What tools do you need to get started in bookbinding?
Should you buy a kit?
Where is the best place to buy tools?
Do I need a big steel press?
These are some of the questions facing someone wanting to get started in bookbinding.
Part of the fun of book binding is buying and collecting tools.
Buying cheap tools is nearly always a false economy.
Of course, you must buy what you can afford.
Buy the best you can afford.
Often the best is the same price as the lower quality product anyway.
You just need to know what and where to look for the real deal.
Kits are usually made up of the cheapest available, in minimum quantities, and include things not really
bookbinding related, usually leather craft tools.
I think it is usually better to buy tools individually.
The best approach is to buy what you need when you need it, however, most people will buy online.
And you want to minimize postage and buy an initial starter set of tools.
In this video, I'll describe many tools as essential.
The reality is that an experienced bookbinder that knows what they are doing can get away with almost no tools if
needed. This comes with experience.
To start with, it is just easier and faster to have the right tools.
What I'm trying to say is that almost no tool is essential to get started in bookbinding.
But your journey will be much more enjoyable with them.
But don't let the lack of a tool stop you from getting started.
Then there will be tools that are optional but important for specific activities.
And you can buy these as you need them.
The tool most commonly associated with bookbinding is the bone folder.
A bone folder is used to fold and manipulate paper.
It can also be used to fold cloth up against and over a board.
There's many different shapes and sizes.
These two are the most common that you'll get in stores.
My favorite is the pointy one that I'm holding now.
The reason it's my favorite is because it does 90 percent of the jobs that I want to do.
The pointy end gets into hard to reach spaces, while the blunt end is good for heavy duty folding.
It is made of genuine bone.
And so it's very hard and can burnish paper if you're not careful.
Some people prefer Teflon folders, which is softer and won't burnish paper as easily.
And of course, isn't made of an animal product.
There are specialty folders for all different types of tasks.
This folder is usually used for creasing lines.
Most of the standard five inch bone folders that are sold these days aren't pointy enough for me.
It's a bit smelly, but you can shape a folder to whatever shape you want with sandpaper - though never do it with
Teflon. The first folder I'd buy is the standard shape, and then maybe the creaser, and a Teflon folder.
After a folder, the tool that's most often in my hand is a knife.
For most work, I prefer these snap off blade craft knives, the 9 millimeter version.
My particular favorite is the Olfa SVR-1, though, the Scotch knife is a good knife as well.
I prefer the 9 millimeter blades even for cutting heavy board over the 18 millimeter blades, which I don't think
are as sharp. And I find the knives just a bit bulky in my hand and harder to control.
While it's important to have a sturdy knife body, the most important part is the blade.
You should regularly refresh the tip of the blade by snapping the tip off and replace blades with quality
products. I recommend the Olfa or the 3M Precision blades.
A lot of people struggle with cutting board with a knife, using a high quality blade will go a long way to helping
with this, as well as keeping the knife vertical and using your whole arm to draw the knife back towards you in a
straight line. While we're talking about cutting tools, we should talk about scissors.
Traditionally, bookbinders shears have a funny clip to offer up a blade.
However, you don't need traditional bookbinding shears, though they are fun to use.
Any medium size quality scissors such as these will work fine, though, if you do want to upgrade, then I'd go for a
European made drop forged pair like these.
You really only need one pair of scissors.
Though if you want a second pair, a small pair of scissors can come in handy sometimes as well.
Being able to measure and cut a straight line is very important for bookbinders, and steel rulers are usually used
for this. The main problem people have with steel rulers is the ruler sliding around.
So it's common to buy rulers that are either cork or foam backed.
The worst rulers are the shiny chrome ones that slide around.
Some people stick fine emery paper to the back of their rules to stop them moving around, though I don't like this
because it can mark up the paper.
For the way I measure and mark most materials, it's important to have an engineer's rule that starts right at
the end of the ruler.
I put the material to my right and then put the ruler on top and then measure from the edge, the distance I want.
With my head directly over the ruler, I can get very good control to within a half a millimeter.
