... homemade journal ...

[canibanoglu]

Alright, this is my third notebook that I bound myself, the first one was kind of a disaster but people around me kept saying that it was a very decent one for a first try. I don't have that one handy right now, so I can't post pictures of that one, maybe later It was an A5 sized notebook, cloth covered and it used A4 sized Rhodia DotPad paper.

 

The second notebook was pretty much the same as the one I'm about to post, it had blue flyleaves and the paper was 100 gsm A3 paper. It used faux leather as the cover material and apart from a couple of snags, I think it was a pretty good one. I gave that one to my girlfriend as a gift. The size of the finished notebook was a little bit smaller than A4, because I had my local stationary trim the edges for me (a couple of millimeters at most) so that it would have straight edges.

 

The third one is another A4 sized notebook, uses the same material as the cover material and I did this with my girlfriend, so it has special value. We sewed the bookblock together and she helped me a lot with covering up the board for the cover. It uses 160 gsm paper and I'm happy with how it turned out. Here are some pictures of the finished notebook:

 

http://i.imgur.com/swdjU7s.jpg

 

The board has bent a little bit, in hindsight I should have been a lot more patient with the weights... Oh well, I'm already planning my next one.

 

http://i.imgur.com/jrgV9uI.jpg

 

The flyleaves. The I chose red because I wanted the flyleaves to match the sewing thread I used. You can see that I've had trouble placing the bookblock in the cover because the flyleaves have bent a little bit into the crease. And the material I used for the flyleaves wasn't really my first choice. I'm waiting for the next month to place an order for some awesome Conqueror papers for my flyleaves. Along with bookbinder clothes (I'm leaning towards Buckram).

 

http://i.imgur.com/Ss3uYBb.jpg

 

Random page from the notebook. I'm happy with how it lays quite flat.

 

http://i.imgur.com/3Ufo0ij.jpg

 

The corners were the hardest part for me, they ruined my first notebook and they are extremely hard to cleanly pull off. Maybe that has something to do with the clothes that I'm using, we'll see when I get my hands on some proper bookbinding cloth.

 

http://i.imgur.com/8y1ZZxk.jpg

 

Another corner. Notice that it's different from the other one, I screwed up cutting material from the corners and the previous one is different from the others. This one, I think, looks pretty good.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Q7pvfI2.jpg

 

Side view next to a Pelikan M1000. You can see the bent cover and how the problems with the placement of the bookblock in the cover screwed up my flyleaves.

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/WCri98I.jpg

 

The thread color (kinda) matches the flyleaves, I really wanted to have that. My girlfriend's notebook uses purple thread and the flyleaves are a close blue color.

 

 

The paper I used is pretty good, absolutely no feathering/ghosting/bleedthrough but then again it is pretty heavy at 160 gsm. The only problem is that with very wet nibs there is some letter border definition loss because the paper can't handle with that much ink.

 

After doing two A4 sized notebooks, I now understand why TMLee doesn't do notebooks in this size, they are hard to handle! The stitching is pretty easy but aligning the bookblock with the cover and working fast enough to glue every piece is a pain in the neck.

 

For the foreseeable future, I plan to make open-spine notebooks as I like how they look a lot and case-binding has its own set of problems for me. And I plan to do some embossing/debossing and that would be quite painful with case binding.

 

TMLee, I have a question for you and if you could answer it I would appreciate it very much. Is there a way for me to use any cloth for binding my notebooks? I've seen some videos that back the cloth with a thin sheet of paper but my first notebook's cloth was quite porous and glue seeped at some places.

 

I would appreciate any feedback and pointers everyone could give me.

[TMLee]

Alright, this is my third notebook that I bound myself, the first one was kind of a disaster but people around me kept saying that it was a very decent one for a first try. I don't have that one handy right now, so I can't post pictures of that one, maybe later It was an A5 sized notebook, cloth covered and it used A4 sized Rhodia DotPad paper.

 

The second notebook was pretty much the same as the one I'm about to post, it had blue flyleaves and the paper was 100 gsm A3 paper. It used faux leather as the cover material and apart from a couple of snags, I think it was a pretty good one. I gave that one to my girlfriend as a gift. The size of the finished notebook was a little bit smaller than A4, because I had my local stationary trim the edges for me (a couple of millimeters at most) so that it would have straight edges.

