Coptic Bookbinding: Part IV

—The stunning conclusion to the epic saga that began in Parts I, II, and III.—

Okay, so it’s a day later than I promised. I was going to finish up binding yesterday while my family watched Love Actually, but about five minutes in I remembered that I’m in love with Hugh Grant, so that didn’t work out so well. But tonight’s entertainment was significantly less British, and I was able to speed through the rest of Book Mark 2 and get you scads of internet-clogging photos to share.

Let’s begin, shall we?

Part IV: Putting it All Together

You will need:

• The covers you’ve been working on
• The pages you’ve folded and stabbed
• The hole-punching guide you used for paper stabbage
• A long length of thin cord (I usually use embroidery floss)
• A needle with an eye to fit your cord
• A fattish poking implement
• Thread-waxing wax (optional)

First you need to poke holes in your covers to match those you made in your pages.

(Blog, meet the new covers. New covers, blog. Let’s move on.)

If you still have the hole-punching guide you folded up last time, use that. If you discarded it, you can just use the holes in one of your signatures as a makeshift guide.

Since your cover will be wider than the pages, center the guide between the sides of the cover so there is an equal amount of spare space on each side (about 1/8″ on mine). Use a pen or pencil to mark where the holes will be punched in the cover. They should be between 1/8 and 1/4″ in from the spine.

Now punch the holes. If your grandfather was into leatherworking, dig through the garage until you find his old kit and use his leather-grade hole puncher.

If not, balance your cover off the table so the space under the future hole is empty, and stab through it with your poking implement.

Repeat until all the cover’s holes have been punched.

Once your covers and signatures are punched, it’s time to start sewing!

If you have thread-waxing wax, dose your thread. People say that helps to keep your cord from tangling, but I’ve done it both ways with no discernible difference.

Cut your thread to length. Before you do this, know that it is very difficult—nigh impossible!—to add on more thread once you have started. For that reason, you will find yourself pulling yards of thread through each hole of your book in a bid to save yourself from the mere apprehension that you may run out. This may cause problems.

To keep myself from just using the entire skein of embroidery thread (which I did once—it wasn’t fun), I like to measure it. If the number of signatures you have is x, then measure the thread to be x times as long as the length of the spine. Add two more lengths for the covers, then a few more for some slack.

Thread your needle. This is quite possibly the most important stage of the process.

Lay one cover face down on the table. Place one signature on top of it.

Open the signature to the center, then stick your needle through the first hole.

Pull the thread through until just a few inches remain.

Bring the needle around the edge of the cover and up through the first hole in the cover.

Pull the thread snug. Then insert the needle back through that first hole in the signature, this time from the outside.

(I just noticed that photo makes it look as if the needle has two eyes. It doesn’t. I blame the light.)

Pull the thread snug. Now both ends of thread will be on the inside of the signature . . .

. . . and the cover will be secured at that first hole.

Repeat this process down the line of holes: come out of the second hole, wrap around the cover, come up through the cover’s second hole, and go back through the signature’s second hole. I’m trying really hard not to think about what else “second hole” could possibly mean. And that I’ve been referring to the needle as a “poking implement.” But there are children in the audience, so we’ll just carry on . . . sewing your book. . . .

Remember to pull the thread snug after each step. Pulling it in the direction of travel (ie, parallel to the spine, in the direction that you’ve been sewing) is more effective and less likely to damage the holes.

Once you’ve reached the last hole of your signature and have looped the cover, but before you have sewn back into the hole, place the next signature atop the first. Instead of sewing back into the last hole of the first signature, sew into the corresponding hole of the second signature.

Sew out of the next hole as before.

Now that there’s no cover to loop around, you use a different method to secure the signatures together. This is called the kettle stitch, though for the life of me I could not tell you why.

Once the thread is pulled snug, insert it between the first signature and the cover on the right side of the thread securing them.

Pull it through, then turn the needle around and come back out on the left side of that thread.

Now (no surprise), pull it snug. Then insert the thread back through the second signature’s hole.

Repeat this down the line until you get to the last hole on the second signature. Insert the thread between the first signature and the cover and loop it around as you did before, but instead of inserting it back into the same hole, add on the third signature.

Are you starting to get the hang of it?

Now that you’ve moved away from the cover, you’ll be doing the kettle stitch between the two previous signatures, not between a signature and the cover.

But aside from that, it’s all the same. After the kettle stitch, for all the middle holes, insert the needle back into the hole it just came out of. For the final hole, insert it into the first hole of a new signature. It’s easy to tell if you’ve messed this up, as there will be no way to sew the next signature on.

Your lines of thread should look something like this:

The middle lines (on the right here) have a braided V-like appearance, almost like a column of knitting or a crocheted chain stitch. The edge lines (on the left) look more like a twisted rope.

Inside the book, your threads should look like this. At the center of each signature, there will be a line of thread.

And between each signature, there will be a bit of a gap.

As you work, remember to pull the thread snug. Failure to do so may result in the book’s falling apart, or in the spine being squirrely. Be careful to strike a balance, though: pulling the thread too snug can result in this:

Not, of course, that I would ever make such a foolish error. This was merely to demonstrate the possibility to you. It has nothing to do with Hugh Grant’s distracting me.

Anyway, crashing on.

Eventually, you will run out of signatures to add. At this point, you may wish to leap for joy, stretch your legs, and down a celebratory beverage. But now it’s time for the cover.

Finish the last signature with the thread still on the outside of the book (ie, do not insert it back into the last hole).

Place the cover on top, face up. Insert the needle down through the first hole.

And back through the hole of the top signature.

Ignore my unaccountably grimy fingernail, and go back out through the next hole. This final signature will have two threads running inside it.

Wrap the cover.

And repeat. You get the idea.

After the last hole on the cover has been secured, go back through the final hole of the final signature. Yes, you are ending inside the signature. This is correct.

It’s time to tie off the thread. If you know how to sew, please do not be insulted by the detail of the following instructions.

Insert the needle under the last run of thread.

Pull it mostly through, then insert it through the loop you just created.

And pull it snug.

Repeat at least once more. Squirrel the thread away, then cut it off.

And pull the slack even to hide it.

Repeat this for the starting thread way back at the beginning as well.

And that’s it! You’re done! You are now the proud owner of your very own coptic-bound book.

Congratulations.