And then I put a mark at the end of the ruler with my knife.
This is known as measuring like you mean it.
And for a lot of bookbinding operations, this level of precision is required.
My favorite brand of ruler is the Toledo brand, matte stainless steel, which tend to not slide around much.
While we're talking about measuring and marking, I'll talk about set squares.
99% of my work is done with two set squares, a small and a large 45 degree plastic set square.
I can use this for marking 45 degree lines.
It has a ruler on it, so you can use it for measuring, though I never do.
The main thing I use a set square for is for cutting right angle corners.
Because it is a plastic set square, I can't cut directly along the edge of it.
So I usually use it in combination with my steel ruler.
I also normally do this at the back of my bench where I have a straight piece of wood, where I can align the
material, the set square, and the ruler.
If you don't want to use a plastic set square with a steel ruler, it is possible to buy a set square that has a metal
strip along the edge and you can cut directly along the edge.
But for some reason - which may be peculiar to me - I do find that my cuts aren't as good at using this set square,
so I generally don't use it.
And it was a bit of an expensive toy.
But other people do rave about them.
You do need to mark up some materials and take notes, and I just use basic pencils for this, I normally have HB and a
softer 2B.
And you should keep them sharp, so you need a sharpener.
And the old Mars plastic eraser is a really good eraser.
Binders do punch a lot of holes, and I generally use awls for these.
You just need awl for most bookbinding work, which is a small thin awl.
They come in all shapes and sizes, including some with little covers which are great for putting in tool boxes.
This is my favorite that I bought from Talas about 15 years ago.
I use this all the time.
All the other awl I use regularly is more for advanced work, and it's a heavy duty, awl for punching holes in
boards, especially for laced on leather bindings.
To start out, I would just get an awl like one of these.
I sell the one on the right, if you're in Australia.
The one on the left, as I said, comes from Talas.
I also like these pin vises.
And of course, this heavy duty one if you want to punch holes in a heavy board.
Holes are normally punched for sewing, and for sewing, you'll need a needle.
John James is the only company, I think, that's still making needles specifically for bookbinding.
I use the number 18, the smaller one, all the time.
The number 15 is a little large.
And this 19 x 3 curved needle from John James, I use that all the time as well.
Recently I've started using thinner needles.
These darners are excellent.
They're about the same size as the number 18 bookbinding needle with a slightly larger hole in the eye, and a bit
thinner, so I can get away with smaller holes.
If you can get them, I'd get bookbinding needles, the number 18's, otherwise darning needles are excellent.
And some curved needles which are really handy for link stitches such as used in the Coptic binding.
For applying adhesive, you'll need brushes.
Ninety percent of my work is done with two brushes.
A small brush and a large paste brush.
I like using natural bristle brushes, but it's important to wet them before you use them so that you can clean them.
To start out, you just need a couple of brushes, such as this cheap Princeton Snap!
number four and a larger paste brush.
Though this is a fancy one from Talas.
After you've been bookbinding for a while, you might like to get two of each and keep one for PVA and the other for
paste. Some simple tools that you've probably already got are bulldog clips and clothes pegs.
The clothes pegs are great for marking the center of sections and holding things out of the way.
The small bulldog clips hold sections together when you're sewing them or punching holes, and the larger bulldog clips
are useful for all sorts of things.
They're often used when repairing corners in book restoration.
When starting out, a lot of people get hung up on having a book press.
For a lot of starter projects, a book press isn't necessary.
Just a couple of pressing boards and a covered brick.
Pressing boards can be wooden chopping boards from the supermarket.
Though they do need straight square edges, and it's best if they don't have a waterproof coating on them, because it is
nice if they absorb moisture out of the work being pressed.
Fixing warp boards is not done by pressing.
It's normally caused by an imbalance of the pull of the material on the front and the back of the boards.
A selection of different sized weights is always handy, and bookbinders like to use quirky objects for weights.
I don't really have quirky objects.
I do have these film canisters filled with lead shot, and these little bags are also filled with lead shot.
