Red Oak Cover Book with Sewn-on-Cords Binding and Hand-Hammered Metal Hardware | 0230

An aBoBoBook collaboration from Joni & Rick Graves: a red oak cover book (approximately 5x7"); with 10 signatures totaling 160 pages of 90# drawing paper; bound with butterscotch-colored waxed linen thread sewn on tan leather cord; secured with hand-hammered metal hardware; the endpapers are a hand-printed design from the Orkney Islands of Scotland.

In essence, a FOLIO is a single sheet of paper folded in half; a SIGNATURE is a group of nested folios; a TEXT BLOCK is multiple signatures bound together; COVERS enclose the text block; and voilà it's a BOOK.

For each book, I cut mother-sheets of paper to folio-size; fold the signatures; punch binding holes in each signature; and press the signatures.

But, before I can make a wood-cover book, my husband Rick slices rough blanks on a bandsaw; runs the wood through a planer; sands from 80 to 600 grit with a hand-held machine; then hand-sands from 800 to 1500 grit; applies three to five coats of urethane, cut with mineral spirits, and dried 24 hours between coats; and hand buffing with crumpled craft paper.

Once that process is completed, I can drill the hole pattern that I've designed. Pictures are included to show some of my steps for binding a wood-cover, sewn-on-cords book.