BRP-QSR Bookbinding Practice

[Fitz]

I've been watching a lot of bookbinding videos on YouTube lately, and I thought I'd give it a go. I've done some bookbinding before, but I never really knew what I was doing — I was just guessing really. This is the first time I've actually followed any sort of instruction. In the photo it's sitting splayed out to dry overnight.

It's a very slender volume, just 48 pages (so 24 leaves), roughly A4. The text block is just a double-fan glue binding; I would have liked to try stitching it, but I don't have access to an A3 printer to make folded signatures of this size. The cover is a bradel binding, and I made the book-cloth covering from a scrap of printed cotton, saturated with a paste and acrylic medium mix to give it some stiffness and prevent glue strike-through.

The boards are 3mm grey-board. I could have gone a bit thinner I think; 2mm would have been quite adequate. They've warped a bit with all the glue, and I'll see if they settle down as everything dries out properly. If not, maybe a bit of clamping will help. And if it doesn't... well, it's not the end of the world.

[boneio]

Very nice!

I've vaguely considered trying bookbinding myself, though I need another hobby like I need a hole in the head 

If you do another, WIP pics would be very welcome

[snitcythedog]

We did it in school years ago and it was good fun back then.  Glad to see someone hobbying out of the box. 

[Pattus Magnus]

That looks very sharp!

It could be a way to rehabilitate some older rule books that were made with dodgy bindings, too. GW times from the early ‘90s come to mind. A few years ago, a friend had his softcover copy of Rogue Trader re-bound since the pages were falling out. He had it done up in embossed black leather… a bit over the top, but the binder was a fellow gamer and did the work at cost.