Making a HEAVY Spellbook with REAL Leather!

what up everyone Martina here and today we're making a leather-bound spell book [Music] so compared to the previous time I met I'm gonna use real leather today and more traditional book binding techniques a lot of you also comes at on the previous video that you wish I had stained the pages with tea so that's what I'll beginners I wanted to make the pages of this book even larger than the previous tome I made which is why I'm using any three sized paper that also means that the paper can't fit into the pan amusing but I made sure today put one short edge into the teeth then drag it over to the other side so I can submerge the other end as well I started with I think about ten pieces of paper submerged in the tea and when I wanted to pop a piece in the oven I had to turn the stack over so that I would grab the one that had been submerged into the tea the longest I could cook two pieces of paper at a time and so every time I put two new pieces in I turned the stack back over to add more paper into the tea filled tray when I had to wait to put more paper into the tea because it was too full I could start default the signatures a signature is a stack of between four and eight pages that is so together to make a text block in this book I used four pieces of paper in each signature as these pages become quite warped by cooking in the oven I also put them in the book press after folding them so that they would begin to flatten all together i stained 52 pieces of paper making a total of 13 signatures the next step is to sow the signatures together to make a text block so first of all I had to clamp the pages in place to be able to mark five points along the spine where I would punch the holes after making sure the lines would show up on all the signatures I went ahead and used an awl to punch all the holes in each one of them okay so I don't have a fancy bookbinding stitching jig but I have this old chair that can serve the same purpose so why not I'm gonna use cord stitching on the spine for this one which is why I'm tying three lengths of this jute rope to the chair I know it is a bit shabby but hey it works now the way to sew this is to grab that thick wax thread and start from the outside and insert it into the bottom hole of the first signature then we can bring the needle back out through the second hole over the rope loop it around the rope and push the needle back into the same hole tighten the thread and repeat it with the third and the fourth hole when we have the needle on the outside at the final hole we can bring it into the top hole of the second signature when we reached the other end we simply tie a double knot leaving no thread loose so now every time we reach one end we'll just bring the needle in a loop around the thread that connects the signature is beneath it if we run out of thread we can just cut it off from the inside tie a knot to the end of the new thread and continue sewing at the absolute final hole tie a knot pull it back out and snip it with a scissor with a textblock sound together I grabbed some white PVA glue which in my case will be regular wood glue and cover the entire spine with it at this point I also attached the black and sheets by making a 1 centimeter wide line of glue along the edge and then added to the side of the text block I let the glue dry while leaving the text block in the book press after a couple of hours I removed it from the book press and made sure everything was looking fine and then I went on with shaping the spine by hammering it with the mallets [Music] [Music] I wanted to do this properly so I ended up sewing the headbands by hand I won't go into detail on how to sell the headbands here but I'll leave a link down below to a great tutorial by bookbinders Chronicle that I follow to learn how to do it [Music] again I'm covering the spine with PVA glue and now I'm also adding a layer of thin fabric which in this case is linen on top of that I used the bone folder to push the cloth down and make the cords from the stitching protrude properly when I was happy with how it looked I added one more layer of glue even though the pages were quite nice and yellow already I decided to stain the edges even more so I poured some black coffee into this little spray container and gave the edges a good spraying I set the text block aside for an hour or so and let the glue and pages dry before continuing normally you would use some type of hard cardstock as covers for the book but I wanted to try to use these thin plywood sheets to really make it solid I cut two pieces to size with a jigsaw and held them in place while marking where the holes for the hemp rope would go through the wood notice that I'm drilling the holes at an angle so that the Rope will lay more flat later with the holes ready I could pull the rope through and cut them a bit shorter to make it more flat and give the Rope a better and the wider glue surface I'm gonna fray the cords before applying the glue the glue might make the Untied stem so to avoid any warping I'm gonna insert a thin cardboard piece between the glued cords and the end sheets and on top of that a layer of greaseproof baking paper so the glue won't stick to anything then I can push the edge of the wood boards downwards against the spine of the text block while I close it on the other side I added more glue some more baking paper and then I use the bone folder to try and flatten them after repeating this whole step on the other side I popped the book back into the book press and left it there overnight so I have never done any of the work before except these test fees that I just made but I think we're just gonna jump straight into it oh and by the way I know the leather I'm using is a lot thicker than what you'd normally use for a book binding this is about you to 2.5 millimeters thick compared to book binding whether that's 0.5 or less it's what I had on hand and also I thought it would be a fun experiment see if it was impossible to use after cutting out a piece that would fit my book I started to thin down the leather around the edges and the spine as I didn't have a skiving knife I had to use the utility knife instead and so it was time to glue the leather to the spine once again I added the layer of glue to the spine and to the leather it was quite challenging even though I had thinned down the leather but I got some help from Hansie who pulled the leather downwards well I used a bone folder to shape the leather I also made sure to keep the leather damp as this helps to soften it after a bit of a battle and some help from Hans II we managed to strap some thread and cord around the cords on the spine to make them stand out it really wasn't easy without the proper chain to strap it in but it worked out in the end anyway while the glue is drying I went ahead and made two leather straps I measured the width of the buckles I wanted to use cut to appropriate lengths of leather and then used an edge beveler to round the edges then I made a groove to be able to fold the leather and punched all the holes I would need to mount the buckle I also wanted to burnish the edges so I used some linen cloth and water to rub along all the edges to make them nice and smooth and afterwards I repeated this step using stained wax instead and just look at that difference to finish off the straps I dyed them dark brown and fasten the buckles with double cap rivets [Music] I'm actually quite impressed by how nicely the spine turned out in the end and ass that's a success I can continue on and create a nice design on the front and back covers firstly I made sure to line up the leather straps where I wanted them so that the rest of the design would align properly with the holes punched and everything I marked two rectangles that I carved in the leather with a Halfmoon knife I also wanted some more organic looking elements on the cover so I traced some Celtic or elvish looking patterns onto each side of the rectangle and cut out the pattern with swivel knife [Music] to give the covers even more depth I cut out two diamond shapes again I trimmed and burnished the edges carved some patterns and dye the leather finally for the most satisfying parts dyeing the leather of the book itself [Music] when the leather was completely dry I could go ahead and double cap rivet everything with everyone in place it was time to glue the leather to the wooden covers and again I had to let the glue dry for about an hour before continuing as the leather is pretty thick and rigid I had to soften it a bit with water to even bend it and then I added glue to make the leather stick long-term and a stapler in the hammer to make it stay in place momentarily then I cut off the excess leather at the top in the bottom of the spine and burnished and dyed those areas to the last step before gluing the end pages was to attach the corner protectors and as the cover turned out so thick I added some glue to the inside of the corner pieces for good measure before using the pliers to stick them in place [Music] I continued to punch three holes in each of the leather straps so that I could close the book flat the final design element I added was a couple of decorative brass ornaments that I attached with contact glue the only thing left to do now is to treat the surface with a nice layer of wax and this spell book is finally complete [Music] [Music] recently I've had a lot of fun making these types of leather-bound tomes and notebooks and I'm really considering making a couple to put up for sale and if that would be something you could be interested in please let me know and also follow us on Instagram to stay updated thank you so much for watching and if you enjoy these types of projects remember to click Subscribe so that I can see you in the next one bye you

