over the weekend, pushed myself to persevere to the end to complete my very first homemade handstitched blank journal....


A6 in size. Covered in scrap leather.



View of the spine. Wonder what string to use next time. This thread too fine and not expressive enuf.



Close up of the signatures. I made six of them.



spread opened. Not perfect I know.



testpage with assorted FPs



reverse side of the same testpage. the ink doesn't bleed thru but it can be seen from the reverse side due to transparency of the paper.



As in all self made projects, its always exciting & the feeling of accomplishment is just sweet.

Sweet.

Is the paper that Daler-Rowney stuff?

The book looks sweet indeed.

Hi nice work....was wondering where do you get the leather cover ?
I've always stiched the signature but nothing to cover the notepads.
Thanks

very nice work. seeing that makes me want to make my own journal as well.

The word that springs to my mind is 'badass!'.

nice job!

Nice work! I wish i had the time to do the crafts that I like.

Very nice.

I've made a couple, some hard cover, some soft.

I like to use 100% cotton paper -- no bleed, no feathering. Boring white, but it won't fall apart like the notes my mother made for her pictures all those years ago -- the paper crumbles when I try to flip the pages back and forth! Any good paper will do, and the best part is that you can check for FP friendliness BEFORE you make it!

You can get leather fairly cheaply on eBay, one seller will happily split it for you, so that you can have one very thin epidermis leather (called a pliver) and the other half, now very smooth, called a nubuck or skiver. Both work well for bookbinding.

I've been gluing a standard mull (sort of -- the linen I could find is actually toweling and too thick) down the spine and then to the covers. Much stronger, but stiffer, and no nice stitching showing.

I've used Coptic and "standard" binding sewings, either works well. If you glue a mull ot the spine, it really doesn't matter as you can't see it, but the Coptic allows the journal to lay flat like yours does (something I really like).

I've used heavy nylon upholstery thread, but linen is probable better as it won't fail as quickly.

You will be making more, just like any craft it's kinda addictive....

Peter

Dear Peter ...
Its always great to find someone who shares the same interest, that way , learning gets accelerated from exchanging know-how.

Not to sound patronising, this journal was really touch n go and very amateurish, maybe the photos hide the obvious flaws well.

There are some things I can't find , like mull . I don't know what that is . But can I use , say bandage ? Or Cheesecloth ?

I manage to borrow Keith Smiths books on bookbinding from the local library. (them books seem seldom loaned at all - very newish them books ! I think few pple want to do this)

The book explains well how to do the Coptic stitch but I have yet to figure out , impatience on my part I guess. But more imporatantly , I must get that thick cord first , which frankly I don't know where to buy. I want to do the Coptic srtitch but realized it was a bit too challenging, and I ended up with this journal you saw.

In place of the 'mull' here, I used nylon gauze - wedding veil material - and as you can see, it doesn't adhere . Hence I decided to stitch thru the signatures right thru to the leather.

Leathers from eBay , ya , I once tried to buy Bullfrog hide long ago before I discovered bookbinding, small hide but beautiful . But no reply from seller. So I was really puzzled and lost steam after that.

Any advice? Just point me in the general direction. Appreciate that.

Ah, the key is glue...

You can use any fabric for the mull and for the binding ribbons (they go under a set of stitches, then the mull goes over them). It nees to be fairly strong and fairly thin -- cheesecloth is the right thickness, but way too weak. It's there to hold the covers on, so that if you drop the book (yes, I know you never do anything like that!), the end paper won't rip and leave you with an uncovered book. Old cotton/polyester cloth like bedsheets that have been retired works well, or you could search the fabric stores for some remnants of lightweight cotton in plain or twill weave. Traditional mull is rather open to make it thinner and much less obvious, and you can buy it from a bookbinding supply store if you want, it's still used all the time.

Best glue I've found so far is ordinary Elmers PVA glue. It's archival in that it won't damage paper, and it doesn't get brittle like hide glue does (it doesn't stink, either!). You can spread it fairly easily, too. You can buy "proper" glue from the same sources as the mull.

You should also investigate a "book press" -- I use a pair of deep C-clamps and a pair of boards. A bit unhandy, but far better than a loose binding, I've found.

Best way to assemble the book is to sew the signatures however you want, then line them all up nice a square in your improvised book press, clamp down with a bit of the spine sticking out (getting everything all neat and square is the hard part here), then coat the exposed spine with a thin layer of glue, allow to partly dry, apply more glue, and press the mull onto the wet glue. Thin layers -- you don't want a thick, stiff spine. Once it dries, you can unclamp the book and glue the endpapers to the mull (and ribbons if you used them), then glue the endpapers to the cover. You can glue the spine to the cover, or not (I prefer to leave it free), etc.

Coptic stitch binding requires either a hard cover or a fairly rigid strip of something to replace the cover. This is because the stitch goes out of the holes in the signatures, around something, and back into the same hole. One the first signature, this must be a cover or something rigid enough to hold the book together, on the rest of the signatures, it's the previous loop coming out of the holes. I used a strip of silk bandage tape stuck to thick paper, and trapped a length of my sewing thread under each loop. For the last signature, I used another strip of silk tape and sewed through it at each chain stitch, again to keep the cover attached. I then glued the paper to the cover.

I used a standard "out of one signature into another and back" stitch on later journals, but they don't lie as flat.

The materials are pretty cheap, it keeps me off the streets, and it's not really messy, unlike car repairs -- I just spent $1500 in parts, and will be covered in black oil for a week putting a new cylinder head on my Mercedes deisel for my vacation in the next couple weeks!

Peter

For sewing the signatures together, you can use "artificial sinew". This is thin nylon ribbon (like really heavy dental floss). It comes in a "natural" light brown color, as well as other primary colors. Tandy Leather Co. sells it. Other leather crafting supply outlets stock it also.

