Knowledge & Tools for bookbinding improvement

1. Intro: Hi, my name is Daphne and welcome to my creative new. I'm a professional graphic designer and I am awesome and altitude at bookbinder. And I'm also the author of the book in the book Basics and poop in the pool. And if you're wondering which language is German. And so I'm actually coming from the duty itself scene. I started bookbinding about, I think pretty much ten years ago when I was the pupil. And that meant for me I didn't have access to professionally course or professional tools. And I very often had to be creative and just try to get by with what I had or what I could afford or what I knew. It was a lack of knowledge, not just financial leg, but I also learned that love with YouTube tutorials, will Pinterest tutorials. And I was really, really inspired doing this. I got a few books. I think about two books and I was just soaking them up. And I loved it. When I was in my studies as a graphic designer. I was going to an vessels and extreme semester and I had a chance to do a professionally like a proper course. They're from a professional bookbinder and I loved it honestly, I think this is the best course in the whole cellular satellite data and was just amazing. And afterwards I did a free month internship at a binary. That was actually it was part of the status but it was no part in a binary. I was supposed to actually to go to a graphic design studio. Instead, I decided to go to binary. And to basically get all the informations and knowledge and experience that I could get. And it was fantastic. And because I finally had this inside of a professional bookbinder, actually combine it with my duties of years that I had already. So I learned a lot of techniques that were not taught are not used in the professional binary. But I could combine that and make up something myself, which is the reason why I actually wrote my book. And I want to share this knowledge and this inside this class with you, some a bit of theory. I promise it says, hey, it's not a lot and it's making such a big difference. That's something and also some tools to the super hadn't dead have improved. But bookbinding like things that are maybe already had, but just not the right thing. Something that I thought maybe I could get by with a cheap version or with something that's just cheaper, but it was just not as good. And I want to share this knowledge with you today, and I hope this will improve your book binding as well. So if you're ready to level up, then let's go. 2. paper grain: general info: Paper grim. This the only thing that involves a bit of theory, but please stick with me because it makes a big difference. I must admit that I had skipped this topic in my books about bookbinding if it was even mentioned. Because obviously it's just more fun to get to the binding part. But a learned about it at the course that I attended an even more later in the binary paper, grim plays a huge role in how your book behaves and how you generate book experience will be. I'm going to explain what it is, why you should consider it, and how to figure it out. Which also is that practical part of this class. 3. paper grain: what is it: Paper green. What is it? Just to keep it short and simple, the paper grain is the alignment of the paper fibers in the paper. To understand that, use a bit of background information how papers made on papers produced commercially factories, the paper pulp, which is consisting of fibers, water, and some other things we could put into a machine and to get an even distribution of the pulp on the screen, the conveyor belt is shaking, could say like that. And because of the movement of the fibers in a liquid, they will align themselves into the flow direction. That's just say that this is my conveyor belt and that's paper that's going to be made out of it. There are little pieces of fiber in it and it's flowing in that direction. Now that might sound a bit confusing, but just charge you remember when you work yet, you stood a river and you through a branch into it. If that's your river and he have a branch, it was eventually turning and the lining into the flow direction of the river, right? That's the same principle. And eventually the water will be drained off through the screen and just a revivals remain on it and they keep their alignment. So remember, paper grain is just the fibers in the paper and they are facing one direction, and that's what you have to consider. Now, the golden rule is in bookbinding that the fibers are always running parallel to the spine. So that's also nothing else than this paper. And the fibers are running in that direction, so they have to be parallel to the spine. And why is this very exaggerated comparison? But it helps to visualize this. Think of a bamboo mat I have met which I use for making sushi and marketing in one direction. Now, let's just pretend those low bamboo stakes at the paper fibers. Of course, as I said, it's very exaggerated, but it helps to visualize it in one way. You can roll the mat super easily. I think of that as just leaving group book. And in the other way, you can't because the bamboo stakes just can't be bent unless you break them. Now obviously that's not the case with paper fibers because they are dead long. But it's a great memory hook. And just as a quick info, paper grade is something you have in every paper except in handmade paper, because we don't have this movement shakiness that brings the fibers to align to the flow in direction. And also cardboard and Layland has a green direction. So depending how the papers cut out of this big paper, all that The end up when you make paper in factory, you will either have long brain, which means that the green is running parallel to the length like that. In German, that's cultured marble. Or ill have short green, which means they are parallel to the width. And in German that means pride bone. I also made a PDF in the resources section with a visual explanation just like that. So just to show it here as well, again, you have to speak paper roll and if you cut it out like that, That's the same. You see the error is much shorter than here. So you're fired without just shorter. That's why you have short grade. And if you cut it out like that, you have long grain. I will show you how it is in other countries, but at least in Austria, very often A3 sized paper is very often short grain. That one by bone. And a4 is very often smart bone. So the long green version, just as a reminder. 