How To Make The Front Of The Journal Flush

[dgreenwood116]

I will try to explain this the best I can without pictures or drawings I’m not home currently to provide them.

 

I was working on a pocket journal and I only have a paper cutter that you can slide 5-8 pieces of paper under at a time to cut. The journal consisted of about 25 leaves, and when I go to put the folded leaves into each other, the previously even ends, are now not even. This is because each page I put in the other pushes the end of that page out the width of the paper further.

 

Now the way I would expect to fix this is by cutting the end with a paper-cutting guillotine. Although the heavy duty ones that are able to cut 50 pages at a time are well above my price range.

 

Does anybody know of a way to fix this problem?

Also the option of putting in multiple leaves is not available since I plan on stapling the paper in.

 

Thanks!

Edited November 16, 2014 by dgreenwood116

[Cryptos]

I was going to suggest multiple leaves, and I still am! Is there a problem with stitching rather than stapling? I know the latter is simpler, but I tried the former for the first time a short while ago and it is surprisingly easy to do,

Edited November 16, 2014 by Cryptos

[linearM]

Go to your local printshop and see if they will cut the paper flush with their guillotine. Or if you have a college in your community with a print room they might do it for you. Or, use a metal straight edge and a utility knife, twenty five pages aren't that many.

[dgreenwood116]

I was going to suggest multiple leaves, and I still am! Is there a problem with stitching rather than stapling? I know the latter is simpler, but I tried the former for the first time a short while ago and it is surprisingly easy to do,

That might just be what I have to do if I can’t find a solution! I sewed one just the other day although with the time compared to stapling I figured I would try to see if anybody might know a way!

[dgreenwood116]

Go to your local printshop and see if they will cut the paper flush with their guillotine. Or if you have a college in your community with a print room they might do it for you. Or, use a metal straight edge and a utility knife, twenty five pages aren't that many.

That's a good ideal! I will have to look around and see if i can find some shop that might do it! If it comes to it i might be able to be meticulous and get it done with at razor knife!

[pendragondragon]

I know this may sound annoying but I had the same problem. So I started cutting 2 sheets at a time, making them slightly shorter with each pair. It took a bit of figuring but I got it to the point where the end is more or less even when I bind.

[ndw76]

You could put the finished block in a book press and use a wood working plane. Or you could file the edge with the block in a book press.

[Plume145]

As far as I know the stonking big copy shop guillotine trimmers are the only sanity-preserving way to do it. Unless you actually enjoy the process of painstakingly cutting out only a few sheets at a time while using great accuracy, but it doesn't sound like that's your cup of tea I can relate, 'cause it isn't mine either!

 

ndw76, I really want to know more about this book press and wood working plane! Can you tell us more? Is this the kind of setup you could have in a home, say a city apartment, or would you need a fully equipped workshop for that? (ie at least a garage workshop sort of setup if not an actual professional workshop). What kind of money does it cost - on par with good home tools such as an electric drill or on par with pro tools? I've been looking for a way to evenly cut more than about 10 sheets of paper at a time without having to rely on the copy shop, but I'm not getting anywhere, and it's been years. So I'd love to know about any possible workarounds...?

[amk]

I haven't tried, but I imagine if you had a good number of screw clamps and two big wooden boards, you could probably use those plus a very sharp plane. Might be worth trying.

[ndw76]

I have to admit that I haven't tried it yet, but intend to once I get a little more money. The book press I saw was made from two wooden chopping boards bolted together with coach bolts and wing nuts. The method I saw on YouTube the pages were sliced a couple of pages at a time. This left a mess. But then the book was put into the book press and once clamped tight a file was used.

 

Also on a documentary about life in the 1500s I saw they used a book press and something that looked like a plane. I imagine that a wood working plane would work just as well.

 

Next month when I have a little more money I'm going to give this a try myself.

[mhguda]

What about gluing instead of binding?

If you have a book block (see post #10) you might try this: fold every sheet independently, then clamp them together. Using white glue and a paint brush (about 1cm wide would be sufficient I think) you paint the glue over the back of the bookblock. Then glue in a piece of paper towel the width of the spine, to provide an anchor.

The one drawback of making your book this way is you will have to be very careful to get it to open fully flat. But if well-glued, it's possible.

