Leather-Binding A Book

[DRA6N]

I have a series of paperback books I really love. I would really like to know how to go about leather binding them to preserve them and give them more of an aged look - especially over the course of many years.

Have any of you bound an existing paperback book? What are some techniques for giving the book an aged look? What should I do for the covers? The books I want to bind are a long series of fantasy novels.

[stelmackr]

Good questions. I have bound many books in leather and in book cloth. Some were paperback books. I use several techniques that I learn from several books. Here are two simple ones:

http://store.doverpublications.com/0486201694.html?gclid=Cj0KEQiA99qnBRDnrYCkt4ClzZABEiQAvqPaLCYn0TvjV2HKsw0Bwv4s3wJpAE8HsTazi8YJF4yC3VsaAlWX8P8HAQ

http://store.doverpublications.com/048626307x.html

To answer your questions would require would be easier if you just get the books and follow the examples. Experiment on a junk book to start with.

[byggyns]

I would say that first, you want to decide the exact type of cover style you want. Do you want a flexible thin cover like many "bonded leather" covers on the market, a slightly stiffer & thicker leather cover, or a totally rigid cover wrapped in leather. I re-covered a Bible for a friend and used 7-8 oz veg tan as my book boards and wrapped it in 1.5 - 2 oz goat skin. I've been meaning to post pics in the show off section, but haven't gotten around to it.

The way I attached the book block to the cover was by using a mull cloth glued to the spine of the block and inside of the cover. I used hot glue for attaching it to the block & PVA glue for the cover side. I did NOT glue the spine portion of the cover to the spine of the book block. Then I used heavy paper / light card stock from the scrapbooking section of the craft store as inner cover paper / flyleaves.

if you do the leather wrapped style, I learned that skiving the edges, especially in the corner folds, is absolutely necessary.

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the book binding portion of the project, just the leatherwork portion and the finished result. The Bible is with my friend on a missions trip halfway around the world right now, so getting more pictures will take a while.

Edited March 5, 2015 by byggyns