Campbell-Logan Bindery

11/02/2019

Check out our new website at wefixbooks.com!

book repair, Bible repair, cookbook repair, book restoration, book preservation, bookbinding, photo albums, custom boxes, custom bookbinding, thesis binding

07/10/2018

There are many ways to bind a book. When it comes to sewing there are many different types of stitches a bookbinder can use. We’re going to show you a short list of the main types of stitches that are commonly used.

French Link Stitch
-This stitch is used for small edition fine binding and some hand binding books. (Picture 1 & 2)

Kettle Stitch
-This is the stitch at the end of each signature (set of folded pages) that locks them together. (Picture 3)

Saddle Stitch
-This “stitch” is used for magazines and other small booklets. The folded pages are gathered and stapled along the spine. (Picture 4)

Side Stitch
-This stitch is for books made up of individual pages. A sewing machine sews the pages together near the binding edge, 1/4” or so in from the spine. (Picture 5)

Stab Stitch (Japanese Stab Binding)
-This style of sewing is similar to side stitch, but it can be decorative, and the sewing wraps around the binding edge. (Picture 6)

Block Stitch
-This is similar to side stitch, but it is done by hand and not a machine. The final product looks the very similar to Picture 5.

Coptic Stitch
-This stitch forms a series of “chains” that link the signatures of the book together, but unlike other stitches, this one allows the book to lay flat when opened. (Picture 7)

07/03/2018

Here the text block is being backed.

07/03/2018

Here the text block is being rounded.

07/03/2018

We’re back again with another Tour Tuesday!

This time we’ll be introducing Rounding and Backing.
(Two videos of the process will be posted separately, so be sure to check them out!)

After a book has been sewn or glued (Oversewn v. Fan Bound-> Check out the last Tour Tuesday for more info.) there is more work to do on the spine. If it has been sewn the text block is glued up, and if it has been fan bound the spine is covered with back lining, which keeps the page attachment together while the book is being handled.

From there, depending on the type of paper used, the thickness of the text block, or perhaps the sensitive nature of the book’s contents (photos, scrapbook contents, etc.), most books are rounded with a hammer or rounding machine. This procedure keeps the spine from becoming concave, and helps create the joint which supports the book’s cover boards. With a hammer, the binder pulls one side of the fore edge towards them and pounds the spine in a sweeping motion towards them, this continues on both sides until the desired roundness is achieved. Ideally the fore edge of the text will form a symmetrical half-moon shape.

The next task is backing the text block. This solidifies the round shape of the spine and creates the joint on each side of the book, and if the book is sewn it helps evenly disperse the swelling that occurs from the build up of thread near the spine. In essence the sides of the spine are pushed out away from the center to create a right angle (joint area). This is traditionally done in a lying press or job backer with a hammer, but here at the bindery we most often use a roller backer.

Check out the photos and videos of our process, and be sure to like and share if you’d like to see more like this!

We hope everyone has a wonderful Fourth of July!

06/28/2018

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkkuQZFlijc/?hl=en

Before 👉🏻 After. Check out our Instagram to see the After!

We cleaned up the spines on these late 17th/early 18th c. volumes. They were cased into new covers, with leather spine labels made using handset type. A lot of books like these have original leather covers that get red rot and deteriorate over the years. Now these books with last for years to come in their new cases!

06/15/2018

Before👉🏻After
Floral Birthday Book
Check out our Instagram for more details:

06/12/2018

Chained Books were prevalent in Western Europe during the Medieval times, approximately the 17th c. The reason books were chained is because during this time period books were especially hard to recreate and were susceptible to thieves and careless readers. Not only were books chained in libraries, but also in churches. Normally the chains were about 3 ft. long. A ring was attached to the book and the other end was either clamped to a shelf or fastened to an iron rod. Some books faced fore-edge out on the shelves, with the titles written on them, as opposed to having the spine facing out, as is custom today.

The largest collection of chained books to exist was the Laurentian Library, in Florence, Italy. It still houses over 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 printed books. These books were originally the property of the well known Medici family, but were confiscated by the republican government in 1494. Later on in 1523, the books were brought back to Florence by Pope Clement VII. He commissioned Michelangelo to create a library to house the volumes and they were chained to desks for fear of theft.

Some chained libraries still exist today, and are open to the public, including the Hereford Cathedral Library, the Librije Library in the Netherlands, and a handful more that are still fully intact.

06/05/2018

Welcome to this month’s Tour Tuesday!
Today we’ll be showing you the other form of library binding used in our shop.
Last month we explained fan binding, one of the preferred methods of library binding. The other type of binding we offer is oversewing, a process where we sew together loose pages to form a text block.
To decide if we will oversew or fan bind a book we must consider the following:
Height, weight, margins, thickness, type of paper (glossy, rigid, etc.).
If we do decide to oversew a book, we use an oversew machine, which makes overlock stitches that attach sections together using needles, punches, and thread. This process is also known stab sewing.
Hand oversewing was patented in 1904 by Cedric Chivers. It wasn’t until 1920 that the oversew machine was invented by W. Elmo Reavis. By 1930 oversewing was a part of standard library binding.

Click through the pictures below to see the oversew machine operation!

05/29/2018

If you've ever wondered what the small printed label adhered to the front pastedown of a book is, it's called a Bookplate. It's also referred to as "ex libris" which translates to "from the library of". They're used to identify a book's owner.
The earliest printed bookplates date back to 15th c. Germany, but ownership markings in books and other documents go back much further to Egypt (1391-1353 BCE).

There are 3 main types of Bookplates.
The first type is an Ownership Bookplate, which is as it sounds, and has the book owner's name on it.
The second type is an Author-signed Bookplate. It is a way for the author to sign a book without writing on the book itself. It also increases the book's value, but is still not as valuable as a directly signed book.
The last type is the Lending Library Bookplate. These simply have the name of the library they currently or previously were kept in.

Custom-made or author-signed bookplates can be collectible, but can decrease the book's value. They can also damage a book's pages due to the acidic nature of older adhesives. Collectors usually prefer not to have bookplates in their books.

Click through the images to see how bookplate styles evolved over hundreds of years!

05/22/2018

Around the bindery we have many different types of bookbinding presses, one of our most important tools!
After a book is glued into its case, it needs to be pressed, anywhere from a few hours to overnight, to ensure that it is securely seated in its cover and that it dries flat.
Click through the images below to discover the presses we have in shop!

05/15/2018

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