Another really heavy synthetic thread is the stuff used to make bowstrings. You can get this at an archery shop or online at 3-Rivers Archery. It comes in several colors and is pre-waxed. You would probably want the polyester string called "B50". The string called "fastflight" is smaller in diameter and more expensive.

Paddler

Dear Peter ...
Tks for taking the time to describe ... quite a mouthful (handful) ...

Ok ...
PVA glue - check
C - clamps - Check
Boards - check
mull - ? have to do some scouting around

yr paragraph on Coptic stitch is heavy going for me, trying visualize what u mean. will research more.

yup much neater than repairing yr car . Here, we don't even have time (nor the guts) to do that.

I am still wondering whats the proper way to sew the signatures together. I did it the trial and error way, all the while making sure I have a journal that'll open flat and stay that way. My signatures are full of holes. But they open flat !

Another separate thread here in this forum just gave me an idea. .... He was looking for a blank book block to use his leftover leather cover.

Why not make our own leather sleeve cover that will receive our own handsewn 'book block' ? Something very much like a passport holder sleevetype of cover.

So the question here is how to sew leather together. Simple stitching. But I got no leather sewing machine. Will a normal sewing machine do? I don't even sew !

(i think th emoderator may just remove this thread for getting off topic. Sorry.)

Oh , hey ...!

Another idea ...

while we are at it, why not make a few single penpouches too in leather ? ! That'll be fun. (unless this is already an old idea)

http://www.trumpetvine.com/sketchblog/moleskine-reloaded/

I managed to learn the Coptic (I think it's Coptic) from here but still use those PVC note holders to hold the books as I don't have ventured into covers.
A very clear illustration and explaination.

Your journal looks very nice!

I can vouch for the excellent coptic stitch instructions at the trumpetvine link, btw-- I "reloaded" an old pocket Moleskine with Clairefontaine Triomphe paper, which makes me happy since now it takes FP ink without a hitch.

I will probably try Crane's cotton paper the next time, and follow the rest of the instructions properly.

(I didn't use glue or round the corners, so in all it took me a little over an hour to do, that on top of having to add thread and start over halfway through...oy.)

I am a newbie and this may have been mentioned, but there is a group of people who make journals they call 'hedgehogs' and they have all sorts of advice about paper, bindings, sewing, and sources. I 'ran' into them from the 'notebookism' site.

How about the strings the leather workers or cobblers use...
I use those made in china ones...they look bronze in color

OK ... this is my 2nd handmade book and my 1st attempt at a coptic stitch. Following the link showing how to do the coptic stitch.

I tried out only 3 signatures first. Each one 20 pages.



Opened. I used Conqueror paper. Vellum. Cream colored. 90g/sqm. Folded into A6 size. The stitch allows it to stay flat open.


I folded teh extra paper over the edges.


Overall view. I like the distressed effect of the paper.


I presented it to my son . I hope he uses it and don't keep it empty for that wd be a waste.

I plan to do a 5 or 6 signature book, now that I have more confidence. Only thing I am still unclear how to do the cover.

Sorry it took so long to answer.

The seller is uncle-george.

The descriptions are a bit overdone, but the leather is quite nice. He will split any regular hide down for you for $5 up to half a hide (35 sq ft).

There are also some VERY nice cowhides on the 'bay at the moment for very reasonable prices -- if I hadn't spent so much on pens already this year, I'd grab that 3 sq ft burgundy one at $75 without taking a breath first.

That's 10 ft by 6 ft -- medium rug size.

Most binding leather is 1 oz per square foot or less, but to have one split you might need it to be at least 3 oz so that you get something off the back, they can be somewhat shreddy otherwise.

Believe me, a full hide at 65 + square foot is HUGE -- I had to clear the living room to cut out the leather for my car seats the other year!

Peter

Deleted by James Pickering

ya know, i was just thinking, and it might be a good idea to make and sell fountain pen friendly journals in the marketplace. some people dont want to take the time to make their own, or like me, cant find/afford all the materials [however cheap they are, its not cheap enough for me right now, i assure you].

a nicely made, reasonably priced journal, id buy one. plus it may inspire me to make my own later on when i get some money in my pockets.

Deleted by James Pickering

Deleted by James Pickering

Hi All ...
Found another sort of free Saturday today and made my third homemade journal.

This time its Conqueror paper as mentioned earlier. Cream colored. 100gsm. A4 cut into half then folded into Signatures that are A6 sized.
They are coptic stitched (as before) with 100% linen thread. (couldn't find somethiing nicer and thicker)


Flyleaves being prepared. 'Basic Grey' motifs. (made to look distressed)
Then cut out and pasted onto the signatures, inside front and inside rear.


This time managed to buy a huge piece of leather at a $bargain. Cognac colour.


This time I also made a pocket to be pasted onto the rear inside cover.


Glued the leather onto the flyleaves.


Glued the pocket onto the rear inside cover too.


The finished product. With a DT Densho RE ED for scale.




The leather is 0.8 -1mm thick. I couldn't find the specially thin ones for books. But its real soft.

Need some advice though...
How do I get rid or seal away the leather fibres along all the edges?

Do you glue the spine to the leather too? I did not. I did the coptic stitch cos I wanted it to open flat. I didn't glue a mull to the spine too. (I know its a no-no)

But I am happy with the paper cos its definitely FP friendly.

Any advice on how to do a better cover for my next (4th) journal?

Wow, that really does look great! Very tidy (although I have no experience). About how long did it take you to make? Did you use a guillotine to cut the paper? Is the cover flexible or reinforced, it looks quite flexible?