The Harrington Bindery

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 took up a project for a carpenter friend of mine that includes a matched set of books. One will be used as his personal sketchbook, the other a portfolio. As I was working on the design and layout of the portfolio I realized I didn't have a very good method for making guards consistently. ( side note, the method described below is one I came up with organically by working at my bench. Considering the ease in which it makes perfectly sized guards I'd be surprised if I was the first to come up with it but I wasn't able to find any other instructions online to describe the technique I employed.) Tools needed: Knife - olfa, x acto or sharpened bench knife Slightly sharpened bone folder Steel rule set - I found them to be an indispensable tool here. Cutting mat The basic idea is that three dividers/rulers can be used so that no manual measuring and marking will be needed in the making of the guards. In this example I am making ½” guards; strips ...