How to get a notebook made if I supply the paper?

[ScottT]

I have posted about my long discontinued (Exaclair/Exacompta) sketchbook with silver gilt edge, which used G. Lalo de Verge paper, and how much I considered it the perfect notebook for me.  I still have not found a substitute, and am currently using a Clairefontaine 1951, with a Webbie following it probably.  But as I was going over my stationery supplies (not a vast endeavour as some here), I looked at the pads of de Verge I had and wondered why I had never asked the simple question I ask now:

"Is there any way I can remove the paper from the pad and have it bound in a notebook?"  I would use two pads of paper, so 100 sheets total.

 

Is this a workable idea?  Any thoughts/help/advice very welcome, thanks.

 

-Scott

Edited November 26 by ScottT
added Exacompta

[Penguincollector]

  Amazon sells spiral notebook makers, @USG has used one with great success. I know Greystorm Studio makes bespoke journals, it might be worth emailing them. Maybe Paper Penguin Co. or @Keyless Works’s Paper Mind can help. I don’t know what the Exacompta sketchbook looks like, so this is just me blindly recommending notebook making equipment or makers.

[USG]

Hi Scott

 

Thank you to the fabulous @Penguincollector for tagging me.

 

It's super easy to make your own notebooks with what ever paper you want.

 

I started making my own notebooks because I couldn't find Cosmo Snow, Iroful or Tomoe River-S paper in twin ring or spiral notebooks.

 

Recently I shared some Canopus paper with a few forum members and made a notebook for myself with what was left.

 

I took apart the Canopus notebook, and cut the attached edge off the pages with a paper cutter.  Punched the holes and added the twin rings  with a Binding machine from Amazon.  Easy Peasy.

 

CLICK TO ENLARGE

 

 

[A Smug Dill]

17 hours ago, ScottT said:

"Is there any way I can remove the paper from the pad and have it bound in a notebook?"  I would use two pads of paper, so 100 sheets total.

 

Frankly, I don't get it. The options are ‘always’ going to be: ❶ DIY, and take the risk of failing, or ❷ pay a professional bookbinder, however much it takes, to get it done the way you like it even if it may cost more than what you want to pay as a consumer and/or not be considered good value-for-money. Bookbinding is not a new invention or skill, just a specialised one.

[AmandaW]

DIY perfect binding doesn't need much by way of equipment or skill. Just take care. And make a practice one with paper that's not so special.

 

 

 

[RedPie]

40 minutes ago, AmandaW said:

DIY perfect binding doesn't need much by way of equipment or skill. Just take care. And make a practice one with paper that's not so special.

 

 

 

Thank you very much!

[inkstainedruth]

I actually took a bookbinding workshop at someone's house a number of years ago.  Not sure what I did with the book I made, but was really proud of myself (don't remember now what I even used the book for, if anything).  Then, a couple of years later, she and a friend of mine were putting together a book where local scribes could show off their work; if you did a "commission" you could also do a page of your own choice.  I did the embroidery for the cover (done on needlepoint canvas), and for my pages I did a quote my husband commissioned of a funny sign we saw in someone's kitchen, and then a quote from some medieval-era story). 

Unfortunately, I don't know if the project was ever finished....  The person in charge apparently got bored (after being shocked and amazed when I got her the cover "fabric" in a timely fashion).  Her former student then palmed it off on a student of her own, who palmed it off on someone else, who then made some snarky comment about me about the "Oh, you mean the baronial PAMPHLET project?".... 

One of these days I need to ask the son of the person who came up with the project if he's in touch with his mom.  The project was so long ago that he was maybe 12 -- and now he's an adult who is married with three kids of his own, and retired last year from the Air Force....  And is now running our "camp" at the big camping event every year about 45 minutes north of us....  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ScottT]

On 11/26/2025 at 12:16 AM, Penguincollector said:

  Amazon sells spiral notebook makers, @USG has used one with great success. I know Greystorm Studio makes bespoke journals, it might be worth emailing them. Maybe Paper Penguin Co. or @Keyless Works’s Paper Mind can help. I don’t know what the Exacompta sketchbook looks like, so this is just me blindly recommending notebook making equipment or makers.

 

My fault, I should have been more specific and mentioned I didn't care for spiral binding, but rather the kind found on the sketchbook, 

if that is possible?  

I will check into Greystorm studio and the others, thanks!

(Getting recommendations for equipment and makers was exactly what I was seeking, so thanks again.)

[ScottT]

23 hours ago, USG said:

Hi Scott

 

Thank you to the fabulous @Penguincollector for tagging me.

