Four Keys Book Arts

In this video I take you through the first steps of hand-binding a book. I begin by tearing down large sheets of paper, then folding them into signatures, piercing sewing holes, cutting the linen tapes, waxing the thread, and finally sewing the book block.

This video shows the process of cutting and affixing endpapers to the book block I made in Part 1, followed by the trimming process. These steps were meant to be included in Part 2, but the footage somehow got deleted. Luckily I found the files in a backup folder, so I have made this video to bridge Part 1 and Part 2.

In this video I take the book block from Part 1 through the next steps of the binding process, including trimming, rounding and backing, as well as attaching a ribbon bookmark and sewing colorful endbands. A more complete video of the trimming process, as well as attaching the marbled endpapers, was compiled from previously lost footage and can be seen in Part 1.5.

In this video I go through the steps of lining the book's spine with paper, sanding the spine, and making the case.

In this video I take the case I made in Part 3 and apply its leather coverings. This book will have an alternate version of a half binding, in which the fore edges are covered in a single strip of leather, rather than just the corners. In the next video I will wax and burnish the decorative marbled paper before applying it to the cover and assembling the finished book!

Follow along as I bring the Handmade Book project to its conclusion! In this video I finish work on the case of the book. I trim out the leather and in-fill with card stock to bring the boards level with the leather. This has the effect of pulling the cover boards out of shape, so I line the inside covers with bond paper to counteract the pull of the outer paper. Next I take my handmade marbled paper and burnish it with beeswax and an agate burnishing tool. From there I cut the outer papers and glue them to the book covers, finally completing the case. Then I paste down the endpapers and nip the book in the press overnight.

This video is the first in what will be a series of Tips & Tutorials on bookbinding. We begin with a simple but perhaps overlooked topic: how to select the right needle for bookbinding and how to best attach your thread to facilitate ease of sewing. Sewing a book can be accomplished with almost any type of needle, but is made easier if you select one that has a small eye with minimal swell. A needle that bulges at the end will have great difficulty in passing through the stitching holes, which could be made worse by excess thread or bulky knots. Specialty bookbinder's needles are ideal, as they are made specifically to be as slim as possible around the eye. Furthermore, the technique for attaching the thread I demonstrate in this video gives a secure connection with minimal bulk. In this video I am demonstrating attaching a 18/3 waxed linen thread to a #18 bookbinder's needle

Using only hand tools, I take a piece of scrap brass and transform it into a finishing gouge, a curved-line stamp for embossing leather. Commercially available brass stamps, even second-hand ones, are well outside my budget, especially since I am hardly better than a novice at leather tooling and can’t justify laying out hundreds (or thousands) of dollars for a set. Instead, to dip my toe into the craft and see what I can make of it, I have set out to make my own simple stamps, using scrap brass and everyday metalworking tools. Brass finishing tools are used in the final stages of binding a book (technically the binding is already done and the whole tooling stage is called 'finishing'), in which the leather covers are impressed with a variety of designs or text. The letters and patterns can be stamped 'blind' without any additional coloring, or embellished with carbon black, colored foils, or gold leaf. While many finishing tools are both elaborate and intricate, simple geometric s

In this video I break out the power tools to craft a fanciful handle for the brass finishing gouge I made in part 1. I've selected a scrap piece of cherry from my offcut bin. It has a major check down the center, which limits its usability for other projects but is perfect for a tool handle. I rough cut the handle blank on the bandsaw, mark the center points on each end, pre-drill the hole to accept the blade, and then remove some of the waste material back at the bandsaw. With the handle blank complete I move to the lathe, where I first set the drive spur in the stock and begin turning. I didn't have a particular design in mind apart from giving the handle a bit of flair. I let the wood, the tools, and my hands guide me as I went. Once I was happy with the turning I sanded the handle and parted it off. Next time I'll try to catch it! A bit more sanding on the rough part at the end of the handle finished the woodworking. The last step was to craft a simple ferrule for the tool out

Paper marbling is a centuries-old art form that was once an integral part of the bookbinding trade, but is now relatively obscure. At Four Keys Book Arts we have made a point of maintaining, and I hope reviving, both of these disappearing crafts. In this video I am printing an edition of bespoke tiger eye marbled papers. This is not a tutorial video, but a look 'behind the scenes' at the process. The marbling process begins with the ‘size’, the fluid bath upon which the marbling paints are floated and manipulated into the desired patterns. The size is made from carrageenan, derived from carrageen moss, a type of seaweed (or more accurately, an algae). The resulting fluid is as thick as cream and will not readily mix with paint. Many types of paint can be used for marbling. I use acrylic paints, though gouache and watercolor paints are also commonly used. The paints are thinned and mixed with an ‘expander’, which causes the paint to spread upon the size. The properties of the carrage

