Book Binding Supplies: String & Tape

Video Transcript

"Now let's see what kind of tools we'll need to get started. Some of the things that we will be using today; this is a board I put it underneath the books while I am drilling so that the table or whatever you are using, I just line it up. We have to go through the whole book to be able to sew the seam over here. So what I do is I put a board underneath and then I know that I am not going to go through whatever I am drilling on. So we use some type of wooden board just to give us a little lead way. We still use a 3 ply linen string and the linen is used if you ever look at any kind of book binding supplies, you will see that most of the strings are from linen because linen actually expands with moisture if the book tends to gain moisture over time so this will prevent pages from tearing. Clear tape is going to be used to put over pages that are actually separating from inside the book so we will put a piece of clear tape right over the inseam and this will help these pages be gathered into the inside of the books. So when we are ready to bind it and make our holes, they will be included. Those pages that are falling out will be included in with the rest of the pages. We use a clear tape for that so that we can still see the words written on the page. Then on the front of the book where the binding goes where the cover meets the pages, we want to put a piece masking tape and we see that is where the holes and the strings are going to be putting the most pressure on this area right here. I have black tape here with a different thickness. The wider tape is going to be used for heavier books or wider books that have a thicker spine to them and to cover wider area. Then I have the thinner tape that will be used for just the sides of the book that we put along here and another one along here and if it was a thicker book, we would use a thicker tape over here. If the book was missing the cover over the spine, then we might just take the thick tape and just lay it across the whole spine of the book and that would act as this back cover of the book. So those are the two different thicknesses of the black tape."