I use width gauges all the time, I normally use 15 and 20 millimeters.
You can make these yourself out of binders board, though, recently I've started using these nice ones from Talas.
Though to start out, obviously you can just make your own.
A pair of pliers is handy for all sorts of things, such as pulling a needle through that's stuck or snapping off the
end of the blade on your snap off knife.
Bookbinders have traditionally used engineers dividers to mark off distances, especially when you have to mark the
same distance off numerous times.
It's not something that you need when you start out, but it's worth buying a pair and starting to get used to them.
It can really speed up work and produce repeatable measurements.
Sometimes you'll want to take the sharp edge or corner off a board, and this is easily done with some sandpaper and a
cork sanding block.
A couple of my favorite toys are these fancy sanding blocks with an integrated roll of adhesive-backed sandpaper.
When you're getting started, the simple corkblock and some different grades of sandpaper is more than adequate.
You can punch holes and board with an awl, though sometimes it's nice to have clean holes.
You can use a rotary hole punch, but you can only reach so far onto a board, or these Japanese screw punches are really
nice. You can replace the tip for different sized holes, and the genuine Japanese made ones are really nice and they
last a long time.
A carpenter's square is really handy for marking up the spine of books.
And it's also good for drawing lines at right angles from the edges of boards.
If you buy or have a nice old one just check that it hasn't been dropped and been put out of square.
Once you've bound a few books, you'll start to collect knives for special jobs.
I've a range of scalpels.
Most of the scalpel blades that bookbinders use fit number 3 and number 4 handles.
My favorite brand of scalpel handle end blade is Swann-Morton.
This dangerous looking blade I use for cutting the thread on the inside of books that I'm pulling.
This very sharp butter knife I use for all sorts of things.
It's one of the sharpest knives that I've got.
I've got a blunt version of it as well, which is great for scraping the adhesive off the spine of books that I'm
restoring, and it's great for slitting paper as well.
One of the most traditional knives used by bookbinders is the cobbler's knife.
And I have a few of these at different levels of sharpness that can be used for cutting board or slitting paper.
You'll discover these other knives when you need them, and as you watch other bookbinders work.
A tool I couldn't live without is a micro spatula.
I use it for all sorts of different things.
There's a straight version and a bent version.
I never use the bent version.
I have quite a few of these.
Some have been sharpened.
I use them for putting glue into hard to reach places, for cutting things in hard to reach places, for scraping.
There's no end to the uses for micro spatulas.
This is a mass-produced version, but you can also buy an Italian hand-forged-by-angels version.
The final tool I'll look at is a bench hook with a self-healing cutting mat.
You don't need a fancy self-healing mat like this, you can just use a cheap piece of binder's board and instead of a
bench hook, I normally just work up against that piece of wood at the back of my bench.
But if you have a temporary space that you work at, a bench hoook like this is great.
You can put your work on it, move it out of the way.
And when you have 10 minutes to do some binding, you can quickly move it back to the table and do some work.
We use this in workshops and it provides clutter free space for students to do their work.
I think most bookbinders want to own a nice big steel press, but it's not necessary to get started in bookbinding.
Initially pressing boards and bricks is all you need.
So where to buy bookbinding tools?
I strongly believe the best place is specialist supplies for the bookbinding and conservation trade.
All the largest suppliers have excellent online stores that are easy to use as Amazon.
Supporting these suppliers means that specialist tools and materials will be available into the future.
There are three main suppliers I use regularly and highly recommend.
Talas in the US, Hewit's in the UK, and Cali Anderson in Sydney.
I also sell a few tools and materials, but I only ship to Australia at present.
I have a link in the description to all the specialist supplies I recommend, as well as details of most of the
tools in the video.
I hope you found this video on tools useful.
As always, I really appreciate you hitting the big thumbs up button.
If you're able and would like to, you can support me through Patreon, and the details are in the description below.
If you want to be notified of my future videos, please hit the subscribe button and ring the bell.
Until next time, cheerio.