 

It's super easy to make your own notebooks with what ever paper you want.

 

I started making my own notebooks because I couldn't find Cosmo Snow, Iroful or Tomoe River-S paper in twin ring or spiral notebooks.

 

Recently I shared some Canopus paper with a few forum members and made a notebook for myself with what was left.

 

I took apart the Canopus notebook, and cut the attached edge off the pages with a paper cutter.  Punched the holes and added the twin rings  with a Binding machine from Amazon.  Easy Peasy.

 

CLICK TO ENLARGE

 

 

That is some great info.  I tend to stay away from spiral bound, maybe because I'm a southpaw, but possibly if the rings were small enough?  Food for thought, thank you.

[ScottT]

17 hours ago, AmandaW said:

DIY perfect binding doesn't need much by way of equipment or skill. Just take care. And make a practice one with paper that's not so special.

 

 

 

Great video!  A bit beyond me at the moment, but a great watch and very informative, thanks!

[USG]

3 minutes ago, ScottT said:

That is some great info.  I tend to stay away from spiral bound, maybe because I'm a southpaw, but possibly if the rings were small enough?  Food for thought, thank you.

Hi Scott

I was after a specific type of notebook where the used pages would flip around to the back maintaining an A5 size.

I see it may not be what you’re looking for but  as a leftie, you could put the rings on the top. 😀👍

[ScottT]

12 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

I actually took a bookbinding workshop at someone's house a number of years ago.  Not sure what I did with the book I made, but was really proud of myself (don't remember now what I even used the book for, if anything).  Then, a couple of years later, she and a friend of mine were putting together a book where local scribes could show off their work; if you did a "commission" you could also do a page of your own choice.  I did the embroidery for the cover (done on needlepoint canvas), and for my pages I did a quote my husband commissioned of a funny sign we saw in someone's kitchen, and then a quote from some medieval-era story). 

Unfortunately, I don't know if the project was ever finished....  The person in charge apparently got bored (after being shocked and amazed when I got her the cover "fabric" in a timely fashion).  Her former student then palmed it off on a student of her own, who palmed it off on someone else, who then made some snarky comment about me about the "Oh, you mean the baronial PAMPHLET project?".... 

One of these days I need to ask the son of the person who came up with the project if he's in touch with his mom.  The project was so long ago that he was maybe 12 -- and now he's an adult who is married with three kids of his own, and retired last year from the Air Force....  And is now running our "camp" at the big camping event every year about 45 minutes north of us....  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

You had me at 'baronial PAMPHLET project", the lack of courtesy of some folk is just astounding.    

[ScottT]

3 minutes ago, USG said:

Hi Scott

I was after a specific type of notebook where the used pages would flip around to the back maintaining an A5 size.

I see it may not be what you’re looking for but  as a leftie, you could put the rings on the top. 😀👍

 

That is a fantastic idea, hmm, I am picturing myself writing with it like a steno book or upside down so the rings are just at the bottom.  Honestly there are times that the southpaw thing is so very inconvenient, but your idea, wonderful!

[Chris1]

My grandfather used to make, or rather bind, his own books so as to keep magazines in good condition. He was a cabinet maker by trade and so I suppose he had the necessary tools to hand, namely a vice or clamps, some small saws, fine drill bits, glue, threads and needles and planes of various sizes. 

 

It is something that is not impossible to do at home with minimal equipment and a study of the various videos available to view, though I've not tried to do it myself. 

[inkstainedruth]

10 hours ago, ScottT said:

 

You had me at 'baronial PAMPHLET project", the lack of courtesy of some folk is just astounding.    

Yeah, especially when "courtesy" is supposed to be one of the things we strive for in the SCA.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ScottT]

15 hours ago, Chris1 said:

My grandfather used to make, or rather bind, his own books so as to keep magazines in good condition. He was a cabinet maker by trade and so I suppose he had the necessary tools to hand, namely a vice or clamps, some small saws, fine drill bits, glue, threads and needles and planes of various sizes. 

 

It is something that is not impossible to do at home with minimal equipment and a study of the various videos available to view, though I've not tried to do it myself. 

 

That's handy, to have all that equipment at the ready if you ever need it for something else like that.

I agree, it doesn't seem impossible, I just have a few obstacles to overcome before I even attempted something like that, that's all.

[ScottT]

14 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Yeah, especially when "courtesy" is supposed to be one of the things we strive for in the SCA.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

I heard about that group in college..one of those things I always meant to investigate and life got in the way.  How long have you been a member?

