
The Last Bookbinder on the Lower East Side - bryanrasmussen
http://lithub.com/the-last-bookbinder-on-the-lower-east-side/
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seliopou
Bookbinding is a fairly easy hobby to pick up. Besides the paper, all it
really requires is a flat surface, a bone folder, an awl, an x-acto knife and
some needle and thread. For those in New York, SVA offers evening courses in
bookmaking. The Center for Book Arts is also located somewhere in Flatiron, I
believe, and offers occasional workshops on specific binding techniques.

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woodpanel
I absolutely can echo that the basics are pretty simple and fun. With some
creativity it makes for great gifts. I used to make docking-stations and other
desk-appliances with it.

Having worked for a bookbinder for about a year though I absolutely can assure
anyone "hobbyist" binding has little in common with what professionals do.
There is more tooling, more (expensive) machinery, more steps and more process
refactoring. As can be expected, if someone's hobby is another one's craft and
income. It's less of "The journey is the reward".

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function_seven
> I used to make docking-stations and other desk-appliances with it.

I’m having a hard time visualizing this. How do you use bookbinding techniques
to make these things? I think I have a wrong picture in my head.

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tomcam
Yes, befuddlement abounds

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woodpanel
Well, first excuse me if I don't use the bookbinder-english correct words as
I'm not a native speaker.

How did i build docking stations? Well, the way you create the back of a book
(not of course the "inlay" or "pages") is usually by working on a thick board
(you may call it "paperboard") and covering it with some sort of leather (my
literal translation would be "leather paper"). With the same technique you can
create other objects as well. Boxes would be the most obvious ones but any
form that comes to your mind and you consider doable. I basically did that
"around" a cable ;-)

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tomcam
Most cool. I totally wasn't ridiculing you. I apologize profusely if that's
how it came off. I would never make fun of anyone's English, and I didn't find
yours defective anyway. I was sincerely trying to wonder how a leather docking
station would work. Also, I haven't seen docking stations around in ages.

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HillaryBriss
I admire a guy who works for so many years. He's just gonna keep going until
he literally cannot make it to the shop any more.

He likes the work. He likes what he makes. He likes the customers. Seems like
a good life, a good career path -- the kind of path programmers don't
necessarily get to traverse.

Pictures of his shop: [https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/henry-bookbinding-new-
york](https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/henry-bookbinding-new-york)

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caycep
Maybe not NYC but I randomly bumped into a young woman in her 20's who was a
professional bookbinder and restorer in Boston on the T about 7-8 years
ago...so there is at least one representative the younger generations doing it
somewhere..

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vachi
He did my Masters thesis from NYU Poly, actually everyone in our department
for like 30+ years was getting done with him. It was an experience that I
would never forget.

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rmason
Maybe it's the cost of doing business in NYC. There are over twenty book
binderies in Detroit.

[http://www.yellowpages.com/detroit-mi/book-
binding](http://www.yellowpages.com/detroit-mi/book-binding)

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Animats
But not even the last bookbinder in Manhattan.[1]

Some on-demand printing services offer hard-cover bookbinding.

[1] [http://www.ivrybookbinding.com/](http://www.ivrybookbinding.com/)

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HarryHirsch
_Some on-demand printing services offer hard-cover bookbinding._

That's not bookbinding, it's a cheap not-quite-replacement for the real thing.
When difficult-to-replace volumes from your personal library start losing
pages you see a bookbinder, not your corner photocopying business. University
libraries used to have them on the staff, but they seem to have gone the way
of the glassblower in the chemistry department. I understand that one can find
still find bookbinding shops in strict-orthodox communities, people like to
keep their prayer book, even after the original binding has given up.

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tingletech
UC has a bindery in Oakland that is run by Berkeley but takes jobs systemwide.
There is also a "Cal Trade Bindery" by my house on 24th St in Oakland.