Channel: Nerdforge

Views: 2,185,037

Rating: 4.964325 out of 5

Keywords: diy bookbinding, diy bookbinding journal, diy bookbinding spellbook, leatherbound book how to, how to bookbind, how to make a book, how to make a journal, how to make a spellbook, diy journal, diy spellbook, diy notebook, diy grimoire, diy tome, diy leatherbound book, traditional bookbinding, diy leather book, diy leather journal, how to make a leather journal, make a leather book, leather spellbook diy, diy leather tome, how to make a leather notebook, diy mini fridge

Id: w8MrqRHu2Es

Length: 13min 50sec (830 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 03 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/MiStor]

Didn't expect to watch the whole thing. No regerts.

[u/AviusQuovis]

Wait, it ended before she put the spells in. :(

[u/Kinyin]

I have to admit, I'd seen some books at a recent convention and while I loved the look, I couldn't justify the price. Now that I can see the amount of work that goes into it... Well, maybe I can understand it a bit more.

[u/rheus]

Looks great! It's a skill in itself to be creative with just a few tools. And you made the most of it!

[u/zerske]

Book binding. So hot right now.

[u/Characters_Eye]

The music in this video. Either a video game or a tv-show (possible from Sweden). I know it by heart but can’t place it! Panic! Help!

*never mind, I got it. It’s “Farmen”

[u/PhilpotBlevins]

The Librarian feels that chains are in order. Ook!

[u/jayhawx86]

i would use it for recipes.