Cigarette papers also make an excellent medium for repairing torn pages. It adheres well and is clear that does not interfere with the text and is strong. I have used it many times on tears.

Your diligence in preserving this precious book was heartwarming...

So happy to happen on this helpful how-to. I have several paperbacks worth preserving in this way. Your choice of book, one of fifteen million copies sold, is laudable; you do Alan Paton a great honour.

You sound like a gentle soul and a pleasant person, its odd but I can watch your videos for hours explaining binding methods for nothing but the relaxing feeling I get from them ☺️

That was terrific. One of the least ego driven tutorials I have seen on this topic. Simply outstanding. Thanks so much.

I have wanted to bind my paperback set of Harry Potter books. They are very worn and I’ve taped the covers back together in the past. They are special to me and I haven’t got the heart to replace them. Definitely will be using this video to help me repair and bind them.

Thank you so much for the refresher course! I just ordered a book and it arrived in terrible condition. I complained and got a refund and they told me to keep the book so I'm going to rebind it with your tutorial.

I am so glad to have stumbled on your channel. I am also in South Africa and I'm sure you know the state of the textbooks our kids are supposed to work with! Every year I have at least one textbook to McGyver together again and always return the textbook in a much better condition than what my kids received it.

Wish I came across this posting earlier.I am confident I can have a try at bookbinding of a damaged paperback. Thank you for the very clear and easy to follow guidelines.I look forward to learn more.

Wish I'd seen this sooner after it was first posted. I use a similar method to re-bind paperback books, and have a couple of suggestions. One, when cutting into the spine for cords, cut at an angle of 45 degrees or even shallower to help lock the cords in place. Also, I use a much finer saw, not hard to get, I got mine at the local hardware store; it has a thin and somewhat flexible blade intended to make flush cuts in woodworking. Also, many paperbacks, at least here in the U.S., are bound using hot-melt glue, so it can be useful to use a heat gun (carefully!) to soften it and remove both the cover and the glue. I scrape the softened glue off with an old butter knife. Another thing is the clamping. I made clamps with pieces of 1x3 lumber, held together with carriage bolts and wing nuts, much easier to use than C-clamps (or, I believe, G-cramps in the UK).

Grrt thanks for your from egypt realy be informed the best pepol is the usifual for anather pepole great thank you im love rebuliding the old books

You are amazing! I wish more people were interested in saving and protecting the world's precious books. I'm trying to learn in small steps myself. I'm not ready for this level but I'm glad to know it's here when I am. Thank you so very much for posting it. 💙

This is awesome! I too am a South African and I am getting into bookbinding.

I have a Josephus Wars book that I got from a thrift shop years ago. it was already in "bad" shape. Not knowing anything about book repair, I just put it in my library because I couldn't (still can't) afford to have it repaired. I wouldn't try. lol However my other "smaller" book, I will. Thank you for your lesson!

Such a good, simple idea! Glue the boards to a little strip of paper. Nice, straight pencil lines to follow, nothing goes all wibbly wobbly when you add the cover cloth. Very nice. Thank you for the tip.

Thanks. I have a number of perfect bound books that are falling apart, and I was trying to find some way of improving the binding and recovering them. This is exactly what I was looking for. So many are just taking the backing of a good perfect bound book and using that for the spine of the hardcover. Many, especially the older Puritan Paperbacks series, have a poor-quality perfect binding with no super or stitching.

Thank you for sharing this practical step-by-step process. I think I'm confident now to tackle rebinding a paperback book similar to the one you just did. It doesn't seem so scary after all. I really appreciate your videos!

I have just found your channel and very much enjoy watching you work and learning your techniques. Thank you for sharing.

Wow!! I was always told that if you reinforce a paperback book with strings like this, you will lose so much of the gutter that it might make it very difficult to read, but it looked completely normal after you did it!