 

The third one is another A4 sized notebook, uses the same material as the cover material and I did this with my girlfriend, so it has special value. We sewed the bookblock together and she helped me a lot with covering up the board for the cover. It uses 160 gsm paper and I'm happy with how it turned out. Here are some pictures of the finished notebook:

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/3Ufo0ij.jpg

 

The corners were the hardest part for me, they ruined my first notebook and they are extremely hard to cleanly pull off. Maybe that has something to do with the clothes that I'm using, we'll see when I get my hands on some proper bookbinding cloth.

 

 

 

Well done ..

You tried , and that is whats important.

You should be proud of yourself.

It can only get better.

 

 

 

Now is to backtrack and troubleshoot what you were not satisfied with

 

What is the covering material?

Its nice.

Looks like Moleskine cover material.

 

 

CORNER FOLD-INs

I am not sure I understand what are the problems you are facing, regarding the corners.

 

Follow this video clip where the lady showed how much to trim off the yellow paper covering.

 

From the little I see in your photo, there is too much material there, you can afford to trim off more.

 

Cut straight too

 

 

The next thing to watch carefully is the glueing stage when doing corners.

A common mistake is to hurry this stage.

Glue still too wet, so its not sticky enough to hold the folded corners down.

So you keep pressing and kneading and all that and it becomes 'over handled'.

In the end , the corner looks not crisp and well defined.

 

 

Watch your glueing technique , which I will explain next.

 

 

Keep it up

 

 

 

 

And yes !

You are correct that I don't do A4 sizes becos its very unwieldy.

 

I also have left doing case-binding becos I cant master that stage of attaching the flyleaves to the covers and bookblock.

Until I find a failsafe technique , I wont revisit making them

Edited July 28, 2014 by TMLee

[TMLee]

GLUEING FABRIC TO GREYBOARDS ...

 

Mentioned here in post #899 ...

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/28367-homemade-journal/page-30?do=findComment&comment=2186196

 

 

The concept is this,

 

to glue the fabric onto the greyboards,

the challenge is to do so without the glue penetrating up thru the fabric and appearing on the finish side.

 

so to do this ,

you need to ensure your glue is not wet enough to do so.

 

there are some ways to achieve this :

1) use a non-liquid glue , like spray adhesive ( eg, 3M brand) (these things are super strong and are permanent. they also create a huge mess on your work area so work away from your worktop. They are also highly flammable and toxic. Very strong and very sticky glue - zero room for error ! )

 

2) turn your fabric into bookcloth , eg use 'Heat n Bond' - you get your homemade bookcloth !

perfect , my only complaint is that it gets thickish !

 

3) use PvA glue , like I do , but just work smart with it. as explained in that post mentioned above. Its liquid glue, but I glue it very dry, ie brush it so until its like painted with glue. the trick is to let it dry till its tacky - not wet - then attach it to the fabric .

 

4) you can even use glue stick - paste glue stick - its a non-liquid glue .

Especially if the area to be glued is small, like when I make co-ordinated hinges - I use a glue stick , it works fine too.

 

 

a note about FABRIC ...

 

many kinds of fabric around.

my best experience is with cotton.

my worst experience is with polyester. just doesn't stick. This one works best with spray glue. and you will experience a great challenge when you attempt to fold-in the corners. Very difficult - they just don't stay put.

 

so the same concept applies...

find a glue that is best suited to that fabric.

 

 

 

 

 

 

TRY this ...

 

learn to glue-dry fabric on your scraps of discarded greyboards.

 

applying glue is easy.

the catch is learning to apply NOT TOO MUCH glue.

and what to do IF YOU APPLY TOO MUCH glue

 

1) apply glue onto greyboards ;

 

2) keep brushing around till every corner of the greyboard is 'painted' with glue.

 

2a) if too much glue deposited (like when you see too whitish a certain part on the whole greyboard) , then just keep brushing and spreading the glue around till it gets spread away .

 

( its too much glue if your whole greyboard looks white with glue. This is what we don't want.)

 

( your greyboard should still look grey - except that it looks wet)

 

 

 

Here's the learning part :

 

3) learn how to tell whether its too wet or not.

look at the freshly glued surface with light reflecting off from the surface.

If it glistens , its too wet.

