Tag: bookbinding tools

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New Lifting Knives

These are the newly designed set of lifting knives, available for sale in the tool catalog section on the left.  Both of the knives are made from 01 steel, hardened to about Rc 59.  This hardness results in a durable edge for the prying and cutting.  The knives are polished, with no handle, so they can be used under water for backing removal.  They are based on a Roger Powell design, are perfect lifting covering material, splitting boards, and mechanical backing removal. They can used by right and left handers.  These knives will pay for themselves the first time you successfully lift something without having to do additional repairs. Both are 6″ long, and 1/16″ thick, half the thickness of the previous model.  The large knife is 1″wide, and perfect for lifting covering materials, splitting boards and mechanical backing removal.  If you are a paper conservator, and normally remove backing material with a scalpel, you will find this knife much more efficient, and safer for the user and the artifact.   The small 1/2″ knife is perfect for smaller books, turnins, lifting spines between raised bands, etc….  The rounded, beveled corners allow you to twist the knife when cutting through slips, for example. These knives are the perfect union of quality, simplicity and functionality.   The set includes two knives and a folding leather case, held together with magnets and protects the blades when not in use.    $225.00

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Paring In Action

I finally made a (very) short video showing edge paring using an English style A2 Cryo knife. Hopefully, early next year, in the new tool catalog, there will be videos of all the tools in action.  In the meantime, descriptions and images of tools are in the “TOOL CATALOG”  in the right hand column.

Video seems a promising technology for the preservation of craft based knowledge: it can clearly demonstrate and record hand skill techniques.  It can also be potentially misleading in terms of how easily a tool is used, and “special effects” are available on any computer.  But videos are popular, great for marketing, persuasive and hot right now.

Sit back, eat a piece of popcorn and enjoy the next 39 seconds.

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A    PEACHEY    KNIFE    IN    ACTION

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C. Hammond Hammers

hammond1910

C. Hammond Catalog, 1910. Courtesy of Gary Roberts, who runs the website, toolemera, which has tons of other fascinating trade catalogs, mainly woodworking,  he has scanned from his personal collection.

Bexx Caswell, a recent NBSS grad,  noticed that the Edith Diehl hammer I wrote about earlier is actually a blank book hammer.  Bexx also also saw a similar hammer at Campbell-Logan Bindery in Minneapolis. The basic form descended from the French cobblers hammer I wrote about, but it is great to be able to trace its linage more precisely. The Diehl hammer that I own has some additional stamps (under the line that reads “PHLIA” it is stamped “CAST STEEL”) which leads me to think it is earlier than the one pictured in this catalog, since advertising cast steel is commonly more of a 19th century convention.

It is instructive to note that there were specialized hammers for Stationary Binders verses Bookbinders.  The large, long peen may have been useful when forming the extreme arch many blank book spines have.  Currently, most binders get by with one hammer, which mirrors the general decline in the diversity of specialized hand tools which continues to this day. Nineteenth century bookbinders also had specific hammer shapes for rounding, backing and, of course, beating.