Time to start a fourth book...a longstitch book with a leather wrap case. These have very little inherent structure, but they open really easily, and so make really good journals. I’m going to use this leather. The top side is...OK, but the flesh side shows the marks of a pretty drastic finishing process. I like it. It’ll be the visible cover of the book.

Time to start working on a third binding: a Coptic binding, which uses stitching but no adhesive to hold it together. Not going to sew it tonight (it’s gone 10 and I have work tomorrow). But I want to prep the boards.

So the next book I want to start binding will be sewn on tapes, hollow back,, cased in, with French grooves and a beaded headband. Again, all these terms will make sense in time. Same configuration of signatures as the previous book: 6 signatures of 6 sheets each, endpaper signatures of 2 sheets each.

So enough background. Let's get binding.
First binding is going to be a classic "fine binding" in the style of the golden age of bookbinding: the end of the 18th century. Raised cords, flexible spine, tight boards, full leather binding. (All of these words will be explained.) Last night I cut some paper to size, folded it (PARALLEL WITH THE GRAIN) into signatures (stacks of paper folded in half), and pressed it overnight in my nipping press.