Blind tooling leather is an aspect of bookbinding that I very much want to further incorporate into my work, so in this video I experiment with some of my handmade tools. Watch as I use the brass gouge I made in a previous video, an ink pad, and paper to develop and refine a leaf pattern. Then, by heating the tools, I emboss the design I created onto the leather corners of a book.

Not every book is destined to be read, cherished, and preserved for posterity. The sad reality is that huge numbers of books are shredded, recycled, or sent to the landfill every day worldwide. Yet therein lies an opportunity for the recycling-conscious or frugal bookbinder. If you have (or can get your hands on) some inexpensive or unwanted books, it’s possible to reclaim some perfectly usable, and often beautiful, materials to use in your own projects. In this video I will show you how to break down an old book, how to strip the covering materials to yield plain greyboard, how to build a handy piercing cradle from a book cover, how to upcycle a page from your old book to make a handsome cover for a pocket notebook, and finally how to sew a simple pamphlet binding for the cover we just made. A word of caution though, before you start tearing into an old copy of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ or your kid’s university textbooks: always be certain the book you’re thinking of recyc

When it comes to paring leather for bookbinding, having a good quality work surface is almost as important as a sharp knife. In this video I prepare the Rolls Royce of paring surfaces: a lithography stone. Lithography is a method of printing that was extremely common in the 19th and early 20th century, but has since been largely replaced by more modern processes. Images were imprinted onto slabs of fine-grained lithographic limestone, which could then be inked and printed over and over. It is perhaps because of the decline in lithographic printing that the lithography stone became the preferred work surface for bookbinders. As demand for lithographic prints fell, it is likely that the stones became both readily available and inexpensive. Sadly this is no longer the case, so I didn’t hesitate when I was able to purchase one fairly reasonably. The ubiquitous self-healing cutting mats we all use are of little use when paring leather, as the low angle of the blade invariably gouges

Attempting to sew a book of even moderate size with a single long thread quickly gets out of hand (I know, I’ve done it). In the early stages one must endlessly pull thread through the sewing holes like a magician pulling handkerchiefs from his sleeve. This causes the thread to twist back on itself, often creating spontaneous knots. If you eventually succeed in reaching the end of the book without it devolving into a tangled mess, as often as not you find you’ve miscalculated and come up short anyway. There has to be a better way. That way is the weaver’s knot. This knot has the advantages of being strong, slim, and easily tied to even very short lengths of thread. It allows the bookbinder to work with manageable lengths of thread, joining new pieces whenever it becomes necessary. In this video I’ll show you how to tie it. I am generally following Keith A. Smith’s instructions from his book ‘Non-Adhesive Binding: Books Without Glue or Paste’. Smith recommends that when tying the we

For those dyed-in-the-wool romantics out there, I'm certain the 2004 film 'The Notebook' holds a special place in your hearts. For those who haven't seen the film (no spoilers!) it is the story of Allie Nelson and Noah 'Duke' Calhoun, whose life-long love is retold through the pages of Allie's journal. The notebook itself takes on a significance all its own throughout the film which I can't properly convey here, though the fact that it takes the title role should give a hint of its importance. The book in the film was of course just a movie prop, with a small group of pages pre-printed and repeated multiple times to give the effect of a filled journal. In this video series I embark on recreating that journal as it might have been before Allie first set pen to paper. I've tried to make the video in a tutorial style, which you can follow to either make your own 'The Notebook' notebook, or a journal that's all your own. You can follow along as I plan out the project, cut and fold paper

For those dyed-in-the-wool romantics out there, I'm certain the 2004 film 'The Notebook' holds a special place in your hearts. For those who haven't seen the film (no spoilers!) it is the story of Allie Nelson and Noah 'Duke' Calhoun, whose life-long love is retold through the pages of Allie's journal. In this video series I embark on recreating that journal as it might have been before Allie first set pen to paper. Part 1 covers the initial planning of the book, as well as sewing and trimming the text block and rough cutting the boards. In this video I will finished the text block by adding the ribbon and lining the spine, as well as assembling the case and covering it with book cloth. In Part 3 I will tool the decorative lines on the covers, pare and apply the leather corners, and finally attach the text block to the cover, completing the book.

