Hard binding an old copy of college thesis
For many years I had kept an old full copy of my college thesis in my closet held together by a plastic folder and a binder clip.
I first decided to just perfect bind the thing since I just wanted it to be properly held together. But then I thought it looks too much like grade school pad paper where the pages can just be easily torn off. It would just fall apart in like months or a few years.
So I watched a bunch of tutorials from local school bookbinders to see how they do it. And that's how I decided to poke holes on my already perfect bound book, sew the pages together and then hard bind it.
I used mallet and thumbtacks to make the holes. This thing had almost 200 single sheets and the thumbtacks were stuck. I gave up and forgot about this project for 3 months (lol).
Came back to the project at the end of August. I removed the thumbtacks which were stuck with a flat screwdriver and pliers. I then added a few more holes for sewing.
(Honestly I overdid the number of holes, most tutorials only used like 5 holes.)
I did not have book board available but our house have a lot of old diploma/certificate holders from graduations. So I removed the boards inside them!
Then I trimmed the sides of the text block to make the edges look smooth and new. I measured the board to match text block size with bit of overhang.
I then got some nice wrapping paper and proceeded to make the book cover. I also added headbands made from the same wrapping paper.
finished product lol
This was my 2nd attempt at hard binding and I've definitely improved a bit. Instead of using bone folder/small ruler to smooth out glue bubbles, I used a dry rag. It was less scarier than using a straight edge.
One thing to remember about reusing old cardboard is that they have to cleaned properly. The old paper glued on boards should be removed. I left some tiny bits of paper on the board because i was lazy. After I glued the wrapping paper, the outline of those tiny bits of paper left on the recycled board could be seen through the book cover. OTL
Hardbinding in our city cost around 5-7 USD. It was fun to learn techniques from them and also recycle materials from our home.