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Bindery space and
equipment |
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 A circa 1895
Reliance guillotine made in Chicago. Will handle
paper 25.5 inches wide with a depth of 26 inches. A more modern cutter
would probably be nice as most commercial sheets come in 26x40" now but
since I don't use much commercially made paper stock I'll stick with
the beauty over functionality. |
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 Standing press, platen size, 20 x 28 inches with a daylight of 58 inches. Made in 1897 by G.H. Sanborn & Co. in New York, it stands over six feet tall. |
 Shop built lying press and plough. The plough glides through a dovetail notch on the back cheek and the blade is from an old block plane, reshaped to the proper angle and pitch. It has a opening of 16 inches between screws and a 14 inch throat. |
Many of the processes that
happen in the bindery are pure hand work such as:
The equipment supplements the hand work and becomes necessary for edition binding and keeping quality consistent. Some additional items in the bindery not shown but quite handy:
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 A couple of the book presses, the
big
one has a platen of 12 x 18 inches. Papers and boards
are placed in these after gluing to ensure a flat even adhesion of
surfaces. There are a couple more of these floating around the studio
as well when production binding gets intense.
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 These are just some of the tools which are
heated on a modified hot plate and used to manipulate fine
book leather and add linear or decorative elements either left "blind"
or with
the use of foils. They also prepare the surface for
techniques such as gold leafing. All of the working surfaces are
made
of brass, even in this case, the type.
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 Some of the foil stamping machines. From left to right, a Gold Magic with 3x7" chases, a Kwik Print Model 55 with a 3x9" multi-line type holder and a small Kingsley peanut that heats up quick and will do a 2" line of 18pt type. These machines use foils to transfer the metallic or other pigmented colors onto leather/paper/cloth/plexiglas by use of both heat and pressure. |
 Just one of the cases of brass and zinc type used do the beautiful titles you see on the covers and spines of books. While it is possible to use regular foundry type for this sort of work the harder metals last longer and are less destructive to the impression surface of the type. |