4. paper grain: why to consider: Now the enlightenment of the paper fibers can make the material very stable or unstable. If you fold it against the paper green, just think of the mat again. It can be that the pages start to crack or in worst-case even break. And it will also influence you experience when you leave through a book. If the paper grain was considered in the printer, if it's already printed, or the binary, if it's blank, it will smooth and the pages were just lame or flat. Now I didn't find a better book, but that's a great example. It just laying flat. And if the binary or print jury didn't consider the paper brain, you might have to deal with a very stubborn book which doesn't lay flat. And you can press your hands again like this. You need your thumbs to hold and press down the pages. And the turning of the pages isn't just not as flu. And depending on the thickness of the paper and the method of the book, how it was produced. You can even sometimes feel some waves along the spine on the inside like here. But that's usually happening. Two books with a thinner paper. 5. paper grain: how to figure out: So now you know what paper green is. The golden rule of bookbinding that the paper fibers are always running parallel to spine. You know why to consider the paper grain and now go to show you how to figure it out. So this is the practical task. Now, I'll teach you two methods. How you can figure out the paper grin of pretty much any, any kind of paper that you have at hand. Remember, you always want to have the grain run parallel to the spine. So for example, if you want to make an A5 booklet, this is A4 and I'm going to fold it in half. This is just some miss printed paper to show you. Works. If a folded in half, That's how the paper grain is supposed to run. Now, there are two ways. The iPhone person he extremely helpful. And the first one that I'm going to show you is the one that's going to destroy your paper sheet. That's why I took a misprint that paper sheet. But it's also the most obvious ones. So that's one good. Show it to you first. I would suggest to only do this if you have some spare sheets of paper that you want to use for your book project. But for the beginning is just super handy because it's really obvious. So what you need is a sheet of paper, a small bowl with some water, and a sponge, or a tissue or a towel or something just to wet your paper. Now, take a sheet of paper, the best bond or whatever you have into the water and run it along the edges of the paper. And you will soon see what's happening. On one side. You will see that the paper starts to get some light waves. And then the other side, it will start to call. So I can predict that's where the waves will be. And here it starts to call up. Can you see it here? And also if it gets really wet, depending what it is, it starts to really call up like that. Now why is this? Think of the boom, boom it. Do you know if you have long or short paper grains? If not, the grain phases the wavy side, so like that and runs parallel to the cold side. So this bamboo fiber, discipline blue man, is now exactly how the paper fibers are running in this paper. And because the fibers are like that, it will start to curl up like this. But not like that because it's just not possible. And instead, here it will create some little quiz. And the second test that I'm going to show you is the bending method. This method won't ruin your paper, so you will use this more often. But it's just sometimes not as obvious as to moisture test. So what you need, just a simple piece of paper and it won't destroy your people. And now to figure out the green is pretty easy actually. And use just slightly bended that way and that wave. And you try to do it with the same pressure. And you will notice in one direction you have less resistance than in the other way. And this is not because this side is much shorter than that one. It could be a square and you still notice a difference. But DC, that this spends much more than that, even though I put the same amount of pressure on it. That's because this paper has short grain. So because as you remember the golden rule and folding the paper like that and the rain is supposed to run parallel to this, fine. And now your task is to figure out as well. Just try to figure it out the banding method because that will be your standard way of figuring out the paper grain of paper. So here's another piece of paper that I'm going to try to figure out the green direction. And yeah, it's definitely long grain, so the fibers are running like that. And that's because if I do it like that, there's more resistance. Then here, even though I put same amount of pressure on it. It's just like imagining folding the paper. It's just it's way more stiff. So that is that's how the fibers are looking in the paper. 6. do: signature rest: And if you have the time, I would definitely suggest to give your second just some rest. So especially if you have thick ones like these. Even though when you consider the grain direction, which is very important, it still happens sometimes that they stay open much more than you would like to. And a way of fixing that is to put them in your book grass or on a pile of heavy books for the Rs. If you don't have the time to do that, I would recommend just to put the signatures in your progress as you go when you have folding them for your book. And just do everything else, the preparation for binding method. And just let them stay in there a bit so it helps to adapt to the new position and then they will be more chilled. 