You might also want, once the book itself is glued together, make an extra spine cover that also covers (part of) the front and/or back pages. Using either regular or decorative paper. The possibilities are endless.

[GatzBcn]

As it has been said, I also suggest searching for a print shop or a copy shop. They usually have big guillotines and sometimes they can make the cut for a small price.

 

Another option, only if it has few pages, is to put a ruler, press the sheets and cut, cut, cut with the cutter. It may not be as polite, but it still should do.

[rafapa]

I find useful the following video

[dgreenwood116]

I find useful the following video

I actually purchased one of these razor blade rollers just the other day with a intent to try this!

 

My first attempt i pressed really hard and tried to make just one pass to cut all the sheets at once....that didn't work at all. But looking at the video, I think being patient and just rolling it over and over again might work better and I plan to try that!

 

 

 

I have to admit that I haven't tried it yet, but intend to once I get a little more money. The book press I saw was made from two wooden chopping boards bolted together with coach bolts and wing nuts. The method I saw on YouTube the pages were sliced a couple of pages at a time. This left a mess. But then the book was put into the book press and once clamped tight a file was used.

 

Also on a documentary about life in the 1500s I saw they used a book press and something that looked like a plane. I imagine that a wood working plane would work just as well.

 

Next month when I have a little more money I'm going to give this a try myself.

I find this an interesting ideal! I've seen the book blocks before and they look fairly easy to build, i just haven't made the time to build one yet.

 

Although i'm interested in what file and how you could use a file or planer to make it flush. Would the file fray the ends of the page? Though that might actually not be to bad of a look!

Edited November 21, 2014 by dgreenwood116

[Plume145]

What about gluing instead of binding?

If you have a book block (see post #10) you might try this: fold every sheet independently, then clamp them together. Using white glue and a paint brush (about 1cm wide would be sufficient I think) you paint the glue over the back of the bookblock. Then glue in a piece of paper towel the width of the spine, to provide an anchor.

The one drawback of making your book this way is you will have to be very careful to get it to open fully flat. But if well-glued, it's possible.

You might also want, once the book itself is glued together, make an extra spine cover that also covers (part of) the front and/or back pages. Using either regular or decorative paper. The possibilities are endless.

Thanks for this :-) I've been looking for a simple yet non-crummy way to glue-bind, but other than doing it with the same method as making pads I couldn't come up with anything much. Adding the steps of folding the pages and using a spine anchor was the missing link I think. Should make for a more finished result while keeping the simplicity and speed of glue-binding.

[mhguda]

Yes it does and I really like how it worked right the very first time I tried it. I'd been making pads with glued back for years, but they never allowed for folding open flat. Then I had this set of folded sheets and this discussion came up, and I had just made a bookbinders clamping block, and decided to try the glue with an anchor of paper towel. I am now going to try a few more, using diffrent papers.

The one I did opens completely flat everywhere. Wonderful.

[CaptainGroovy]

I have used a good heavy straight edge and a couple of clamps and a fixed blade utility knife with new stanley blades and cut more sheets of paper and matt board then I care to remember.  If you go this route I highly recommend you us only Stanley FatMax utility knife blades they a thinner and much sharper as well as being longer lasting that other utility knife blades.  Stanley also makes a carbide knife blade but they are twice the price and but not twice the performance in my personal opinion.  A couple of days ago on the FPN posting My First Homemade Journal...... FPN member greensparcs posted this YouTube video of of using a "plough" made from a modified chisel that looks interesting and I think I may try when my todo list shortens slightly.                

 

Edited November 23, 2014 by CaptainGroovy

[ndw76]

 

I have used a good heavy straight edge and a couple of clamps and a fixed blade utility knife with new stanley blades and cut more sheets of paper and matt board then I care to remember. If you go this route I highly recommend you us only Stanley FatMax utility knife blades they a thinner and much sharper as well as being longer lasting that other utility knife blades. Stanley also makes a carbide knife blade but they are twice the price and but not twice the performance in my personal opinion. A couple of days ago on the FPN posting My First Homemade Journal...... FPN member greensparcs posted this YouTube video of of using a "plough" made from a modified chisel that looks interesting and I think I may try when my todo list shortens slightly.

 

I tried this edge plough this afternoon and it worked a treat.