If you've been watching until now, you know I've been working on making a replica of the journal from the 2004 film 'The Notebook'. In Part 1 I planned out the the book, sewed and trimmed the text block, and rough cut the boards. In Part 2 I finished the text block by adding the ribbon and lining the spine, as well as assembled the case and covered it with book cloth. In this third and final video I will tool in the decorative borders on the front and back covers, pare the leather corner tips and apply them, then glue the book into its cover. You can judge for yourself if my replica could stand in for the hero prop from the film - let me know in the comments what you think!

There’s something to be said for always having a handy pocket notebook nearby, whether to jot down sudden inspiration, or just a simple grocery list. I use all manner of interesting papers to make the covers for these handy notebooks, usually recycled from other old books After experimenting with different types of adhesives to laminate the covers, I finally settled on a professional spray-on adhesive. It works on many types of paper, including glossy or coated ones, and it dries quickly. Most importantly it imparts virtually no moisture into the paper, which prevents curling and warping. Though I use a variety of professional tools in this video, these notebooks can just as easily be made with everyday tools. A stack of books can stand in for a press, while a sharp utility knife and a steel ruler can, with practice, produce nicely trimmed edges. The size of your stapler somewhat limits

Printmaking is a natural parallel to bookbinding, so when I was recently gifted some pieces of lovely old brown linoleum I knew just what to do with them! Linocut prints often remind me of medieval woodcuts, and I may incorporate them in a future bookbinding project. But first I wanted to make a simple print just to test out the materials. While contemplating a subject my eye fell upon my trusty book press, Mr. Ritchie. Patrick Ritchie was a machine maker in Edinburgh from at least 1828 until 1863. I was fortunate enough to acquire one of his presses last year, and of course I now refer to him by name! This press has a platen size of 12 x 20 inches, and thanks to the 5 inch brass risers (which I suspect were added post-production) it boasts over 8.5 inches of daylight. Most of the time I don't need that much capacity, so I use my paring stone to take up the extra space. The large lever handle on this press exerts a casual power that is simply astonishing, and is perfectly suited to n

Welcome to my little bindery! Today we'll be doing some hand tooling on leather. This book needed something more to compliment raised bands and really make the black calfskin pop, so I decided to do a classic blind-tooled center panel design on both the front and back covers. Its called 'blind tooling' because I haven’t used any type of gold or colored foil to highlight the design. In this video I use my own handmade brass finishing tools, heated on an electric hot plate, to impress the design into the dampened leather. I use my prepared design and a set of dividers to carefully lay out the pattern on the leather, then carefully tool in the lines and embellishments. Achieving the proper heat in the tools is important - too cool and the impressions won't take very well, while too much heat could scorch the leather. I first cool the tip of the hot tool on a damp rag before touching it to the leather, then try to make quick impressions until I know I've got things right.

Hello everyone! Here's something a little different today. In this short video I'm demonstrating the use of a bookbinder's plough. I recently acquired this specialized tool, and I intend to do a more comprehensive video on it soon, as it is actually a very cleverly designed 3-in-1 portable bookbinding shop! The bookbinder's plough is effectively a type of hand plane, though designed to cut the edges of a book instead of wood. The fixed blade is perpendicular to the book that is to be trimmed, which is held firmly in the press. A slot in the base of the plough registers into a runner on the rear jaw of the press, while a handscrew controls the depth of the cut. As I pass the plough back and forth I'm actually giving the screw a tiny turn with each pass, which advances the blade and cleanly cuts through single pages at a time. And because the blade is curved, I can actually cut in both directions, making the job very quick.

