The Toronto Book

Monday, January 11, 2021 at 4:05 pm

Peter Rukavina

I was lucky to receive a discarded calendar featuring vintage tourism posters from across Canada. I immediately set to reviving my bookbinding practice, making a coptic-stitched sketchbook from the “Toronto” page. I’m quite rusty, so this was more a beta test than anything; I’d forgotten how much I love book making, and I’ve already started on another, this time using a map of the area around Mbarara, Uganda that I rescued from the University of Calgary Library in 2014.

I found the videos Coptic Stitch Journal Tutorial! and DIY Coptic Stitch Bookbinding Tutorial helpful in reminding me of the stitching pattern; they compliment each other, and if you’re going to try your hand, I’d recommend watching both.

Side view of the book on a green cutting mat, showing signatures and coptic stitching.

Comments

This is very nice. What tools

This is very nice. What tools does one need to make this? (I guess I could watch the tutorial and find out.) And I can't recall what sort of paper trimmer you use in your studio. Do you have the guillotine style cutter or just use a sharp blade and a ruler?

Reply

For punching holes I use a

For punching holes I use a purpose-made awl from the London Centre for Book Arts, but any sort of pointy metal thing will do.

I am a longtime fan of Olfa 9 mm utility knives, after using them professionally in the newspaper composing room for paste-up, so that’s what I use for cutting book board down to size, trimming signatures, etc.

I could cut paper to size with the Olfa knife, but I use a public school-style guillotine that inherited from a flower shop.

For sewing the binding I use bookbinding needles, from Modulor in Berlin, but I used regular sewing needles when I first started out, which are only a problem if their eyes are wide.

The thread is baker’s twine (from The Bookmark); the book board was repurposed from a pad of paper; the inside papers were from the Japanese Paper Store.

The wonderful thing about this particular style of binding is that you don’t need any frames or strings or clamps: almost anyone can make a book from things in their kitchen drawer.

Reply

Ack: I forgot the bone folder

Ack: I forgot the bone folder, which is really the only “yes, you absolutely need one of these” tools in my toolbox. I’ve tried using other things — spoons, other smooth things, plastic bone folder-like tools — but in the end only a bona fide bone folder seems up to the task.