Table of contents
Bindings, 2025–2026
The notes are bound in the order they were first written, beginning with 26 January 2025. A note is revised rather than rewritten when a later book shows it was wrong, and the revision date is given under each title.
- I
Finding the grain before you cut anything1
Why paper grain decides whether a book opens flat or fights you, and the three kitchen-table tests I use to find it before folding or cutting a sheet.
- II
Sewing signatures on a kitchen table with a home-made frame22
How I sew folded signatures into a text block on a kitchen table: piercing stations, waxed linen thread, kettle stitches and a sewing frame made from offcuts.
- III
A first case binding, and the boards I cut too tight46
Making a hard case for a sewn text block at home: measuring boards, spine and joint gaps, covering in cloth, and the first case I had to strip and redo.
- IV
Mending paperbacks: loose pages, cracked spines, and when to stop70
How I mend worn paperbacks brought round by friends: tipping in loose pages, gluing a cracked spine, dealing with old tape, and knowing when to leave well alone.
❧
Why a note gets revised, and what never goes into one, is set out in the binder's note on method.