In this new in-depth video series I'll be taking on the challenge of making a medieval-style book. Follow along while I use traditional bookbinding techniques and a combination of historic and modern materials to craft a unique artisan book. This film has no speaking and a minimal amount of music for those who want to enjoy the peaceful simplicity of quiet hand-work. For those seeking insights into my materials and techniques, you can turn on subtitles to read my full commentary on the process as you watch! The style of book I'm making is properly called a 'Gothic' binding. This type of binding was characterized by raised cords, wooden boards, leather covering, blind tooling, and metal clasps and corners. It was in use as early as the 14th century, and remained the standard technique in Europe well into the 17th century. Much of my knowledge of this binding was drawn from 'The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding' by John Szirmai, which I recommend if you are interested in further rea

This is Part 2 of my in-depth video series on making a medieval-style book - for more information see Part 1 here: • Making A Medieval Book By Hand - Part 1 - ... . This series has no speaking and a minimal amount of music for those who want to enjoy the peaceful simplicity of quiet hand-work. For those seeking insights into my materials and techniques, you can turn on subtitles to read my full commentary on the process as you watch! In this installment I begin by trimming the book to size and rounding the spine. I first cut down the oversized endpapers and glue down the free decorative flyleaves to make what's called a 'stiff' leaf. Next I glue out the spine and trim the fore edge of the book using my bookbinder's plough. With the fore edge smooth I can round the spine of the book and then trim the head and tail. The spine of the book is not 'backed', meaning I don't form the type of shoulders seen on later bindings. Instead I line the spine with a piece of leather that is cut

This is Part 3 of my in-depth video series on making a medieval-style book - for more information see Part 1 here: • Making A Medieval Book By Hand - Part 1 - ... . This series has no speaking and a minimal amount of music for those who want to enjoy the peaceful simplicity of quiet hand-work. For those seeking insights into my materials and techniques, you can turn on subtitles to read my full commentary on the process as you watch! As it turns out, this is almost entirely a woodworking episode, which is not surprising considering that this is a wooden book! However, if you'd rather skip all the woodwork and go right to the assembly of the book you can just jump ahead to 20:41. One of the key hallmarks of a medieval gothic binding is the material used to make the cover boards: wood. I have chosen red oak for my boards, which is native to my area and, being a very hard, dense wood, it is a close analog to the woods available in medieval Europe. I have selected a piece that has b

Wheat Flour Paste 2 tbsp (18 g) white flour (strong flour or bread flour preferred) 1 cup (250 ml) water

This is the fifth and final installment of my in-depth video series on making a medieval-style book - for more information see Part 1 at the link below. This series has no speaking and a minimal amount of music for those who want to enjoy the peaceful simplicity of quiet hand-work. For those seeking insights into my materials and techniques, you can turn on subtitles to read my full commentary on the process as you watch! In this installment everything finally comes together to finish the book! With the leather complete from episode 4 I turn to finalizing the design for the tooling. I first use my brass finishing tools (many of which I made myself) and an ink pad to lay out the design for both covers. With the design complete I then heat up the tools on a hot plate and impress them into the dampened leather of the cover. And as an added feature I embellish the blind tooling with a some gold foil highlights. To truly transform this book I add my handmade brass furniture (which is th

In this video I'll be making the brass corners and clasp - collectively called 'furniture' - for my medieval gothic binding. You can watch my entire journey of making the book all in one playlist here: https://tinyurl.com/2jc6vkje The brass sheet I'm using for all the furniture is .032" inches (.81 mm) thick.

In this video you’ll see me undertaking all the various stages of my late medieval gothic binding project. Though I use some modern materials and tools, and have added a few anachronistic highlights, this book is entirely based on the binding structures and techniques that were common in 15th century Europe. I've put this video together to be an easy, one-sitting overview of this intricate project. Since this version condenses over 60 hours of work into about 24 minutes, most of the process has of course been omitted. I've added some basic titles to help you understand the various stages, but this isn't a tutorial and doesn't have any instructions, material lists, or commentary. If you’d like to take a deeper dive into the making of this book (including a full commentary which you'll need to *TURN ON CAPTIONS* to see) look no further than my full 5-part (plus bonus episode in which I hand-craft all of the brass hardware used) series, links below. There you'll find full lists of tool

This is my first foray into any sort of vlog format, in which I'll show you some of what I do behind the camera here. In this episode I fill you in on where I was and what I was doing all spring and summer, and what happened to the bindery in that time. You'll get to poke into all the corners of my studio in an informal (and unglamorous!) tour, then get the satisfaction of seeing me deal with the mess I've made. This is a very different kind of video for the channel so I'm hoping it will be well received. If you like this kind of content then please let me know and perhaps I'll do more in the future. In the meantime I've got some new bookbinding projects in the works, so stay tuned for more familiar programming soon!