You can tell if its too wet , becos you see sharp , well defined reflections.

 

continue watching as it dries out,

the reflection will slowly turn less and less glistening ,

till the reflections looks blurry , THIS IS THE STATE OF DRYNESS YOU WANT.

 

At this stage , it feels tacky when you touch with your fingertips.

 

(when its too wet, it is not tacky, its just wet when you touch with your fingertips )

 

[ 3a) what if some parts are too dry and have totally dried out?

Just pick up your brush and brush the dried parts - your brush is half dry by now and just nice.

Don't reload your brush with glue unless really necessary.

If you reload your brush with glue , you are just bringing a fresh and wet load of glue onto the greyboard and a fresh load of glue will have a different drying time from the rest of the half dry glue on the greyboard. ]

 

[ 3b) there are some who have tried and reported positive results , like when the greyboard has dried spots unbeknownst to you , then you see the flaw later on ( a bubble , ie no contact between fabric and greyboard). someone tried , and I experimented , using a hot iron , and it worked ! The heat melted the dried glue underneath - enough to revive its glueing properties. The bubble disappeared. ]

 

 

 

4) At this stage , just place this greyboard onto your fabric.

 

This concept / technique of glueing applies to all your glueing tasks whenever glueing is required.

For example, when you glue the flyleaves.

Some of you will already have experienced by now , the flyleaves wrinkling and bubbling etc as you glue them.

When you see that , a natural reaction is panic! and understandably so.

 

The reason for the wrinkling is the same , the glue was too wet.

The wetness gets to the flyleaves (paper) first, causing the paper to deform / warp / wrinkle...

In cases where its not too bad, you will see the flyleaves return to normal after the wetness has dried out.

sometimes it doesn't recover.

 

 

 

SOME THOUGHTS ...

Consider your work environment too.

I don't work in an air-con environment, but I can imagine it can affect your glue drying times significantly faster.

You just have to factor this in.

 

An aircon environment is so much more comfortable.

You will experience a cleaner , stain free work experience.

 

When there is a fan around, the drying happens faster.

If there is a fan blowing directly, it dries a lot faster. We don't want that too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I drank too much coffee !

Edited July 28, 2014 by TMLee

[Nonstickron]

Untitled by NonstickRon, on Flickr

 

by NonstickRon, on Flickr

 

Untitled by NonstickRon, on Flickr

 

Revisiting the pockets, I've found this method to work, but I'm not happy with the gaps I end up leaving at the end of the pocket. I still can't puzzle out how your pockets fit together at the base. They seem to wrap around underneath, but I can't see how far that goes, or if you maybe overlap your side hinges with the bottom hinge.

Edited July 28, 2014 by Nonstickron

[Nonstickron]

Perhaps this is an improvement to what I just posted...but it still would need the have the bottom flap and side flaps overlap on the side glued to the cover.

 

Untitled by NonstickRon, on Flickr

Edited July 28, 2014 by Nonstickron

[TMLee]

POCKETS ..

 

an early design of the pocket described here in post #267

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/28367-homemade-journal/page-9?do=findComment&comment=954315

 

Pretty much the same in concept today.

 

There are no hinges at the bottom of the pocket...

 

The namecard slot hasn't been invented yet at the time of that post.

 

The 1mm cut off at the sides to accommodate the hinges is also not discovered yet.

 

HTH

 

 

 

[TMLee]

Perhaps this is an improvement to what I just posted...but it still would need the have the bottom flap and side flaps overlap on the side glued to the cover.

 

Untitled by NonstickRon, on Flickr

 

 

Yes , this is correct.

 

You figured it out

[Nonstickron]

Thanks

 

I didn't realize it wasn't all one piece in those photos.

Edited July 28, 2014 by Nonstickron

[Nonstickron]

I really like those Birch elastics. I don't see anyplace to get them online, their own website requires a login but doesn't have any way to create a login that I can find. Prym seems to go by the name Dritz over here, and there's a huge variety on amazon.com, colors and patterns.

[TMLee]

Thanks

 

Never occurred to me to try searching Amazon.

 

I have seen some nice bands on journals but just can't find where they sell them.

 

It's on those nice journals with magnetic closure.

PAPERBLANKS ?

 

Those are really good quality.

 

They seem to last a lot longer before becoming loose.

[NevynM]

Well, that was a fun 2 hours.

