A Happy New Year to you all! It's been almost a year since I last posted a video on Youtube, so I've been feeling guilty about my long absence ever since. - believe it or not, there is a thousand subscribers to my channel now... wow... I really didn't expect this much reaction from so many people when I first posted a video... Well, anyway, the holiday season's over, and I had a moment of spare time last night, so I made this short clip. My next video was supposed to be a basic case making, but before going forward, I just felt I needed to add this extra information that's actually very important. When binding a book, the direction of which the grain of paper is running affects on the execution, ease of the binding process, user-friendliness and the longevity of the book. So, although this small detail seems to be insignificant, it is actually one of the most important elements we have to pay attention to. Lots of antique books have short grain pages, but that's mainly because of a lack of resources and technologies back then. We aren't living in an ancient world where we have to compromise our needs to create a better quality product because we have to save every scrap paper or something, so for the sake of the quality, let's just keep the grain of pages, endpapers and boards parallel to the spine of a book. :-)
This isn't really a comment directly to this post- but thank you.
ReplyDeleteYou and a handful of other Bookbinders out in the internet have inspired me to follow my dream of bookbinding/book restoration. You are amazing at your craft and your skill shines.
Thank you for keeping your blog up to date. Thank you for inspiring me.
You're welcome, Jamie. Kind words from people like you around the world give me a reassurance and an additional meaning to my humble life. Thank you for inspiring me to keep going.
DeleteMHR
Hi, i am having a problem on finding available short grain paper at my place, btw im from the Philippines, what brand do u recommend on using when bookbinding, btw can i just use parchment paper for making signatures? Because i like the old paper appearance of it. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHello Jeremy,
DeleteI think, you can order paper on the internet, can't you? Like amazon.com or ebay.com, etc.
I don't know what kind of parchment paper you are thinking of using, but a thing about parchment paper in general is that it's very susceptible to moisture. So, if you aren't careful, the end product will look horrible.
Good luck on finding the right paper, Jeremy!
Regards,
MHR
Hello, I don't know if you still check this blogspot. I wanted to say thank you for all the information you shared here.
ReplyDeleteI have a problem on finding short grain paper (I'm from Argentina and buying paper from Amazon would cost me a lot of money in shipping) so I wanted to know if there is any "trick" or something to use large grain paper without it deteriorating over time.
Thanks in advance
Hello,
DeleteWe typically buy parent sheets from paper suppliers and cut them in particular sizes ourselves accordingly. Meaning we don't buy pre-cut paper, which is more expensive. So, what I'd suggest is to visit a local bookbindery or printing shops and ask for short grain paper. They should sell them to you cheaper than pre-cut paper from amazon. ;-)
That's a great idea. Bought 500 sheets yesterday, thank you!. Last question: I cannot figure out what sizes of Cotton thread should I use for medieval sewing (can't afford linen), from your videos I saw there are 2 sizes used, 1 for the cords that go on the spine and the other that are used to bind the sheets of paper to the cords in the spine, but idk which sizes are those.
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