Hello everyone, welcome once again to the bindery! I wanted to share with you how I re-use shipping materials - especially large, unwieldy boxes - as packaging for my handmade books. These simple boxes are fast and easy to make with the most basic of tools, but with professional looking results! They are really adaptable too; I show you two ways to modify the design and even throw in a basic gift-wrapping tutorial at the end. I hope these instructions will help you with all of your packaging needs - if it does, don't forget to give it a like and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already.

As the first project of 2023 I decided to try my hand at making a miniature book. Miniature books are defined as being less than 3 inches in height, but I wanted to go much smaller! I was so excited about how the first one turned out that I decided to make some more and share them with you here! These tiny books are not models that just look like books in miniature. They are properly bound, fully-functional books, with all the elements of a regular hand-bound book. And though they are only 1.5 inches high they still have 128 pages each! In this video I use the same techniques and virtually all of the regular equipment that I would normally use to bind a full-size book. Some of the materials I used for these books include: Tomoe River A4 52gsm paper (cream) Goatskin Leather Handmade Marbled Paper (my own) Linen Thread Acid-Free PVA Glue Metallic Transfer Foil

Hi everybody, welcome back to the bindery! I first began bookbinding in 2018 and in those early days I had more enthusiasm than knowledge and so of course I made a lot of mistakes. I've learned a lot since then, and though I still make mistakes, I tend not to make the same ones. This video is a collection of some of the techniques that I wish I'd known in my early days of this craft. Some are things I've learned from other bookbinders, others are just things I picked up through trial and error. This is in no way an exhaustive list (more like some random things I jotted down over the last few weeks), so perhaps this could be the first of many videos like this. The tips are arranged generally in the order in which they might come up in the process of making a book. I hope you find the video interesting and informative, and if you learn something new then I'm happy to have been of some help!

Between bookbinding projects I will often take some time to make improvements to my workspace. This project is one that I've been meaning to get done for quite a while, so I thought I'd share it with you. It's a bit of a digression from some of my other videos, but to me it's an important part of the overall reality of being an independent artisan. Good art deserves a good artistic environment, and though my studio does sometimes get out of hand, I try to step back and reset from time to time, and take incremental steps towards my ideal. If you've been following me for a while then you probably know that I've been working on my leather tooling skills, learning as I go with a hodge-podge collection of homemade and second-hand tools. A pallet wheel was something I always wanted, but they're rare as hen's teeth in my part of the world, and the fancier designs were well beyond my ability to make myself. Imagine my reaction then when I saw this group advertised on an online marketplace! I

Hello everyone! In this video series I’ll be destroying three perfectly good Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks! My plan is to un-bind these books and then re-bind them together into a single ultimate D&D rulebook. But my success is far from guaranteed. In this installment I tackle removing the books from their cases and cleaning the spines in preparation for sewing, and its far from smooth sailing! So join me as I embark on this epic bookbinding adventure and stay tuned for future videos to see where it leads me!

Hi everyone, welcome back to the bindery! In this video I pick up from Part 1, in which I got myself into a bit of a bind by taking apart my three D&D rulebooks. I managed to come up with a plan as how to tackle that particular problem, so join me as I get this book prepped and sewn together!

Hello everyone and welcome to the bindery! This video is a big step in the epic D&D tome series, both in terms of the work that went into the book, and in runtime! It was a lot of work to get the book into its covers and I tried to show every step of the process as best I could without letting the video go on for hours. I hope you enjoy it, and I very much appreciate your being here!

Hello everyone and welcome to the bindery! In this video I complete my quest to combine three D&D rulebooks into one epic tome! In this episode I tackle covering the book with leather, and I deal with the subsequent warping of the covers. Then I move on to blind tooling my custom design on the front, back, and spine, and finally I attach the metal furnishings I handmade for the book. I also made an extra-special piece for the central escutcheon, which isn't in the thumbnail so you'll have to watch to see what it is! This has truly been an epic project, especially this last installment which required long periods of time for things to dry, so thank you all so much for your patience! I think it has been worth it though and I hope you will agree. To all of my new viewers and subscribers who have found the channel through this series, you have my heartfelt appreciation, and I hope you'll stick around for my new projects which are just over the horizon. And of course a big shoutout to t

The launch of my Tiny Books was a success (they're sold out now but more will be coming), but then I had to figure out how to send such tiny things through the mail. My solution involved some origami if you can believe it! Join me in this simple one-take video as I put together my solution for a simple, cost-effective, yet pleasing packaging method for a tiny little book!

