Book binding

Exerpt from How To Make Your Own Book By Harvey Weiss

Binding: Stapling and Sewing
The term ‘binding’ is sometimes used to describe the cover of a book. For example, you might refer to a book as having a binding of leather, or being bound in linen. But binding also means the act of attaching many pages to one another to produce a book. For example, if you are stapling pages together asdescribed below you are binding a book. There are several different ways to bind a book. The two most common ones are explained here. Stapling al pages to exactly the same size. Pile them up. Then staple down along one edge. That's all there is to it. The staples may not look very neat and this edge of your book may have a somewhat unfinished look. But this can be easily fixed by pressing on a piece ofcloth adhesive tape over the bound edge. This tape is strong and sticks well. It comes in a roll and can be found in mloth adhesive tape over the bound edge. This tape is stost art or stationery stores. A common brand name is Mystik tape. It comes in various widths and in many beautiful, bright colors. A 2-inch width is best for our purposes. Another way to hide the staples is by attaching aseparate cover as explained in the chapter on Covers. There are two disadvantages to this kind of binding. One is that the finished book will never open up completely. The staples are pinching it closed along the bound edge. You can't lay the book down on a table and have it stay flat unless you hold it down with your hands. The other difficulty is that there is a limit to how many sheets of paperthe stapler will fasten. The heavier the paper the fewer sheets you can use. If your book is very small (about 3 inches wide) you can make it out of four-page sections and staple the sections together through the fold. This will take care of the two difficulties, but a 3-inch-wide book has very limited uses. (It is a size for pocket memos, tiny pictures, short poems, etc.) There are specialstaplers which have a very long arm. These will let you staple through the fold of a normal size book. But such staplers are rather hard to find and not worth buying unless you plan to go into the bookmaking business. Sewing This is a neater and more permanent way to bind a book. It is suitable for a hundred pages or for eight pages. A book that is bound this way is" center-sewn." The drawings on thenext page show how it is done. If you are sewing only a few pages together you can use a plain, heavy, button thread. But if you are binding

a rather large book, or making a book that you expect will get hard use or using heavy paper it would be a good idea to use a really heavy, strong thread, doubled up if necessary. I have always used a thin, braided nylon fishing line which is calledsquidding line. It looks nice and is almost unbreakable. Any fisherman is liable to have some. (Three or four feet is enough for several books.) Or you can buy a roll in any sporting goods store. Get the thinnest. (Don't use the glassy-looking monofilament fishing line which is hard to knot.) When several four-page sections have been sewn together you'll find that the pages which are in the center willtend to project out slightly beyond the outer pages as shown below. This is of no consequence if you are making a book of only twenty or thirty pages. But if your book uses heavy paper and there are many pages you may

prefer the edges flush and even. In this case you will have to do a little trimming. Use a metal ruler and a single-edge razor, or a very sharp knife. Press down hard on theruler so that the paper won't shift. Take your time and make as many passes with the blade as necessary. This is a rather delicate operation and must be done carefully. But when you are through the entire book will have a neat, professional look and you will no doubt decide it was worth the effort.

It is possible to sew together individual pages, as well as four-page sections. However you can't...