 

Yesterday I bought greyboard and thread. Today, a bone folder, awl, and Buckram.

 

http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/nevynxxx/Bookbinding/th_IMG_0166.jpg

 

Tonight I did this. The signatures are the Policy, Organisation and Rules of The Scout Association. There are 6 in all, each 7 sheets, and been printed throughout last week, and sat being compressed since then.

 

The scout colours are purple and green, so that's that this will be. I considered putting a flur de lis on the front, but that may be a bit *too* advanced.

 

http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/nevynxxx/Bookbinding/th_IMG_0167.jpg

 

The bone folder is *soooo* useful. I followed the instructions from one of the videos TMLee posted and I'm really happy with the results. I'm amazed they look like this!

http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/nevynxxx/Bookbinding/th_IMG_0169.jpg

 

 

http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/nevynxxx/Bookbinding/th_IMG_0168.jpg

 

Looks like tomorrow is stitching!

[TMLee]

Well, that was a fun 2 hours.

 

Yesterday I bought greyboard and thread. Today, a bone folder, awl, and Buckram.

 

http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/nevynxxx/Bookbinding/th_IMG_0166.jpg

 

Tonight I did this. The signatures are the Policy, Organisation and Rules of The Scout Association. There are 6 in all, each 7 sheets, and been printed throughout last week, and sat being compressed since then.

 

The scout colours are purple and green, so that's that this will be. I considered putting a flur de lis on the front, but that may be a bit *too* advanced.

 

http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/nevynxxx/Bookbinding/th_IMG_0167.jpg

 

The bone folder is *soooo* useful. I followed the instructions from one of the videos TMLee posted and I'm really happy with the results. I'm amazed they look like this!

http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/nevynxxx/Bookbinding/th_IMG_0169.jpg

 

 

http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq322/nevynxxx/Bookbinding/th_IMG_0168.jpg

 

Looks like tomorrow is stitching!

 

 

Well done !

 

Just keep at it.

 

Work at finishing your (first?) journal.

You will learn alot faster !

 

Nice buckram !

( although I think you actually meant bookcloth )

 

[TMLee]

HOW TO MAKE AN IN-BUILT POCKET

 

These are my personal notes recording my observations

and mistakes to avoid

and more importantly,

reasons for doing what I do - as I find this particularly useful if/when I want to modify a certain design or technique - it helps refresh my memory so that I can remember the reasons why it was designed that way, becos sometimes seemingly bright (new) ideas are not really bright when you finally find out the hard way why that technique was adopted in the first place ...

 

These notes are from years ago as I learned along the way ...

 

 

Page 52

These dimensions are for making ' built-in ' pockets in journals of :

A5 size

A6 size , and the tiny

A7 ( credit card ) size.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u236/TMLee/2010%20HOW-TO/HOW%20TO%20MAKE%20AN%20IN-BUILT%20POCKET/DSCF0237.jpg

 

 

 

Page 53

Dimensions are in mm.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u236/TMLee/2010%20HOW-TO/HOW%20TO%20MAKE%20AN%20IN-BUILT%20POCKET/DSCF0238.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Page 54

My technique has developed.

so please insert :

Step 2a)

After trimming away that 1mm to receive the hinges, use the corner punch, and punch out the rounded corners.

(not illustrated )

Reason will become apparent later on when you glue the hinges into position.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u236/TMLee/2010%20HOW-TO/HOW%20TO%20MAKE%20AN%20IN-BUILT%20POCKET/DSCF0240.jpg

 

 

 

Page 56 and 55

PREPARATION OF HINGES

 

Page 56 - STEP 3a)

You can cut the slant at a steeper angle, also for easier working when you attach the hinges.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u236/TMLee/2010%20HOW-TO/HOW%20TO%20MAKE%20AN%20IN-BUILT%20POCKET/DSCF0242.jpg

 

 

 

 

Hinge length :

The diagrams show 1mm trimmed off.

But you can trim away 2mm for an easier fit when you attach the hinges later on.