Lots of you have watched me rebind my D&D books into a single epic tome, so thank you so much if you've enjoyed that series! If you haven't seen those videos yet, not to fear, you can check them out in this playlist: • Epic D&D Tome Build In those videos I promised to share my 'making of' video for the book's centerpiece, the embossed metal Beholder, so I'm making good on that here. Join me as I brainstorm and refine my design, digitally render it into a printable template, then use some scrap metal to bring it to life! If you enjoyed this video then please hit the Like button, and consider subscribing to the channel, it really does help boost my exposure, which helps me make more videos! Thanks so much for watching!

Hi everyone, welcome back to the bindery! If you've ever wanted to sit quietly by and watch in real-time as a book comes together, then this is the video for you! Join me at the bench while I pierce holes, cut thread, and sew a book. No talking, no music, nothing but the gentle sights and sounds of a peaceful morning in the bindery. Presented without midroll ads, for your viewing (and listening) pleasure!

Hi everyone! In this short series I will be presenting some of the foundational skills and knowledge I've learned while on my own bookbinding journey. In this first part I will discuss what I believe are the most essential tools needed to start out in bookbinding. In part 2 I'll discuss materials and some basic book structures to get you started. Down the road I will introduce new tools and techniques, so do check back from time to time! I hope you enjoy the video! If you do, please consider subscribing to the channel for more bookbinding content in the future.

Hi everyone! In this short series I will be presenting some of the foundational skills and knowledge I've learned while on my own bookbinding journey. In this second part I will discuss the basic materials needed to get started bookbinding, and at the end I'll show you how to bind your first simple book!

I’m trying something new in this video that, while not specifically bookbinding, is nevertheless closely related. As I'm sure many of you did, I recently enjoyed Adam Savage’s (of Mythbusters fame) video in which he made his own handmade book. For that project he used a type of antique-style paper, and I was immediately intrigued, so I ordered some for myself. In this video I’ll be testing out this paper with a full array of stationery and art supplies, and giving you my honest opinion on how it holds up! If you enjoy this video, please give it a like, and do let me know in the comments if you’d like to see more of this type of content. Thanks so much for watching!

Hi everyone! This is Chapter 3 of my Bookbinding Basics series; if you're a beginner and missed Chapters 1 and 2, I'd recommend watching them here: https://shorturl.at/kORW0 In this installment I'll show you how to make an easy multi-section book, using only basic tools, and no glue! If you enjoy the video please don't forget to like it, and maybe subscribe to the channel so you don't miss new chapters in the series.

This is just a short video to personally thank each and every one of you who have watched, liked, commented and subscribed over the years! Every day I am amazed and delighted, not only because I am fortunate enough to be able to pursue this wonderful craft, but that there are so many people who seem to be interested in watching me do it. I am so, so grateful that this channel affords me the opportunity to continue to learn, to hone my skills, and to share it all with you. So, thank you to all of my viewers, to the contributors who have supported the channel directly, and of course to all of my subscribers, who have made this achievement a reality! This accolade is as much yours as mine, and I am deeply honoured to share it with you.

Every Christmas I make a point of making a gift for a friend or loved one, and this year is no exception. Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' is my wife's favourite Christmas story, and so this year I've decided to make a special copy just for her. And the good news for you is that you'll get to share in the creation of this book in three virtually back-to-back installments, which I'll be premiering over the next few days before Christmas. So grab yourself a bowl of hot punch, sit back, and enjoy! I've chosen to bind this book in a style that would be familiar to Dickens himself. The book is sewn on cords that are 'sunk', being sawn into the text block rather than pierced. This was a faster binding method that came into vogue in the 1800's as demand for books increased. A shoutout to Reddit user u/ellipticcurve, who typeset and imposed (and freely shared) the 1915 edition of Dickens' classic book, featuring illustrations by Arthur Rackham. Not having time to format the book myself

0Hello again everyone! As promised, here is part 2 of my one-off gift edition of 'A Christmas Carol'. In this installment you'll see me weaving the silk head-and-tail bands, lining the spine and forming the 'hollow', as well as attaching leather false bands (more on that below). I prepare cover boards to accept the sewing cords, attach them, and then line them with paper to hide any blemishes. Finally I select and prepare the calfskin leather for the book. In the next and final episode I'll attach the leather to the book, craft some leather spine labels, and then finally finish it all off with some genuine 24 karat gold tooling! The book is finished so I can assure you that the result is something you'll want to see, so be sure to subscribe and turn on your bell notifications so you don't miss it. I promise you won't have to wait long! And I'll get ahead of the comments and answer this question right now: 'Why go to all the trouble to sink the sewing cords and then put fake ones on

