From Blog Posts or Notebook to Book : Part II, from reproducible originals to books you can turn the pages of

From Blog Posts or Notebook to Book : Part I, up to reproducible originals · Part II, from reproducible originals to books you can turn the pages of

A Copying.

For each fold or 8 pages ...

... Title page to 8, 9 to 16, 17 to 24 and so on ...

or

... Title page to uiij, 1 to 8, 9 to 16, 17 to 24 and so on ...

use the originals produced in part I for recto verso copying, most usually in A4 (doing recto verso to A3 might be irksome or impossible).

Do it in as many copies as you like.

For the cover, make as many copies of the one sided original where the title page is (or of other page including title page and back cover blurb?).

For instance, I had a booklet with long preface up to p. uiij and pages of regular text up to p. 56. That is eight recto verso for the folds, 16 copies worth, since each recto verso counts as two copies, and an extra copy (one sided) for the cover = each example is worth 17 copies.

B Folding and first gluing of cover.

All folds or quiers or two sided printing sheets are folded like this:

first fold is vertical along a horizontal line, second fold is horizontal along a vertical line;
the two pages that are side by side (iu & u, 4 & 5, 12 & 13 and so on) are outside of first fold and inside of second;
the two pages that are extreme (uiij or 8 and title page, 16 & 9 and so on) are other outside of first fold, outsides of second fold.

Cover page copy can be divided along a vertical line, this is the method I am using right now and will first describe.

One piece of it will have the title page and a page head to head with it.

Other piece will have either other two pages of recto for first quier or a blurb and a page head to head with it...

...now fold both pieces so that title page, possibly blurb, fold down "on front". Unfold, so title page and possibly blurb come on top. Glue other pages of front and back covers onto the first and last quiers, adding "two pages extra tall" before first and after last.

Let the glue dry.

Note that each printed sheet as folded is hereafter known as one quier. It is the same word as French "cahier".

C For sewing, you need holes.

More specifically, you need the holes in all quiers and lower part of cover sheets to match up.

Fold a piece of thick paper or cardboard straight. Its double rim on one side at least should be straight enough to match up with sides of a folded quier. Length of fold should be a bit less than half length of second fold of each quier.

Draw a line on it, 3 mm or "one line" from the fold. Use needle to push four holes in it. Fairly equidistanced. Outer two should be about 1 cm or "four lines" from the limit of the paper or cardboard.

Now put each quier with its longer fold into the folded cardboard, matching up first shorter folds, then opposite side of quier with four leafs with the straight rim of the cardboard, and on each side punch four holes with needle.

When you punch the eight holes in first and last quiers, title page and "blurb page" (whether actually holding a blurb or not) should be folded up, away from the page which is glued to outer page of quier. If you start punching holes just after above gluing of cover, punch these two quiers last, so glue can dry at least some. The "show pages" (title and blurb) must be kept folded up and away, off the sewing all through next moment.

D Now, sewing the quiers.

When all quiers have their holes punched, thread a needle same size or thinner than the one you used for punching. Use a fairly long thread, you will still probably have to thread it again.

Divide the quiers (in the right order, cover's title page and blurb page folded up and away) into two and start sewing from the middle of the book.

Start at either lowest set of holes and sew upward, or highest and sew down or from two midmost and sew out both directions, but decide which you do before starting to sew.

Glue some on the paper near to your "first hole", glue the double thread end onto it, let it rest. Then, when glue is solid, sew through first hole ofall quiers from mid front to front, just pulling thread through the row of holes.

Now make sure all the double thread is pulled through.

Turn the quiers together so you see first hole from front, where thread comes out. Turn needle behind first quier from front, push it through the first quier's first hole again. If you did right, you now have the double thread first going through front row of first holes, then looping into front most first hole and out on front again. Draw out the thread so loop is tightened.

Next loop is over fold of frontmost quier and fold of the one inside it. I will label it quier II. Needle should now go into first hole of quier II and up between quiers II and I. See below how.

Next loop is over folds of quiers II and III, needle through first hole in quier III, up between quiers III and II, and so on, all the way to back of book. In the first row of holes, this means that after middle you will be adding quier after quier by making loop after loop. Continue: until you have pulled up needle between last quier and second last quier.

Last loop after that, over fold of only last quier, needle through first hole in it and through all first holes in a row back into the middle where you started.

Most of the time, you will be doing this with quiers already attached to each other. If you sew from front, as here described, pull out the quier around which you make loop both from what is behind it and what is in front of it, gently, not too far, you don't have all that much room. Put needle point behind it, push needle point down front (with needle eye slightly up behind it) through the hole. Then paddle the needle eye down, slightly, so as to get needle point up, after the hole (before the hole, as you watch it) and now push needle up from below. Avoid making scratches.

In the very first row, after middle, you can actually sew from behind and have each new quier hindmost, and that is easier - but from second row on, you don't have that luxury.

Now get needle under thread where it starts out from glue attachment, then up to second hole. Now repeat all of above but applied to second hole. Except, this time you don't need to add quiers, they are already there.

Whenever, from second hole on, the loops pass the middle, make sure the loop around quier just after middle when (double) thread goes up in middle, also loops where the thread started out from middle. And whenever you come back to middle again, pass thread through those two, before going on to next set of holes.

If (as it will, at least unless you start with the two rows of holes closest to middle), thread starts becoming short, thread another needle, make a flat knot around "thread ends" of one double thread and "needle end" of the first one. If you only have one needle, you may be better off gluing the ends to the paper and let it dry before going on to sew. Either way, you cut needle free from first double thread before going on.

When all sets of holes above or below first hole to the end of the book are sewn, attach some glue, cut strings off from needle and curl them into the glue. Let dry.

E This Back is not Blurb Page, but the back you see in a bookshelf

If you have spoiled copies, you have some scrap paper. Cut or fold-and-rip the A4 into four A6. If you have relatively few quiers (for 8, it is certain, for ten perhaps at least probable), now cut or fold and rip the A6 along its longer axis. Then fold that paper again, still along the longer axis. Glue the inside of the fold, fold it together and press around glue. Let dry.

Now punch holes, exactly as you did with the quiers.

Now glue one side of the back with its holes, fold that side closer to the quiers and folds, and attach sewing through the holes you made for the binding as such as well as the holes for this back. Let the thread go back and forth between front and back (as in blur side, this time) making a prolonged figure 8 with appropriately many loops through all the holes.

First hole, attaching the back is tricky. From second hole on, it gets easier, but you will have to pull the thread some times over, since the back will be trying to bend outward into flat, away from the quiers. Don't give up. When you are done, you should have by the newer sewing have attached to the first and last quier the glued back. Now let dry.

F Finishing front and back covers (and this back is the blurb page, if you have a blurb)

Glue over the leaf that is now glued in between first quier and bookshelf back in front, fold the title page over it, push all over so the glue comes even underneath.

Do the same with the blurb side.

Now lay it all under a press, and let it dry.

G Tips if you want a real blurb and a printed bookshelf back:

Do this before making the books - or after you tested on first example that the width of the quiers is right for the size of back I propose.

Make a special single page (recto only) print, not of the recto of title page quier, but of a sheet having title page and whatever you want as blurb page printed in the right quarters of it.

As to bookshelf back, the size I have here discussed is the quarter width of an A6 with all its length, printed, other quarter width (to make it thick), not printed. This printed/not printed half width is repeated other half width of the A6 and twice again on the A6 beside and that is repeated on the two A6 parts above.

First take or blank print an A3. Fold its width in four. Then write appropriate text (like author and title) as close to middle of every second of the four strips. Make text fairly large, it will be diminished. Now lay this on the A3 field of the copying machine, make two smaller prints in A4.

Lay these two side by side on the A3 field, copy to two smaller A4.

These on the A3 field, diminished to a single A4 will give you eight useable backs on the 8 "half width A6 pages" it comprises. Bigger sizes of same text can be used for decoration outside books, or as scrap paper.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
St Lawrence Giustiniani of Venice
5.IX.2016

PS, I had nearly forgotten, but when the last gluing is dried, there is one step more : you need to cut the top folds, the first folds. Not the back folds, second folds, which are protected by the sewing and the bookshelf back, but the top folds. It's no great fun (after novelty has passed) for most people reading only pages 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16 and missing 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15./HGL