7. tools: glue: In the bookbinding course that I attended, I finally learned and realized that it's worth to invest in proper bookbinding clue. I tried to substitute the glue with double-space adhesive tape. Let me tell you it's not a good idea. And also, let me show you what my old travel diary looks. Meanwhile, I mean, maybe it wasn't not the smartest thing to do, to put a lot of loose things inside that I was too lazy to write into or that I just, yeah, it, it's not ideal. Let's just say like that. But it's also not ideal because it tried to use exactly that double faced tape and it just got loose because was not strong enough and that would not have happened with this one. So yes, definitely invest in some proper bookbinding glue. If you live somewhere where I can get the planet or BB from, I will link that in PDF. That's the one to go for. It's not a cheap I must admit. And that's also the reason why I hesitated for a while. And the smallest amount you can get is one kilogram, but it's well worth it. I bought it together with a friend and we share we share. That's why it's in a jar like that. The company quality all cells, 100 milliliter balls meanwhile. And that might be a good alternative if you don't want to invest in one kilogram of glue because you don't do a lot of work that requires glue. And it can need a find the planet tour nor the Guarani book buying glue though any other officially bookbinding glue, try to find a PVA glue that still flexible when it's dry and it's acid free and it doesn't turn yellow, then you have a good one. If it's gotta be really hard when it's dried and it's not working because you will not be able to open your book properly. So that's something definitely worth to invest. What you don't really need is an official like the big fancy bookbinding brushes and let it do a lot of work with blue. I actually don't know. I have this 50 millimeter or two inch brush. That's actually just for I think it's a normal paintbrush for the walls and the small one because that's my main job, but I also have a smaller one that I take out an amount. So this one is not open too much because otherwise it just dries out a bit. But you can also stretch to with a bit of water in case it gets pretty thick. So you just mix it with a bit of water to make it a bit more liquid again. And for that, I have a smaller brush, which is a 25 millimeters or one inch brush. And for very, very small details like just fixing the thread for example. So they're not doesn't open. And just use the old brush and be aware don't use good painting brushes because very likely they will get a bit stiff like this one so you cannot remove it anymore. But that's a big tip. Definitely invest in proper bookbinding glue. 8. tools: book press: If you do any kind of glue work, I really recommend to put the thing, whatever it is like, recover under some pressure for a bit because it will make such a big difference in comparison to if you don't do that because it will look so much more smooth and there are no strange bubbles, et cetera. And of course you can get once this really fancy beautiful presses, but this is working just fine as well, at least for me. And it is way cheaper. I put a PDF with an instruction in the resource section for you so you can make one yourself. It is pretty straightforward. All you need to do is to put in The book or a color wherever it is in between those wooden boards and you just you just close it. And the tide of course you screw them. The title and the more pressure will be on the thing that you're putting in there. But alternatively, you can also use while of days. I just got them recently. Those are some bark lamps. They were single had use. So they open and close with one hand, which is very handy, at least. Be close with one hand. And you can just use Two wooden boards and put your thing, your book, for example, in-between there. And then you just close them with that and leave it on the pressure will often. But you can also use some big clamps like these. They are from the same company. I really like them and they are pretty, pretty strong to you. So if you don't, I never use them so far actually, but I think they can come in very handy. And alternatively, those are fine as well. 9. tools: folding bone: So here's some tools that also make a big difference in your bookbinding. Maybe you're getting tired of just folding paper with your fingernails or with a butter knife or whatever. So I would definitely invest in a bone folder, especially if you want to do also origami or some other paper foldings. And they are actually not expensive. But maybe you have noticed that some of them, like the plastic versions and also the ones made from bone, that they can leak some shiny marks on your paper and that can be quite annoying. And how to avoid that? It's actually easy, but a bit more expensive is just to get a bone folder out of Teflon. Now that's a smaller version. There's also a bigger version, but the smaller version was already about €31. In my opinion, was involved the investment because they also last super long. And but for the beginning it's also perfectly fine to use non one that was part of degrees important abroad. That was one of the two that I bought for. Now if you don't want to invest in the Teflon fall bone, but you don't want to have the shiny marks. You can maybe just take your paper that you go to fold in half and you put a sheet of paper in between. And then you run your bone folder along the top, the texture layer, you could say it this way. You can also avoid those shiny marks. But if there's too annoying for you, I would definitely recommend the Teflon bone folder. 