It has been a marathon of bookbinding and video editing these past few weeks, but the book is finished, and the video too, both just in time for Christmas. In this final installment I not only cover the book in leather (which some of you may have seen me do with other books in the past), but I take on the additional challenge to do some genuine 24 karat gold tooling as well. I’m not sure what possessed me to attempt this for the first time on a gift book and on a deadline to boot, but it’s something I’ve always aspired to, so I went for it. To give myself any chance of success, I chose to keep the tooling design fairly simple, which frankly was very typical for the period. Any success I achieved is credited to Trevor Lloyd ‪@auriflex‬, whose video tutorial was invaluable; anyone interested should check out his channel and website. All in all I’m very pleased with how this book has finished up, and I’m delighted to have been able to share it with you. Wishing you and your loved one

In this video I present to you two easy-to-make versions of a tool I use for virtually every bookbinding project: the piercing cradle! If you're moving beyond the basic tool kit I described in my Bookbinding Basics video ( • Bookbinding Basics: Chapter 1 - Basic Tool... ), then this is one of the first bits of kit I'd recommend you add to your toolbox. The good news is that I'll show you how to make one for yourself, first the easy way, and then the even easier (and basically free!) way. If you find this video to be valuable then of course be sure to like it, and consider subscribing for even more bookbinding content. I've got some big things planned for this year, so you won't want to miss out!

I took a gamble and purchased an old copy of Dune without even seeing a photo of it. What I received might surprise you, and what I did to it might alarm you, but I think all the drama will be worth it in the end. I hope you think so too.

My gamble on buying an old copy of Dune paid off, though not without some serious effort to make it so. In this video I’ll finish off the sewn text block with some custom marbled endpapers and woven endbands before strengthening the spine and attaching some covers. Sounds easy, right? Well, compared with repairing every page, I would agree with you! But it’ll still take a lot of careful work, so come along and join me on the journey!

In today's video I'll be adding some special elements to this copy of Dune before tackling the long and fiddly process of wrapping the entire thing in leather. Stick with me until the end though, because this book is really starting to come together! There will be one more installment in this Dune Rebinding series, in which I'll be upgrading those plain old endbands I wove in part 2, giving the cover my own custom hand-tooled design, and then capping it all off with a special finishing touch! Thanks for tuning in, and I'll see you in Part 4!

This is the final installment of my Dune rebinding project, and I've pulled out all the stops to really make this book something special! I'll be upgrading the plain endbands I wove in Part 2 with German braided leather endbands, which are in keeping with my original vision of mixing a variety of historic bookbinding styles into this binding. I then take on the challenge of hand-tooling the leather on all five panels of the wrap-around cover, incorporating some seriously Dune-inspired elements, and then embellish it with some genuine 24-carat gold leaf. And that conspicuous blank circle on the front flap? Well, that will be getting it's own special treatment with a hand-crafted medallion, so be sure to watch until the end! This is a project I've wanted to tackle for a long time, and it has proven to be both demanding and deeply rewarding. I have really been able to hone my skills, and I've learned a whole host of new ones as well, and I'm delighted that so many of you have been ther

Paper marbling is a very old art form that has long been closely associated with bookbinding. I began marbling paper and bookbinding at about the same time, so for me it is an important aspect of the book arts. While this isn’t a tutorial, I’m sure there will be plenty of questions about materials and techniques, so I’ll try to get out ahead of some of them here. PAPER MARBLING TOPICS The Carrageenan: There are 3 types of carrageenan, only one of which is suitable for marbling. Look for “Lambda” carrageenan. It’s usually available in powdered form, though if you are in the UK I understand it can be found in its whole fresh state. The Paint: I use high-quality acrylic paints, most often Golden brand heavy-body acrylics. High quality paints have enough pigment to produce vibrant colours. I thin these with water to achieve a relatively thin consistency, so the amount of pigment is critical. Many marblers use gouache paint, though I haven’t tried that myself. The Surfactant: Ox ga

In this video I overhaul the two old bricks that have been my handy helpers in the bindery! They're a great accessory that I wouldn't want to do without, so at the end of the video I share my top ten favorite uses for them. If you find this video to be valuable then of course be sure to like it, and consider subscribing for even more bookbinding content. I've got some big things planned for this year, so you won't want to miss out!

