Book Binding Notebooks

[Chief TomaToe]

What goes best with a fountain pen? A good notebook! I'm working on a winter hobby that will keep my fingers busy while it's too cold to go out to the shop. This is an A5 size notebook made with Rhodia dot grid paper. The binding of the notebook is hand sewn and also has a cotton cloth covering.

Although book binding doesn't involve a lathe, it is still quite rewarding!

 

[sondich]

Great idea for a classic gift set. My daughter Molly is 16. She's in the Creative Writing Conservatory at her high school. Most of the kids in her program are big readers/writers. Almost all of them prefer hard copy books and journals like this for their work, even through they all have iphones. It's an unlikely but welcome trend!

 

[dogcatcher]

This was one of my "grandpa" jobs. It started innocently as a gift for our granddaughter, that exploded to include her friends, then some teachers saw them. Our son and family moved, I quietly retired.

I used the leather feel paper for the covers, 5 sheets of paper. Folded that gave me 10 pages. I drilled 4 or 6 holes with a small bit and hand sewed using linen thread. Then trim with a commercial paper cutter, one of those guillotine looking things from our school days.

 

[darrin1200]

This is an awesome project Ronnie. I like the Rhodes with my fountain pens, I have a couple of pads.

Where did you get the loose leaf Rhodia dot grid. I have a friend, that makes custom notebooks, using plain blank paper. I have been trying to get her to upgrade the paper to a good dot grid, but it seems hard to find loose.

 

[Chief TomaToe]

Darrin,

Unfortunately there aren't a whole lot of options out there in terms of nice paper for fountain pens if you're doing your own book binding. I have been poking around to see where folks get paper from the "source" so to speak, but to no avail. Tomoe River paper is great for fountain pens and comes in loose leaf form, but it is ridiculously expensive!

For larger projects I just buy the largest Rhodia dot grid pads I can find: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005IAZXWM/ref=twister_B07JJMSLQ4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
The paper isn't loose leaf, but they do have nice perforated edges that effectively makes them loose leaf for my purposes. The size gives you freedom to do different dimension notebooks.

I also make pocket sized "Field Notes" style journals. It is easier to find A5 sized loose leaf paper: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075DYK1M...colid=3EO0L04X9Q6X2&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it&th=1

This is an awesome project Ronnie. I like the Rhodes with my fountain pens, I have a couple of pads.

Where did you get the loose leaf Rhodia dot grid. I have a friend, that makes custom notebooks, using plain blank paper. I have been trying to get her to upgrade the paper to a good dot grid, but it seems hard to find loose.