
Step $: %lue the bindin# onto the folios
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*ou are now going to make the heart of the book. *ou have made at least four of the eight
sheet : "# page folios and they need to be stuck together.
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If you want (and you dont have to) you can trim the folios a tiny bit. 2eware that the first
time you do this you might end up making more of a mess of the edge of the paper than ifyou just left it. It takes a bit of practice and a sharp craft knife or scalpel (definitely >3T
something for children to do on their own).
If you want to trim, then the most important edge to trim is the edge opposite the binding,because when the paper is folded over all the pages get to be slightly different lengths
depending on where they are in the folio stack.
The trick is to hold the rule very steady and take many repeated cuts being careful to cut in
the same groove and try to make sure that at each cut the paper on at least one layer is cut
from edge to edge. (2T/ I know that the drawing I have done to illustrate this step doesnot show this method of trimming multiple sheets, but it is meant to be a bit figurative
anyway).
If you have access to a proper guillotine that can cut through paper stacks (i.e. at work or atschool) then this is the time to use that, it will give you the most awesome finish).
Trimming is by no means necessary.
Trimming or not, you have now finished the paper part of the book and its time to move on
to the cover...
Step : *ark and cut out the co"er boards
+lace the bound folios on a piece of stiff card so that the bound edge lines up with one
straight edge and then draw round the paper allowing about a quarter of an inch : 9 mm
border on the three other edges.
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0ut the card out and then cut a duplicate.
0orrugated card is fine as the cover, as is thin foam core (foamboard), but the best kind of
card is the stiff card that is used as the backing for drawing and sketching pads.
Step 8: *ake the book spine
&oosely assemble the bound paper and the covers. +ressing them together, measure their
combined thickness and mark off on a piece of scrap card.
0ut the spine so that it is the thickness of the covers and the paper together and the same
length as the height of the book covers.
Step +: *ark and cut the aterial
+osition the book covers and the spine on the reverse of your chosen fabric or leather and
mark out so that there is a border of about one inch (#9 mm) all round.
0ut out the material.
s already mentioned, you can use any material you want really, although very thick
material will be difficult to fold and glue (but hey, who knows how patient and skilled you
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are?).
ctually, I used material from a pair of my e16wifes linen (Toast) trousers, thought I might
give her the book as a 0hristmas present in an ironic sort of way... dont worry only joking
and she had thrown them out anyway...
Step 1,: %lue the co"er board and spine in place
%sing white glue or rubber solution glue, smear an even coating over the boards and placeface down on the wrong side of the material (i.e. the side of the material that you dont
normally see, which has the pattern the wrong way round etc. etc).
!ake sure you stick them neatly in a row so that they are aligned with each other and
straight and that there is a gap of about one or two thicknesses of the card you are using
between the spine and each of the cover boards.
Step 11: Finish the ed#es of the co"er
Smear an even layer of white or rubber glue round the edge of the boards and fold thematerial over the board to cover the edge. /ork on one edge at a time. @o opposite ends
first and then fold the other sides over on top so that all the folds go the same way. !ake a
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neat job of the corners. If you are using thick material, you may well have to cut away some
of the material that is going to be hidden under the fold6over to stop the corners getting toobulky.
Step 12: %lue the paper into the co"ers
Things are starting to shape up now.
Smear some white glue (or rubber solution glue) in two stripes down the middle edges of
the cover boards being careful not to get any glue on the spine board.
Then place the bound paper wad so that it is centrally resting on the spine board and 3>&*
the thin cotton 7wings7 are glued to the cover boards.
The spine should >3T be glued to the cotton6covered bound paper wad, although you
should make sure that it IS properly glued to the cover boards right up to their edges,because this is the join that makes the book strong and stops the page block falling out of
the cover.
It is best if you wait for this part to dry before moving on to the ne1t step. It is probably a
good idea to leave the book lying on its back with the paper was supported by to food canswhile it dries, because, if you leave it to dry closed, bits of it might stick together that you
dont want sticking together.
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Step 1: -ut out your linin# paper
*our book is nearly finished.
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!ake books as presents, make them for school, make them for friends. Keep a pictorial
journal, you never know, one day you might be famous, then think, how cool would it bewhen they unearth your journal, which is not only full of angst and perceptive youthful
insights into the unfairness of it all, but is also embodied in a book that you yourself madeand not some cheap (or e1pensive) notebook or diary that you bought from the store like
millions of other people.
I have made a couple more so far. I made the jeans one with a pocket after my niece, Bosie
suggested that I use the pockets from the trousers for pens and stuff... neat I thought, and it
seems to work rather well.
See what you can come up with and if you make something you like, why not post the
images here or email them to me and I will put them up on line on dadcando
http://www.dadcando.com/http://www.dadcando.com/