10. tools: awl: Another thing that really helped me and also make my books look nicer. Workers and all. Also basically thick and nails with a handle, usually made out of wood or plastic. And that makes working with it's so much easier. You can also make holes, of course, in new signatures with a needle, but I really recommend getting an all because it's just so much quicker, more efficient, and just in general, it's more convenient. And there are different ones. That, for example, is a very old one that I got from my dad. And you can see that the tip is spiky like in the EU, but it's not like you for a very long time. So that all is great for working with letter, for example, where I need to make them bigger holes. But it's not so great for making holes in the signatures and that's what they used first. So my holes were usually quite big and the small holes look the better and more professional in your book looks because that's just, yeah, they say it's not as beautiful. And that is my hope, my all for making holes in the signatures. And the difference is here that it's more like a needle and it's spiky and it doesn't read the full diameter until roughly here. So after but 2.5 or maybe three, I would say with 2.5 centimeters is reaches the full diameter. So I can make precise holes. I can decide much more how big the hole should be. Which is not the case here because it's just spiky at this part and it reaches the full diameter already like at half that, half a centimeter. So I like to have both them just because I can use them for different purposes. So that's for the letter or for cork, depending what kind of materials I use. And that's where the signatures. 11. do: final cut: So you did the textblock and you're wondering why it's not a smooth here, here and here. As the books from the store, even though you did your best. And that's because in binaries, they do the final cut after the binding. So binding first, cutting afterwards. Because no matter how hard you try, it's just not possible to get a completely even edge. And you need to have a big paper cutting machine that allows you to cut and lot of paper at the same time to do that yourself. I just assume you don't have that. So what can you do? There are several options. First, you just embracing it, you're fine with it. Because after all, you made this book yourself with your hands and embrace the uniqueness of it. But second, if you still don't like that, you can go and ask your local boundary, your local printer o, or maybe there's a coffee shop. If they can do define it cut for you. And if you don't have access to a printer or a bookbinder or the coffee shop just doesn't have such a paper cutting machine. You can try to carefully try to cut it with your head. This requires quite some practice to get a nice result. But here's how it's done. You need your paper blocks that they're going to cut a ruler with a cutting edge. But that I don't mean that side which is very thin. An edge like this. You need utility captor where you can clip off one of the blades and so you always have it as sharp as possible. You need a hard surface such as stone or glass. I used a stone blade and a few sheets of paper that you can throw away afterwards because it's just underneath. So what I did first, I make sure it's at chip off the first way to have it super sharp. I take my stone plate at poke my, my waste paper on top, then I do my book on top. And make sure is nicely and evenly aligned. I take my ruler with the cutting edge close to where I want to cut it. And then I put a lot of pressure with the holy hand on the ruler and run the blade. The coupler along the cutting edge moved a little pressure. So a lot of pressure here, very little pressure here. And that just cut off like two or three sheets of paper at once. And you do this until you've reached the very bottom, be aware the last cut is usually not as smooth, so that's why I put the paper underneath. And you can also see it's just not the same. So it's not super smooth and not super nice. But what you can do now for example, is because you can see that the paper was pressed down. I just run my bone folder along. So it looks even again. And I have a very, very smooth sandpaper which I can use to run along the edge to make it look nicer. And as you can see that the first one and the carpet 1 is just not cut properly. I just do it here again to make it look nicer. So it already looks better. He is still a bit wobbly and I will fix that with my paper cutting machine. But this is a way how you can try to achieve a smooth edge than it was before. Here is still some and even parts, so it takes a while, it can be quite annoying. Also, a tip is if we try that, just try to take off more paper and not just like two millimeters like I did. Because if you have like five millimeters is usually more efficient and the result is nicer. But sevens I knew I wanted to do from a paper cutting machine anyway. I just tried to do it like that to give you just an impression of how it works. 12. See you soon again! :D: I'm going to point out in this class quite often in my future courses. So I challenge you now to first as a practical part. First, learn how to figure out paper grain. It will make a big difference. It's something I honestly, I just ignored and didn't know about in theory books and don't make this mistake. It's super easy or quite easy. That's it like that. Once you know what, once you're aware of why you should pay attention to it and how he figured out the practices. The second thing is invest in the proper all the suitable one that is spiky. And also in a bone folder, it doesn't need to be a bone folder made of Teflon because they are pricey, but a normal one does fine. And third, if you do any bookbinding that involves glue, please don't make the same mistake. I did get bookbinding glue and forth. Find a place where it can do your final cut. If it's the local printer, that's awesome. If it's a local book by the great, make them your best friends, you will learn a lot from them. Or maybe you've had a coffee shop where they have those paper cutting machines too awesome, but try to find a place where they have it, unless you're far with it, that it's uneven. Obviously, if we are, that's great too. And I hope that this enzyme and this knowledge has helped you to increase your level of bookbinding. Your skills should improve a lot. And of course, practice is a big part of well, but I think knowing some things will make a difference. And even if you practice in, you don't know the things you won't improve. So I hope it was valuable. It was insightful. If you have any questions, just write them in discussion section and I'm happy to help us best as I can. If you have some other tips, things that improve your bookbinding skills or just anything in regards of how somebody also I can get better. Please also share them. I'm always open and happy to learn. So, yeah, see you in two other classes. Bye.