[inkstainedruth]

Since the fall of 1981, my last year in college.  I was off the meal plan and buying the local newspaper on Wednesday to get coupons and recipes and saw a blurb about an event the next town over (I had seen a flyer posted in the English Department lounge as a freshman and thought, "Oh, people who put on medieval banquets?  That sound cool!" -- had been to one a few years before on a trip to England with my parents that was in a hotel in London the last night we were there -- but then looking at the flyer more carefully was going, "Oh -- it's not on campus...).

So figured out that I could get to the thing a few years later on a local bus, and just showed up.  And someone lent me stuff to wear, and someone else got me into the feast at the church hall across the street from the park where the day site had been, and then later dragged me up to meet the (then) King and Queen.

Then after I got back to my dorm, found out that one of my best friends all through college had played for a bit in a group down in southern NJ (but that group had had some bad juju politics at the time -- and the group where I started then did as well (and I had friend on both sides...). 

Then after I graduated and moved back home, I played for about a year with the group a couple of counties up -- then found out there was a group closer to where I lived (which also had ended up having some bad juju politics).  And after a couple of years, went with a friend in the group across the river to the big camping event roughly an hour north of Pittsburgh.  Then the next year, drove out with another friend, and ended up breaking up with the guy I'd met the previous summer and started dating after I ran into him at the big camping event the year before.  But then met my husband two nights later.  So the the third year he and I camped together, and got engaged a month later.  He's now a double Peer (has the top A&S award and the top service award) and a Court Baron.  I got the top service award about a decade or so ago (25 years of hiding in the Artist's tent at Herald's Point at the big camping event drawing up heraldry for people who wanted to register it, and at that event a year and a half ago got to have my own personal heraldic title (although I have no idea if it actually got registered or not because of Real Life™ the past year and a half). And then a couple of weeks ago went to my favorite event in our "kingdom" -- a weekend of classes on sewing and various forms of needlework (my husband was helping a friend of ours with the sideboard all weekend).  I ended up not taking any classes this year but still had a good time just having conversations with people; plus, had two DIFFERENT people come up to me to tell me that someone on the downstairs outside porch had fountain pens for sale (!) and came home with a Sheaffer Snorkel and what I think is a Parker Duofold Senior from the 1930s.  And picked up a couple of books in the silent auction (to help fund the travel expenses of the people teaching) and what's called a "French knitter" (basically a modern form of a four prong lucet, which is used to make braided cording.  

Plus, I've singing in the local group's amateur madrigal choir for nearly the entire time I've been married (spent four years singing with the group in the Boston area when we lived up there, but then moved back down to the Pittsburgh area).

Ironically, my mother knew some of the founding members through Science Fiction Writers of America, but I never could have gotten my parents to an event, ever.  We did take my mother-in-law and my husband's two younger brothers to something years ago a couple of towns over from where my mother-in-law lived.  One of my brothers-in-law got sick, so she took him home, but the other one stayed for the feast and the bardic circle in the evening.  He was interested, but was taking martial arts classes several nights a week at that point, and was also running what I think was a jazz band.  We keep wondering if some of his daughters would be interested -- especially now that there's a lot of equestrian stuff going on in various places.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ScottT]

On 11/28/2025 at 7:11 PM, inkstainedruth said:

Since the fall of 1981, my last year in college.  I was off the meal plan and buying the local newspaper on Wednesday to get coupons and recipes and saw a blurb about an event the next town over (I had seen a flyer posted in the English Department lounge as a freshman and thought, "Oh, people who put on medieval banquets?  That sound cool!" -- had been to one a few years before on a trip to England with my parents that was in a hotel in London the last night we were there -- but then looking at the flyer more carefully was going, "Oh -- it's not on campus...).

So figured out that I could get to the thing a few years later on a local bus, and just showed up.  And someone lent me stuff to wear, and someone else got me into the feast at the church hall across the street from the park where the day site had been, and then later dragged me up to meet the (then) King and Queen.

Then after I got back to my dorm, found out that one of my best friends all through college had played for a bit in a group down in southern NJ (but that group had had some bad juju politics at the time -- and the group where I started then did as well (and I had friend on both sides...). 

