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For reasons unknown to me, I've adopted book restoration and bookbinding as a hobby a few years ago. It's gotten to the point that I ran out of my own books to restore, I ran out of my GF's books to restore, so I've been offering my services to anyone at the office, usually in exchange for a bottle of wine or a box of chocolates.

Extremely relaxing, can get in the zone and work for hours, every book is a different puzzle, and the results are very satisfying.

Here's some of my work: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1oNxCfKJp4k6yjoZ9



Loved the restorations. Next time I am in your city I would like to come say hello. I have a cherished textbook from my undergraduate days that is coming apart. Perhaps I could bribe you with a suitable offering :-)


Let me know! In the meantime, message me, I'm sure shipping can be arranged :)


Do you have any resources for getting started? A friend gave me a great engineering book from the 30s, but I haven't found someone locally who would repair the spine/binding. My next choice is to do it myself.


Sorry if this comes across rude, but you're asking this question in a comment thread on a exactly the type of resource you're asking for.


The apology wasn't necessary and frankly seems disingenuous. Be straightforward.

Regardless, it seems that there is a significant difference of materials and techniques for repairing a 90 year old book versus creating a brand new book. Therefore, I found that a GP comment regarding restoring books might be a good place to inquire about resources. I did actually skim through the OP link before posting my question, and I didn't find anything that specified rebinding an old book.


i had a book in german about book binding that went through the whole process from start to finish, explaining the process, the material and the tools needed. based on that i bought materials and tools and took a stack of new exercise books, with the intention to bind them into a nice leather bound book. don't remember if i completed the work, as it was decades ago. but the steps weren't to hard.

by now i expect there to be some tutorials online.

the additional challenge you have with repair is that you want to preserve as much as you can from the original. if this is a precious book i would practice on a few throwaway books first.


Send it my way :)


If you really want to keep busy, children's books at your local public library always need some love.


Well done!




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