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Fine Bookbinding

Over the past couple of years I've been teaching myself a more traditional form of bookbinding using leather covers. Once the leather is on the book, I use antique brass stamps, heated up and pressed into the covers and spine — sometimes with gold foil, sometimes just blind. It's been a fun learning curve.

Overview

In 2023 I realized I needed more creative hobbies, ones that weren't just consumption (media, products, etc). I wanted a challenge, so I decided to try to level up my bookbinding skills. The result is that I've steadily built a collection of equipment that is both physically and monetarily hefty. You might say that I'm in too deep to ever give it up. But few things are more enjoyable than losing ones' self for hours stamping decorations in book covers.

A miniature dark navy leather book with a gold-tooled floral border and an oval PO monogram stamped on the cover The spine of the navy leather book, showing gold-tooled floral sprays and a starred border running along the raised bands The spine of a green leather book gold-stamped with the year 2025 between floral tooling and gilt bands A dark green leather book cover gold-tooled with MEMENTO above a skull and crossbones and MORI below, bordered in stars A green leather book cover tooled with a diamond lattice border framing three gold-stamped crowns of increasing size stacked down the center The spine of a green leather book gold-tooled with 20 and 25 separated by floral devices between raised bands A burgundy leather book cover blind-tooled, with no gold, in a diamond lattice pattern centered on a six-petaled star flower Two burgundy leather books lying spine-up, each blind-tooled with a diamond lattice and a small flower medallion A burgundy leather book standing upright with its blind-tooled diamond cover and a black ribbon marker trailing from the pages A hand-sewn text block on a wooden sewing frame, folded signatures stitched onto cloth sewing tapes A small book block clamped in a brass finishing press for rounding and backing, resting on a cutting mat A green leather spine being laced onto its boards with cord on a wooden finishing press, the cords crossing in an X pattern A navy leather spine laced onto its boards on the finishing press, cord wrapped tightly around the raised bands A sewn text block with cloth tapes resting on the workbench, glue and a bookplate box visible in the background

Tools

In order to decorate the covers, I use a variety of stamps made of brass. They get heated up and pressed into the leather, which creates the marks you see. Many of the stamps (called finishing tools) I own are upwards of 100 years old. Some are even 200! The age can be estimated if the tool has a maker's mark on the shank. It's humbling to know that I'm working with the same equipment used by book binders for generations. I felt they needed proper storage, so I converted an antique sewing box I found on Marketplace to do the job.

The open antique sewing box, refinished and fitted with felt-lined compartments holding rows of brass finishing stamps and hammers The refinished wooden sewing box closed, showing its dovetailed sides and carved carrying handle The sewing box open at an angle, its two lids spread to reveal the compartments of brass stamps and tools inside A wide view of the open sewing box with both lids spread flat, rows of tools and stamps packed inside
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