Sos Roofline Systems

Posts Tagged ‘bookbinding’

There are few hobbies or skills out there that combine the feeling of the white collar knowledge with the blue collar skills in the way that bookbinding does. Not only does this hobby or trade allow you to work with books (sometimes very old books if you’re repairing), but bookbinding also forces you to become skilled with your hands in order to work the stitching or binding as needed.

Many people start out with bookbinding because they want to self-publish a book, a collection of manuscripts, or a manifesto of some kind. In this case many will use plastic binding, or spiral bookbinding in order to put something together. But some bookbinders will go the extra mile and deal with hardcover bookbinding and stitching in order to ger that just right look.

Another way of getting into bookbinding is to ignore practicing repair work and to start a new project from scratch after buying the materials you would need. Many people will self publish and then hand bind their own books, like a family history. Another common example of bookbinding includes spiral or plastic coil bookbinding, which will help to put together reports and other similar publications.

Bookbinding has a long and proud history, one that starts all the way back in the 2nd century in Egypt. Coptic bookbinding was practiced by the Coptic Christians in the area, and involved making folds on individual parchments, then sewing through the folds in order to make a larger book. This type of bookbinding lasted nearly one thousand years.

Following Coptic bookbinding eventually was long stitch bookbinding, a method that is often still used by bookbinders today. Long stitch bookbinding isn’t an exact process as there are more than one method that fall under this general style. The most notable part of this style is that the stitching goes through a slotted cover, which minimizes (if not eliminates) the need for glue.

While it might not be what you think of when you normally think of bookbinding, spiral bookbinding might very well be the most used method in the world. This is the type of binding that takes place for spiral bound reports, school histories, or even local cookbooks. Also referred to sometimes as “plastic coil bookbinding.”

There are many types of bookbinding, and different people may find different methods preferable. Do a little research, give it a try, and you might find that bookbinding is just the hobby you’ve been looking for!

If you want to learn more about book binding, please have a look at this page covering a wide range of topics, including book binding instruction.