bound to measure
A two-person bindery taking commissions. Bring a manuscript, a run of journals, or a box of loose sheets, and we will tell you what it wants to be.
six structures repairs taken one book on the bench at a time
what we make
01/05
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case binding
Sewn on tapes, rounded and backed, cloth or quarter-leather over board. The structure that survives being read.
single volumes, theses, manuscripts
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coptic
Exposed chain stitch, no spine covering, and it opens dead flat and stays there without a hand on it.
sketchbooks, notation, anything drawn across the gutter
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long-stitch
Sections sewn straight through a limp cover, the thread left visible down the spine. Quick to make, honest about it.
short runs, notebooks, journals
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drum-leaf
Single leaves adhered at the fold. No sewing, no thread in the gutter, so an image can cross the spine without losing itself.
photographs, printed editions, full-bleed spreads
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repair and rebacking
A new spine under the retained original boards and label, resewn where the sewing has gone. We keep everything we can.
books that are already yours
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clamshell box
A drop-back box in the same cloth, trays cut to the millimetre so nothing inside is allowed to move.
loose sheets, ephemera, a set that should stay together
two of us, one bench
02/05
The trade splits in two and so do we. Forwarding is everything that decides whether the book still opens in forty years. Finishing is everything you see in the first four seconds. A book that has had only one of the two is easy to spot, and it is usually the forwarding that was skipped.
Working in a pair means nothing waits on a queue behind six other jobs, and it means you speak to the person holding the sewing frame rather than to an account.
- Nadia Serrano forwarding
- Sewing, rounding and backing, boards, edges, headbands. The parts that are finished before anyone can see them.
- Peter Halloran finishing
- Covering, paring, titling in foil or blind, tooling, boxes. The parts that have to be right the first time.
how a commission goes
03/05
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Tell us what you have.
A paragraph is enough. What it is, roughly how many pages or how many copies, and whether it is bound at the moment.
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We look at it.
Post it or bring it. We check the paper, the grain direction, the sewing if there is any, and the state of the boards.
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You get a written proposal.
One structure, one set of materials, one price, one date. If we think the book wants something other than what you asked for, we say so and give the reason.
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We make it, one at a time.
You get two photographs on the way through: the text block sewn, and the case before it goes on. Nothing is a surprise at the end.
what we hold
04/05
| board | Binder’s board, 2 mm and 3 mm, cut with the grain running head to tail. |
|---|---|
| cloth | Buckram, book linen, and a japanese cloth for spines that need to bend more than once. |
| thread | Unbleached linen, 18/3 and 25/3, waxed at the bench. |
| endpapers | Hand-marbled, paste paper, or a plain heavyweight chosen against the text paper rather than against the cloth. |
| leather | Goatskin, pared by hand for quarter and half bindings. |
| titling | Foil on a hand-set line, or blind if the cloth is better left alone. |
start a commission
05/05
There is no wrong way to fill this in. If you do not know what structure you want, say so and leave the rest to the proposal.