STEP 3b)

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u236/TMLee/2010%20HOW-TO/HOW%20TO%20MAKE%20AN%20IN-BUILT%20POCKET/DSCF0241.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Page 57

STEP 3c)

Glue the hinge bottom flap onto the underside of the pocket assembly.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u236/TMLee/2010%20HOW-TO/HOW%20TO%20MAKE%20AN%20IN-BUILT%20POCKET/DSCF0244.jpg

 

 

and ...

sorry

I didnt illustrate the last step ,

which is to glue the topmost hinge flap

into the now awaiting pocket ...

( I remember having difficulty drawing it out ...)

 

 

but I think you can figure out how ...

Edited August 2, 2014 by TMLee

[NevynM]

 

Nice buckram !

( although I think you actually meant bookcloth )

 

 

Ha! Yes. although i was looking at both, and the site defines Bookram as "a generic name for a strong cotton cloth, usually with a water resistant coating" so not far off

 

I also got a nice huge set of samples.... lots of pretty colours and patterns....

 

This place is where I got it.

Edited August 2, 2014 by NevynM

[TMLee]

 

Ha! Yes. although i was looking at both, and the site defines Bookram as "a generic name for a strong cotton cloth, usually with a water resistant coating" so not far off

 

I also got a nice huge set of samples.... lots of pretty colours and patterns....

 

This place is where I got it.

 

 

Thanks for the link.

 

Its a nice store.

 

Lots of nice stuff

 

I couldnt find any info on sampleboards.

[NevynM]

The website is *horrible*, the people are nice.

 

Do you mean fabric samples? They offered to post me a pack out, but as I was going in I picked them up. Small 1" square samples of all the different bookcloths they do. They've pretty much made sure I have no decent reason to go anywhere else....

 

Not sure if they'd charge you postage with being international or not, but I'd email their sales address and see.

[TMLee]

The website is *horrible*, the people are nice.

 

Do you mean fabric samples? They offered to post me a pack out, but as I was going in I picked them up. Small 1" square samples of all the different bookcloths they do. They've pretty much made sure I have no decent reason to go anywhere else....

 

Not sure if they'd charge you postage with being international or not, but I'd email their sales address and see.

 

 

I am a little curious about their water-resistant bookcloth.

 

Wonder how it works ....

 

Wonder how it feels to the touch ...

[NevynM]

Ok, next step is making the holes in the cover before a sew.

 

I notice that you put the fly in before you do the holes, and then put a small hole with an awl in the fly leaf at the edge of the board. That's good, my fly leaves are already in

 

What do you use to make the holes through the grey board though?

[TMLee]

Ok, next step is making the holes in the cover before a sew.

 

I notice that you put the fly in before you do the holes, and then put a small hole with an awl in the fly leaf at the edge of the board. That's good, my fly leaves are already in

 

What do you use to make the holes through the grey board though?

 

 

PIERCING AWLS

 

These are the awls that I have.

 

I also keep a lookout for whatever awls I can find.

 

Having different sizes and cross-sections , I have come to learn , are useful.

 

http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o704/tmleem4/BOOKBINDING/AWLS/DSCF9018_zps7e86b18c.jpg

 

 

The awls I use to pierce the covers are the two extreme rightside.

The extreme right in silver is a bradawl with a straight shank.

So even if it pierces thru, the size of the hole remains the same - it doesn't grow bigger.

 

These days I take more care in piercing these sewing stations.

 

I will use the silver straight shank one first , just barely piercing right thru the coverboards.

 

Then I use the small red awl to enlarge the hole carefully to size.

 

I pierce from both sides , one side at a time, again to avoid a roughly pierced finish - on either the cover side or the inside flyleaf side.

 

 

 

Here is another pic showing the differences in the taper ends of the awls.

Here you see the differences and you can imagine the kind of holes each of them can make.

 

http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o704/tmleem4/BOOKBINDING/AWLS/DSCF9019_zpsed0a3175.jpg

 

I use the extreme lefthandside needle (leather needle) held in a handheld vise - to pierce my signatures.

I do this to get as small a hole as possible - this makes the entire journal better fitting. less wobble. I try to pierce holes that are as small as the thread that I am using.

This is to make the thread snug against the holes they emerge from .

 

 

I use the two extreme right awls (wooden handles) to pierce holes for the ribbon pagemarker.

 

Some ribbons are thickish, so the hole needs to be enlarged carefully to allow them to pass thru.

Edited August 4, 2014 by TMLee

[Nonstickron]

Some great info right there, with the pockets and awls. Thanks TMLee.