I went all the way to Scotland and scoured every used bookstore I found for a book that needed my help! The one I finally found is 130 years old, and has seen better days. Hopefully I'll be able to give it a second lease on life, but it did have a few surprises in store for me. I hope you enjoy the video, and will return for future installments.

In this installment of the Book Rescue series, I'll be taking the 130-year-old book on Tennyson that I resewed in part 1 and getting it back between some covers. But before I can do that I need to trim all three edges of the book, shape the spine, weave on some endbands, and a number of other fiddly little tasks that go into making a quality handmade book. I hope you enjoy the video, and that you'll come back for part 3, in which I'll be finally finishing off this binding. Don't miss it!

In this, the final installment of the Book Rescue series, I'll get this book into better-than-new condition with a 3/4 leather and cloth binding, some tasteful blind tooling, and some 24-karat gold lettering on the spine. It's been quite an adventure bringing this book from nearly-destroyed in Scotland to fully rebound in Canada, so I hope you like the final result! If you've been enjoying my videos and would like to support me directly, you can do so via one of the links below. It's of course totally optional, but every contribution helps me to make my videos better, and more often, so thank you in advance!

This is the complete abridged version of my original 3-part series on binding Dickens’ classic. I've also remastered the audio, added new music, and done a bunch of other tweaking to make this video really shine. What's more, I've added an approachable, how-its-made-style commentary to this one, so if you've seen the original series there's still some new content for you to enjoy. Of course, in order to fit an entire video series into a 30-minute chunk, some of the footage had to be left on the digital cutting-room floor, so to speak. But fear not, dear bookbinding friends, I have another gift in store! I've gone through the entire original 3-part series and added a full caption commentary! Turn on subtitles for those videos and you'll be able to follow along with my full explanations for every step of the process, or leave them off and just chill out to the sights and sounds of the bindery. I've even given the series its own playlist to make things simple:

Hello everyone! I'm often asked where I find all of my tools, so I thought I'd talk about that a bit in this short video before heading down to the workshop to build a storage/display rack for some of my latest acquisitions. I hope you enjoy this foray into the adjacent aspect of being a bookbinder. I'll be back very soon with more bookbinding-specific content, so stay tuned for that. As always, thanks for watching!

Hello everyone! I’ve got a couple of bits of news to share in this video (thankfully all good!), so please sit back and join me on today’s little side adventure. I’ll be back to bookbinding content in the next video, so thanks for your patience.

I'm still getting used to my reorganized workspace, so to get myself settled in I decided to start with an easy project that I've been meaning to do for some time. I found an interesting old leather book cover in an antique shop and was immediately fascinated by it. In today's video I adapt the sewn-board binding style to make a prototype for a blank book insert to fit this old cover. I hope you'll enjoy spending a bit of quiet time in the bindery with me, and I'll be back soon with more projects.

In this video I'll introduce glue into your bookbinding arsenal, and then we'll go through the entire process of making the Sewn Boards Binding, an easy and approachable hardcover book structure that can be completed in just a couple of hours. If you find this video to be valuable then of course be sure to like it, and consider subscribing for even more bookbinding content!

Over the years I've received countless requests for help on converting e-books or pdfs into a format suitable for hand binding, so I finally decided to figure it out for myself. In this video I'll show you not only where I found a free digital copy of Douglas Cockerell's essential work: 'Bookbinding and the Care of Books', but also how I converted the .epub file and formatted the book for printing and binding.

This video leaves the computer work of Chapter One behind as I get back to the hands-on work of sewing the text block that started out as an e-book. I'll then take it through the steps of rounding, backing, and trimming, which will get the book to the point that it's ready for casing. Throughout the video I discuss some of the topics that were raised in the comments from Chapter 1, especially regarding some of the available options for printing, typesetting and imposition, so if you missed the first installment you may want to check that out.

For the conclusion of this series I'll make a case for the binding I completed in Chapter 2, using book cloth and my own handmade marbled paper. It doesn't go quite exactly to plan, but I did manage to rescue things, and all in all I'm delighted with how the book turned out. I'll definitely be doing more work on my typesetting and imposition methods for future projects, so be sure to subscribe for updates.