Then after I graduated and moved back home, I played for about a year with the group a couple of counties up -- then found out there was a group closer to where I lived (which also had ended up having some bad juju politics).  And after a couple of years, went with a friend in the group across the river to the big camping event roughly an hour north of Pittsburgh.  Then the next year, drove out with another friend, and ended up breaking up with the guy I'd met the previous summer and started dating after I ran into him at the big camping event the year before.  But then met my husband two nights later.  So the the third year he and I camped together, and got engaged a month later.  He's now a double Peer (has the top A&S award and the top service award) and a Court Baron.  I got the top service award about a decade or so ago (25 years of hiding in the Artist's tent at Herald's Point at the big camping event drawing up heraldry for people who wanted to register it, and at that event a year and a half ago got to have my own personal heraldic title (although I have no idea if it actually got registered or not because of Real Life™ the past year and a half). And then a couple of weeks ago went to my favorite event in our "kingdom" -- a weekend of classes on sewing and various forms of needlework (my husband was helping a friend of ours with the sideboard all weekend).  I ended up not taking any classes this year but still had a good time just having conversations with people; plus, had two DIFFERENT people come up to me to tell me that someone on the downstairs outside porch had fountain pens for sale (!) and came home with a Sheaffer Snorkel and what I think is a Parker Duofold Senior from the 1930s.  And picked up a couple of books in the silent auction (to help fund the travel expenses of the people teaching) and what's called a "French knitter" (basically a modern form of a four prong lucet, which is used to make braided cording.  

Plus, I've singing in the local group's amateur madrigal choir for nearly the entire time I've been married (spent four years singing with the group in the Boston area when we lived up there, but then moved back down to the Pittsburgh area).

Ironically, my mother knew some of the founding members through Science Fiction Writers of America, but I never could have gotten my parents to an event, ever.  We did take my mother-in-law and my husband's two younger brothers to something years ago a couple of towns over from where my mother-in-law lived.  One of my brothers-in-law got sick, so she took him home, but the other one stayed for the feast and the bardic circle in the evening.  He was interested, but was taking martial arts classes several nights a week at that point, and was also running what I think was a jazz band.  We keep wondering if some of his daughters would be interested -- especially now that there's a lot of equestrian stuff going on in various places.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Egads, that is some wild ride you've been on, color me envious!  We had a small group that I knew of at my college, but they (I think the term is LARP?) and were not open to a lot of questions, so I moved on.  I am curious (but not nosey) about bad juju politics in such an organization, as the mind does come up with all sorts of possibilities.  The camping event sounds like a very large production of sorts, I want to ask if it is similar to a ren faire type of thing but I bet you get asked that a lot.  Honestly it all sounds like great fun and thank you for letting me have a small peek at it!

[inkstainedruth]

In some ways it's like a Rennfaire.  And there is some crossover -- the guy who played Little John and was one of the jousters at the Rennfaire across the river from where I grew up later joined the SCA and I think he was elevated to the Order of the Laurel (the top A&S award in the organization) for doing bardic stuff.  But the major difference is that if you go to a RennFaire, you're "audience".  If you go to an SCA event, you are expected to dress in some attempt at medieval clothing, and to act accordingly (such as bowing to Royalty, and not talking about mundane stuff like what you saw on Facebook the night before).  And to actually participate.  And that includes stuff like helping to clean the site up at the end of the event, and stepping in to help people carry stuff, or to wander into the kitchen and ask if the person in charge if there's any help needed, like my husband did at his first event (he didn't know the guy running the feast from a hole in a wall except that he and the people who he went to the event with were crashing with the guy).  And didn't realize that the guy was the Kingdom Senseschal (effectively "regional president").  And when asked if he knew anything about cooking, my husband told the guy, "No, but I'm strong and can follow orders...."  And Bish said to him, "YOU can stay!"  But kicked a lot of other people OUT of the kitchen because they were trying to suck up to him, apparently.  And mostly my husband wanted to hide in the kitchen because he didn't know what was going on (it was a Crown Tournament, the winner of which would become Crown Prince/Heir to the Throne, with the person being fought for being the respective Consort), and because it was apparently really crummy weather that weekend.  

The first year I went to the big camping event (and I'd been in for a couple of years at the point), there was a bad stomach bug going around the campsite.  So ended up working a couple of shifts "crying the camp" (making announcements along one route around the campground) and a shift at the check-in point.  And at one point, saw a woman stumbling up the road in front of the tent I was in (I'd met her at a "post-revel" at someone's house after an event) and I asked her if she'd had "the plague" and she said, "No, but for three days I was the only physician on site licensed to write prescriptions in PA!"  

The first year I went to that, I was sort of overwhelmed because it was sooooo much bigger than any other event I'd been to at that point.  And last summer?  The overall head count was over 3 times as many people (Pennsic 13 was something like just under 4000 people overall).  This year (Pennsic 53) was I think over 13K -- although I don't know how many people were there for the full two weeks, and of course I've been commuting back and forth because of allergies the past several years.  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth