A water-damaged book on the bench today—pages cockled, edges dark, the kind of damage that shows you exactly how fast a life can change.
Restoration is patient violence: lift, dry, stabilize, rebuild—without lying about what happened.
If you’re dealing with a wet book and can’t get help immediately, freezing can buy time (it’s a legit stabilization step, not a weird internet trick).
“A well-bound book should last 100 to 200 years.” – George A. Baer
Heritage in every spine. At BOOKFORGE, we design for lifetimes.
#preservation #lastingcraft #leatherbinding #bookrestoration
This was the most time consuming & in depth book repair I've done. I disassembled the book, steamed pages, repaired pages with tengucho paper, re-bound the book, & made a new casing. It was my first time doing a rounded spine, so that was a bit scary! There was quite a bit of spine swell due to old adhesive that I wasn't able to completely remove + my own oversight of thread thickness.
#bookrepair #bookbinding #biblerepair #bookrestoration #bookconservation #biblerestoration
You can have a piece of this tradition; bespoke, restored, or newly imagined.
From one-of-a-kind commissions to careful restorations; your story belongs in a book.
We’d be honored to bind it.
#bespokebinding #bookrestoration #handbound #custombook #handboundbook #smallbusiness
A small before and after
A little moisture goes a long way to flatten bent pages
What's on your workbench today!?
Me? A restoration effort on an 1870 edition of VENICE and four half-bound leather music composition journals crafted with a split-board structure my apprentice @smithingchick is working.
#bookbinding #bookrestoration #bookbinder #BOOKFORGE #apprentice
Sometimes, not all the paste down material comes off, so it's sanding time for these boards. You don't want any relief under the pastedowns, nor do you want the old material coming loose later under the new pastedown.
#BOOKFORGE #bookrestoration #bookrestorer #honeybadgerbinder #bindERIE #bookbinder #bookbinding #bookbindery
BOOKFORGE
Frank
Carlijn Bakker
Edward Kranz