Thank you very much - for all the videos, not just this one. I could profitably spend a year or so consolidating various books from the collection which are of the age where they're starting to fall apart as soon as you read them. At present I'm in a race with a book which may well self-destruct before I finish. All bookbinding information is interesting, and it seems that everybody has their own nuances and something new to say. A subject which doesn't get as much attention as one might expect is titling for hobby binders who are not in a position to commit to gold blocking. I can turn my hand to gilding and wood engraving, both of which offer possibilities without being especially practical options ... it would be very instructive to hear your thoughts for approaches which go beyond the pasted paper label without getting to hot foil one day.

That was fascinating. Thank you. First time I’ve seen one of your videos. I happy to subscribe. Thanks again.

I enjoyed this very much when you first put it out, but I haven't heard anything new from you for a while - I hope you are hale and hearty! Greetings from UK.

wow thank you so much for this lovely wholesome in depth tutorial - can't wait to finally fix my notebook! Also first time seeing this string method - super stoked to try that out! i was thinking it might reinforce even more if they would be glued to the sides and perhaps flattened with a bonefolder so that there is more surface to the paper with the glue? probably then has to be glued on thicker paper.

Very interesting and enjoyable to watch. I think I would like to go on a bookbinding holiday course 😊

Excellent work! I really enjoyed this video. Makes me appreciate books even more. Thanks for sharing.

I have a large sized book where the binding for the pages is still holding, but the cover (front back and spine) fell off from what I can only guess is age. While this still seems slightly intimidating to do; knowing that I have this guide makes things so much easier. Especially when I look at the pile of other books needing attention as well.

I actually followed that tutorial but as an absolute amateur of course. What I did differently was I printed the inside if the cover (containing the author information) on the sheet i used for the end paper and in the end I covered the whole thing with transparent contact paper because I was afraid my covers will peel off. Thanks for the idea. I really didn't want to throw my book and thanks to you I saved it. ❤

VEREY VEREY VERY VEREY VEREY VEREY VEREY THANK YOU .😊

I do like you "acrylic leather" cover. My daughter showed me a similar technique to produce what she describes as "vegan leather": you take your supermarket bag paper and gently wash it in tepid water to which hair conditioner has been added. This makes it supple enough to scrunch up into a ball. Smooth it out and let it dry. Dip a paper towel in boot polish and lightly dab it over the crests. You get a crinkly, suede like finish so not suitable for mounting the original covers but with a light finish of burnished beeswax it looks quite effective.

What a fabulous channel. I love books and saving them is always a priority. This particular video is such a lovely watch. Very skilful and I'm subbing your channel. Sending you best wishes from the UK🤗👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

As an added protection, you could have also burnished the novel's covers with a little bee's wax for a little sheen and moisture protection...very nice work

Hello, I am new here and I have a question: is there any way of reinforcing a paperback cover if I want to keep using it as a paperback (thus not converting it into a hardcover), while it is in rather good shape but generally used, and a bit worn in the corners, for instance? I would rather not use plastic films, that I have seen in some videos on other channels. I have made some tests with applying tissue paper or tissue on the whole inside part of the cover, but I am not very pleased with having to use these on large areas; I guess these materials are rather for mending tears, for instance. If you already covered the topic in a video, please let me know where to look. PS: I really like your channel and I find it very useful, I made my first book project (repair a paperback and convert it into a hardcover) using your tutorial! Thank you!

20.00 time mark is the most clever way I've seen.

Brilliant. Exactly what I was looking for! Thank you so much for making this video.

Thank you for the string demonstration. I'm doing that to my book. It's ok if the book is flat, rather than the traditional curved spine because seperate signatures and a cable thread holding them together allows for the more extreme angle of bend when the book is opened. Simulating that curved spine on a rigid glued paperback binding only increases the wear and tear. Theres a reason why paperbacks have flat spines.

Thank you for this! I have so many well-loved books that are falling apart and this is exactly what I need

Nice video. Thank you. I've found that brown paper painted with Indian ink also makes a nice black paper for book covers. It's waterproof and has a bit of a sheen to it, which I quite like.

