I have a ton of great books on bookbinding, and they all have recommendations about what tools to use, etc. When I was first starting out, I had a hard time figuring out what I really NEEDED vs. just wanting. That was a couple of years ago, and after lots of trial and experiment, I've gotten my own personal toolkit down to a few essentials. If I was stranded on a desert island to make books for the rest of my life, this is what I would wish to have with me-
-a wooden, nonfancy bookcradle for holding signatures while punching holes
-2 awls, one fatter, one thinner. -a soft lead pencil -2 types of glue, one thicker and one in a narrow-tipped bottle, both neutral Ph
-a small, flat edged, square painter's brush for gluing
-a pair of small, high quality craftsman pliers with grip at the ends
-a glass mat
-a bone folder
-a 15 inch or longer, cork-backed, sturdy metal ruler
-needles for sewing leather
-waxed linen thread in black, brown and cream
-a pair of scissors
-a small mat knife
That's basically it. As I got into making the kind of journals and books I create now, I added ultrasuede and leather to the list for tapes, but that's actually about it, since I repurpose old books for covers. The great part about these supplies is that you can find them all at either
www.dickblick.com or at
www.hollanders.com, which is one of my favorite places to buy supplies, or even at Hobby Lobby or Michaels.
For needles, I like the needles I find in the leather craft department best because the eyes are larger for accomodating the waxed thread but still narrow so they don't make huge holes in the signature. Another plus is that beads often will fit over the narrower eyes if you want to bead the spine. Bookbinders needles are often too thin for me and can break, so I switched to the leather needles for the most part, and have them in several sizes and lengths. I do keep unwaxed linen thread on hand that has to be waxed before use, but is much thinner, and bookbinders needles for times when the holes must be extremely small. The metal ruler can serve as a quick and dirty ripping blade for to make torn edged pages, and the glass mat is one of the best things I ever bought. You cut on it, measure on it, pour glue on it to use with a brush, and apply paste or glue for endpapers on it, but at the end of the day, all you have to do is wash it off. Plus its very environmentally friendly because you can use it forever :) Oh, and paper...reams of it, if you're making journals. Recycled, decorated, scrap, whatever your heart's desire, as long as you have enough to make as many signatures as you want your book to have, and you are ready to roll.
Posted via email from Firebirdhouse 's Nest
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