Besides making books and teaching, bookbinding tools are one of my passions. Ten years ago, I’ve made my first presses, sewing frames and wooden folders. That happened almost simultaneously with binding my first book.
You’ve got a chance to buy 1 of the 3 remaining Scout Model Cantilevered Sewing Frames from Timothy C. Ely.
Several days ago I was approached by a woman, whose grandfather was an amateur bookbinder in Soviet times. He left her some bookbinding stuff no one in the family is obviously is going to use. She didn’t even want to sell the stuff, just to pass it to someone, who could put it to good use.
I had my personal happy moment today. Several days ago, I received my first order from Australia. As usual, I went to my workshop on Thursday and made the rounding tool I had to send. And today it was shipped!
On the photo above you may see a punching cradle made by Missy Bosch. Last week I have received it as a gift from her and today I had a chance to try it.
From today and until the end of Cyber Monday I’m offering a 30% discount on all bookbinding equipment I sell at my Bonefolder.Club Etsy store. To get the discount use the code: YL7CH
I’ve been selling this simple sewing frame for almost two years now. Initially it was even simpler. I wanted to have a cheap and fast in production sewing frame to give to my students at Bookbinding 101 class. Production cost for the version 0.1 was $15-20.
I love my students. They are smart. They are creative and inventive. They listen (and do not listen) and they always try to do their best. Yesterday I had another wonderful class, and I’m in a wonderful mood once again =)
My bookbinding workshop now is located in the same room with my woodworking workshop. This offers some benefits and has its drawbacks. The one major problem is omnipresent wood dust. It is the reason I want to make map cabinets for my bookbinding materials as soon as possible.
Several weeks ago, I wrote about my first experience with soft weights. I had to construct a fake curved spine for a box. It is not possible to use flat weights to press a rounded surface and I had to find some other solution. On our kitchen, I found two synthetic fiber bags and filled them with rice and buckwheat seeds. It worked!
Oh, that feeling, when you plan to make or do something for a long time and save it for later just because you don’t really need it? That was the case with soft weights for me.
What I truly love about bookbinding (woodworking, other crafts) is that there is always a chance to experiment, find some new tricks, small hacks and create strange jigs. Currently I’m working on a couple of large boxes (for dolls) designed to resemble books. The project brought me a lot of fun, and I plan to share all of it in time =)
Looks like someone has a lot spare time and that someone is me. Yesterday I’ve spent an hour and a half wrapping handles of my newly made lying press with a rope. I know, I know, usually you can see something like wooden handles. But I don’t have a lathe in my workshop (yet). I had some old handles made with bare steel nuts and I thought: why don’t give that idea a chance?
I’ve took my time before posting something new at iBookBinding.com. There are lots of topics I would like to cover, but April is traditionally a busy month for me and the first days of May I’ve spent organizing my small woodworking workshop. For a long time, I wanted to make different bookbinding tools and now it is becoming a reality.
Several weeks ago I have ordered 3 mm thick 20×20 cm (77⁄8” x 77⁄8“) Bakelite sheet from China (you can easily find them at Amazon.com, eBay or AliExpress) to experiment a little with Bakelite folders. I almost always use bone folders and make wooden or laminate wood folders for my students (cheap and fast, you know).
