To cover the unsightly skeleton you’ve created so far, you’ll now cover the exterior of the boards with a single piece of decorative paper, which will wrap around the front cover, back cover, and spine. To accommodate this wrap, use your utility knife slit the mull by 1/2″ where the covers meet the spine at both the head and foot edges; doing so creates room to slide the paper’s turnovers over the edges of both the covers and the boards.
Now, you’re ready for your paper. Pick a piece of decorative paper or cloth that suits your project. It should be thin enough to fold easily (I’ve learned the hard way how hard leather and thick cloth are to work with) but strong enough to hold up to glue and wear. The piece you use should be large enough to more than cover your front cover, back cover, and spine.
Lay your cover paper face down and use your carpenter’s square and pencil to measure and mark the placement of your boards. Allow a 1/2″ (or the thickness of four boards) turnover (the area of paper that extends beyond the edge of the board, which you will turn over to finish the edge) for all edges and 1/4″ (or the thickness of two boards for each hinge (the area between the spine and cover).
Attach the spine to the cover paper where marked by brushing the paper with glue, positioning the spine board, and pressing firmly. Turn the paper over and rub the paper with your bone folder to secure the spine to the paper and gently mold the paper over the edges of the board.
Next, attach the front cover board. Brush the area you’ve marked with glue, working from the center outward to just over the line and slightly into the turnovers and hinge. Position the board precisely between your marks and press down firmly. Turn the book over and rub down the exterior of the cover with your bone folder, pressing from the inside out to remove any air bubbles or wrinkles.
Now, it’s time to attach the backboard. Apply the glue in the same way you brushed it on for the front cover. To position the board without creating any creases or wrinkles, hold the back cover board with one hand and lay its fore edge down on the paper, lining it up to meet your mark for that edge. With your other hand, pinch the paper to the board on that edge, and slowly work your hand along the back of the book, pressing the paper to the board as you go.
Turn the book over and rub down the back cover with the bone folder, just as you did with the front cover, working the folder into the hinge to seal the paper to your book block around the spine. Turn the book over again and work the folder into the hinge of the front cover.
Wrap the book in wax paper and press for a half hour in your press, vice, or under heavy weights.
Before folding the turnovers, you’ll need to miter the corners, removing the excess paper at the tip of the corner to prevent an unsightly (and potentially damaging, over time) bulge where the head (or foot) and fore edge fold over each other. Use your ruler and pencil to make a mark 1/4″ out from the corner of the board. Draw a line at a 45-degree and cut away the excess to create your miter. Miter the remaining three corners in the same way.
You’re almost done. It’s time to fold over the turnovers. Lay the book open and brush a sparing amount of glue across the length of the head turnover. Folding this turnover can be a bit tricky. Stand the book up on its foot edge and use your fingers to gently roll the edges of the head turnover over the top of the board, working from the spine out toward the fore edges. You might need to use your bone folder to work the paper into the spine, since this area might be a little tight, even though you’ve slit the mull to accommodate the paper (without doing so would have made this step impossible). Do the same for the foot edge.
Before pasting the turnovers on the fore edges, apply a small amount of glue in the crease at the corners and fold over a small portion of paper to create a neat hem. Doing so keeps the paper seam away from the edge of the book and covered by the endsheets.
Brush the first fore edge with glue, fold the turnover, press it firmly, and smooth out any wrinkles or air bubbles.
Use your bone folder to tap each of the corners to make them a little blunt. Removing the sharp edges will help protect the book from wear of sliding it on and off shelves.
Lay sheets of scrap paper between the cover boards and your book block of signatures, and press under heavy weights overnight.
Navigation:
- Introduction
- Strip the Existing Cover
- Create Signatures
- Prepare Signatures for Stitching
- Stitch the Signatures
- Glue the Spine
- Build Cover Boards
- Attach the Cover Boards
- Cover the Cover
- Finish Up
The biggest source of traffic (by far) to my humble blog has been the expanded version of my DIY Bookbinding article, which originally appeared in Make magazine, Volume 5. If you’ve seen it here before, I hope you’ve found it useful. Given its popularity, I decided it was time to finish what I’d always had in mind for it: to make it look nice in InDesign and distribute it as an ebook. My employer thought it was a good idea too, and now my baby is all growed up. It is finally available at a reasonable price as a pretty 32-page PDF, an intentionally convenient length (32 pages is an even signature) suitable for printing and binding on your own.
Anonymous, 
Kristen, 
madeline, and 
Dave, 
dusky, 
agreatguy6 are discussing. 
leahpeah 9:43 pm on March 20, 2007 Permalink | Log in to Reply
hey – this is great, brian! thanks! so many fun books to try.
Sonja 1:25 am on March 21, 2007 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Oh, thanks for linking my website! I’ll link yours too soon
Sonja from Germany
Sanjoli 2:43 am on March 21, 2007 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Wow. Lovely books!
Brian Sawyer 7:14 am on March 21, 2007 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Sonja: You already have.
Jackie 10:18 am on March 21, 2007 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Brian,
Thanks for this great list of links.
Just wanted to let you know that I have an bunch of free downloadable bookbinding tutorials over on my site at http://www.tjbookarts.com. Please check them out.
Jackie
Brian Sawyer 10:23 am on March 21, 2007 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Jackie, thanks for stopping by and sharing your great links. Bookmarking your page now!
em 10:35 am on March 21, 2007 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Brian,
Thank you for this great resource.
Several years ago, I was speaking at B & N and they were willing to let me bring in my self-bound books. I had attended my local book-binding and calligraphy guild and would have loved to have my books self-crafted that way, but for this ‘commercial topic’, it was not appropriate or possible.
So, I chose Abico’s very unique ‘clamp-style’ metal spiral bindings, got their machine and spent my creative-effort on the unique, enticing cover (and of course, the books contents, too).
I was frustrated when I was seeing my books at the University Bookstores which carried them, as on the shelf, this binding does not provide a readable spine.
There, I also saw a few other commercially-bound books which had a “new” form (then) where spiral bindings had the outer-diameter of the spiral wrapped-over and connected to front and back cover (there’s undoubtedly a business name for this binding … do you know it?). This provided a place for the title to be on the spine and seen when books were on the shelf, yet the book remained capable of being fully-flat when opened.
Can you shed any light about how to make this binding or specific sites which might be helpful?
I also hope that you will visit my blog, as its information is for everyone … either for treatment or for prevention!
http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com
Best to all,
Em