Book binding

With all the projects that I have in mind and all the things that I need to remember to do I needed a notebook. I thought I will try my hand at binding a book and here is the result:

Denim bound book

Notes for next project

Clean pages

I am reasonably pleased with the outcome although I had to make some serious adjustments halfway through the process (see later). Below are the steps I followed to produce a denim bound book.

Main materials of a book

Folding each page

Clamping pages and adding glue - a thin cloth is also added

The casing of this book is made by cardboard. I used two pieces glued together at an angle (around 10 degree offset). This  is to provide a bit more strength as this cardboard bend much easier in one dimension - now not possible anymore.

Gluing cardboard pieces

Getting sizes for the casing

All the elements for the book

Casing done

Book without pages

Gluing the pages in

At this stage I found a mistake. After the pages was glued to the inside and the front and back pages were glued to the case the spine was a bit too wide. I thought this was how it was supposed to be but apparently it is not. I thus removed the text block (all the pages glued togehter) and added more pages - in effect doubling the amount of pages.

Case where text block was removed

After this things worked much better.

Second round of finishing everything

Final product - still slightly wet

I am impressed with the general feel and look of the book and will definitely do more book binding. For my next book I am going to use leather and wood and have an idea that, I think, will make it quite unique. I will post it once it is done ... or the attempt if it turns out to be a mere "experiment".

R&C