Category: Bookbinding tools

Every craft has its tools and, as becomes quickly apparent to anyone interested in the binding or conservation of books, this craft has a lot of them. While it’s very easy to become mystified by the shinier offerings in the binder’s arsenal – brass rolls and finishing tools, at least six different kinds of press,

    Cook, The Murderer, Or The Leicester Tragedy: Being a Full and Faithful Account of The Horrible Assassination of Mr. John Paas, of London, on the 30th of May, 1832, Perpetrated By James Cook, Of Leicester; With An authentic detail of the cruel means adopted by the murderer to accomplish the Bloody Dead, And

Back in January 2022, Lena and I decided to ease into the new year with a trip to see our friend Trevor Lloyd MBE in Ludlow. We were welcomed into Trevor’s bindery and our questions were all answered with openness and patience. Insightful and enjoyable as our trip was, my main reason for visiting was

1. Knocking-down stick: This tool was given to me at one (I forget which) of the binderies I worked at in London in the noughties. It’s a worthless but very useful tool, which appears to have been roughly fashioned from an off-cut. It has some patina so has some age but would be hard to date.

I just bought this beautiful antique plough. Sadly I don’t have any information about it’s provenance; however, it’s almost identical to the one featured in Zaehnsdorf’s ‘The Art of Bookbinding’, it even has the same teardrop shaped brass plate under the wing-nut. The blade of the plough has an  ‘N. J. Hill London’ makers-mark engraved

Over the last few years I have spent many, many hours researching bookbinding knives: I have looked at the wide variety of styles available and their historical usage; I have made my own blades which are suitable for book conservation; and I have also learnt how to sharpen them efficiently and taught others how to

Bookbinders were initially slow to adapt to the changes brought on by the adoption of printing in Europe; however, by the end of the 15th century parchment had given way to paper leaves and towards the middle of the 16th century English binders had made the transition from wood to paper-based boards. The introduction of the plough

(Guest Blog By Jim Oliver oliveandoak.com)   As a young boy I was always taking things apart so I could find out how they worked and sometimes I even managed to put them back together again. Years later, as a carpenter/joiner and furniture maker, I am still curious how things are put together, and a

  In 2011, I worked on a project at the Bodleian Library to conserve the Abinger collection: correspondence and papers of three generations of the Godwin and Shelley families that were given to the Library in 2004. Within this collection are 189 wet-transfer copies taken from the correspondence of novelist and political philosopher William Godwin.