Today I'm going to demonstrate making a basic cloth covered slipcase.
Very similar to this one here, except it's going to have a rounded front edge, because I'm going to make it for the
springback notebook, which has a very pronounced front curve to the spine.
I'm going to follow this technique in Arthur Johnson's book, which is also the technique that I was taught by my original
teacher, June McNichol.
She added this feature of putting a layer of manila card on the outside of the board, which makes the box much
stronger. I don't remember who she got that technique from .
I'll ask her and I'll post that in the description.
So I'm going to start by lining the board - which is 2 millimetre board - with some of this blue paper.
This blue paper is called ledger paper, so I thought that was very appropriate for the springback binding.
I'm going to use mix and I'm going to apply the adhesive to the board.
Now you'll be wondering why I'm doing that instead of applying it to the thinner material, which is the paper.
That's because I don't want to warp this board.
If I applied the adhesive to the paper.
The paper would stretch a lot more than the board will, and the board would end up warping more.
But there is a downside to doing this as well.
Once I put this paper down, it's going to absorb moisture from the adhesive and it will still stretch.
But because it will stretch more than the board, there is a chance of getting wrinkles.
I'm going to avoid that by just pressing it lightly.
And it was a fairly dry adhesive as well, so it shouldn't happen.
The rule of thumb in bookbinding is to apply the adhesive to the thinner material when gluing two materials together.
But you can break rules.
You just have to understand what the consequences are and why you're doing it.
So I've left that dry overnight.
Now I'll start making the box.
I'll start by straightening one long edge of this piece of lined card.
The next step is to square up one corner and then I'll measure out from this corner.
So I want the book to sit in the box up to the shoulder, just past the joint.
So it's 146 mm, and - as per Arthur Johnson's instructions - I'll add a millimetre to that, to get 147
millimetres.
Now I'll cut the board for the spine and head and tail, so I need the thickness.
So I'll go around the book and find the thickest part of the book.
To the thickness of the book, I'll add 2 thicknesses of the card for the sideboards, and then I'll round that up to the
nearest millimetre.
I'll go ahead and cut those pieces of board for the spine and the head and the tail.
Now I'll measure the height of the book.
Again, I'll go around and find the highest dimension, and then to this, I'll add one and a half millimetres, and
I'll round it up to the nearest millimetre.
I'll cut the spine piece to the exact height of the sideboards.
But the head and tail pieces I will cut about an inch longer , and they'll get trimmed to the right shape once the box is
made.
Because I'm not being super careful about making these ends square, I'm just going to put a little mark on them to
remind myself to make those ends sticking out of the box.
I believe this technique of adding a piece of manila card to the outside of the sideboards is a really good process.
I think it makes the construction easier.
So even though you're adding a step, I think in the long run it's faster.
And it also makes the box much stronger.
I'll use straight PVA for this, because I'm not going to make a mistake laying this down on the manila card.
The manila card's stiff - I'm not likely to get any wrinkles in it that I'll have to work out or will lift the
paper off.
So it's a very low risk thing.
Again, I'm introducing less moisture.
I'll press these for a while, at least an hour.
If you time it right, you can leave it overnight.
Before I start putting the box together, I'm just going to trim the manila card along the edge that will be at the
opening of the box.
I'll quickly dry fit everything together to make sure it's all looking right.
I'm going to put adhesive on both edges to be joined, especially the cut edge of the board.
I think that seals it and just means that it tacks faster.
So you don't sit there holding it forever, getting cramps, waiting for it to stick.
Start with the spine and then do the head and tail.
You'll often see people use low stick painter's masking tape to hold the corners together, especially in production
environments where they're trying to get high throughput.
The next step is to trim the manila card.
However, I got ahead of myself and started gluing the edges, but through the magic of editing, I've got it in the
right order, but you will notice the glue in a moment on the edge.
But the correct order is to now trim up the manila card.
Now these little thin Olfa cutters are great for this.
If you don't have a nice, thin cutter like this, then a scalpel works really well.
Before gluing up the last side, just dry fit it to make sure it all goes together nicely.
Here I'm going to demonstrate using a scalpel.
I should have made sure that it had a sharp blade.
The next step is to mark the curve of the spine on the protruding pieces of board.
Now if you're worried about getting adhesive on your book, you can wrap it in a bit of baking - silicone-coated baking
- paper. But if you're just using PVA like I was, that it dries fairly quickly.
So get the book in place and then draw a line around it just outside the edge of the book.
And then when you trim it with shears, trim on the outside of the line.
The best way to get the curve smooth and even is with sandpaper and a sanding block.
And then that's the case finished.
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Next video we'll be covering the case in the same bookcloth that I covered the book in.
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And thanks for watching.