The Harrington Bindery

The K-118 binding structure is a hand bookbinding technique that I started experimenting with about a year ago. It promises reliable, easily opened books without 'Backing' the mechanical folding of sections of pages onto themselves at the spine. It uses oversized parchment spine liners that are glued, worked into the spine and subsequently interlaced with beveled cover boards. I find that at this point in the process (as shown) the book is very stable, the last picture above is an early example of this binding style I attempted, put aside, then promptly forgot about only to rediscover it last weekend - a year later. This is due in part to the fact that all of the structural components of the book are already in place. To say it a different way, the covering material is not counted on to be structural, though I have found that particularly thick leathers (4 oz+) will undoubtedly impede the opening slightly. Is it an exaggeration to love the K-118 style? For me, I don...

Over the past spring I designed this blank for a very close friend. Fitted around a mechanical engineers front shirt pocket this tiny volume needed to be exceptionally strong and as hard wearing as the owner. A 4 oz goat skin covering leather is minimally paired to provide the requested, slightly limited, flexibility, 10 x 10 1 inch grid custom designed and printed on Mohawk supper fine 25% cotton paper. End papers are custom printed turn of the century images of the city of Worcester MA.

Mid way through working on a commissioned set of books for a carpenter friend of mine I came across a binding style referred to as the K-118 by Bruce Levy who wrote about and bench tested the structure. The K-118 structure piqued my interest immediately due to its remarkable flexibility and full access to the gutter. I originally tested the structure on a collection of books, articles and transcribed lectures on bookbinding that I digitally compiled into a single document and printed in signatures. The basics of the structure are a text block sewn on velum strips, tapes or cords in a manor to keep swelling to a minimum. The block is rounded but not backed and covers are shaped on the spine edge to continue the arch of the round of the block. Covers are attached and the spine is lined with velum cut to fit in between the supports and three times longer than the width of the spine. The excess velum on ether side of the book is cut into thirds and the outer two sections are attached to ...

I determined that a Springback album I was making for the carpenter wasn't going to work. At all. But thats okay. After this was determined I was able to pull off the covers, spring, and spine linings.  See that Here.  What I was left with was the sewn block that had an exaggerated round with no swell and also sewn in end bands.  I chose the Springback structure for this project because of its inherent ability to throw the pages out and allow them to lie flat with full access to the gutter. It is able to accomplish this without forgoing spine liners, hard covers or other design and strength elements that I wanted or needed to include for a pair of books this size. Part way through this project I read an article about the K-118 structure and further research led me to write  a bit about it and start sewing together a text I had to serve as my introduction to the style. What struck me about the K-118 structure originally, besides its natural flexibilit...

A project I have been working on over the winter and coming into the spring is a set (pair?) of books, one a sketchbook and one an album. The pieces are part of a trade I set up with a good friend and master carpenter in exchange for a proper bench in which to bind books on. The idea at first to was have a twin set matching in style and decoration. The two were worked in almost parallel but the sketchbook was the first to be ready for covering material and besides a necessary modification of the spring, you can see it here. It caused no issues and functioned pretty close to what I expected. The album is made from the same one hundred percent cotton paper as the sketchbook. Its construction features the use of loose guards sewn alternating with the full folios in a ratio of 3:2. The intention to create a spring back led me to sew the pages to four stations of double 1/2" linen tapes. Once the sewing was complete the levers were formed with card stock, paper and the sewing suppo...

Recently I came across what is referred to as the K 118 binding style, named so for the bindery in which it is believed to have come from. Bound in approximately 1493 in the city of Nuremberg and from all I can tell seem to be the only historical examples that exist to have been photographed. Its structure intrigued me because it seems to allow for an incredible amount of flexibility in the spine allowing for the creation of books that opened flat, had no wasted space in the gutter and did not sacrifice quality construction to achieve these ends (as is the usual case these days). Its principle elements seem relatively simple to deal with. Sewing is on supports, but cords or tapes can be chosen. Rounding is pronounced or excessive by some standards. The combination of thread thickness, gathering size and amount of round should be so, as to eliminate swell once finished. Boards are rounded on the outside of the spine edge to extend the round on the spine and the sewing supports are at...