Thank you. I learned a lot here.

Thanks you very much! Very clear and practical

Great job. Thank you.

Hello from Australia! I have so many books I have wanted to repair, and you have given me the confidence to start. Can't wait to watch the rest of your videos.

This process works very well to bind your school or collage notes that you need to keep.

Thank you for sharing. Von Brazil.

Beautiful

Excellent information as always. Watching and listening to you is also immensely relaxing. Thank you again!

This is what I really wanted

Amazing job! Such a good tutorial :)

Good video thanks

very useful

Obrigado por compartilhar este processo passo a passo prático. Acho que agora estou confiante para refazer a encadernação de um livro de bolso semelhante ao que você acabou de fazer. Afinal, não parece tão assustador. Eu realmente aprecio seus vídeos!

Thank you

Great video....please to more : )

Great!

thank you

No doubt..i have seen this whole video..you are so explicit with clear and easy steps. I love books and im surrounded with the scent old books...in my opinion your explanation is best on youtube..can you tell me which glue you use pls..many thanks

thanks .

Bravo…..

On the torn pages, I have taken a tiny amount of glue on the edge of the tear and glued it closed, without added paper in top and it held well.

Thanks so much for this. I have a question, perhaps odd, perhaps not. If I wanted to bind a book of original artwork that I made over time, on the same sized paper,, as a special gift, say 40-50 pages, would you advise using this method, or have you posted a different method that I missed? I've looked at several videos on KZfaq, and so far this seems the closest to what I imagine I would need to do. Thanks in advance! I really enjoyed watching this process!

i enjoy your videos and found them very helpful. please keep them coming. will you be doing videos on using leather?

I am really enjoying your videos! Could I ask, what is the advantage of "tipping in" (?) the end pages instead of binding them in with the rest of the pages? Is it just to facilitate easier adjustment of the alignment if necessary?

Thank you for the video... How can we fix if the paper bAxk spine is torn half?

Thank you for such an instructive and informative series of tutorials. I am also based in South Africa, and wish to find out where I could locally purchase some basic bookbinding materials such as Wubelin, bone folders, PVA glue and mull. So keen to try bookbinding as a hobby.

Hello Macrina, I that term, "Perfect Bound". I cannot figure out why it is called that, because it is far from perfect. My book is relatively new, it came apart like a writing pad, though some pages were torn. At least your book is decades old. Mine - 2 years old. 🙄 I learnt from another bookbinder, use a water-dampened cotton tip and carefully run that along the dog-ear on both sides. What that does, is "relax" the fibres allowing the dog-ear to spring back by itself. It also reduces the risk of fracturing brittle paper. When it has dried, you can hardly tell if there was a crease ever there. It works brilliantly. Beautiful result, that has transformed it from being a little more than waste paper into proper book again. If my book turns out anything like approaching your repair, I will be pleased. I know it won't be an easy job. Weird how Penguin got the grain for the paper incorrect, but the covers were OK. 44:54 Thank you Macrina, for a literal step-by-step instruction for what I must do to fix my book.

Clever hands

I have a scrabble dictionary to repair. I was just going to stick the part that came adrift back onto the softcover but I think it will come apart again. So I think I need to take it apart and put it into a hardcover. Doing an Oxford hollow would be best? Should I also do the string on the spine?

Hi! Thank you for making this video! What are the cords/string you used? Thanks again.

Hi, I followed your video and made a large paperback into hardcover. It’s a little larger than a sheet of A4. Didn’t have any problems doing it but a while later I’ve noticed that the top and bottom corners of the hardcover are starting to curve away from the book. I’m thinking it’ll need repressing to get it flat again, but do I need to damp the book slightly to reactivate the glue or shall I just press it?

Please show the type of glue that the previous video used

4:50- I was wondering why my dog was barking outside lol

Could you use something like a blow dryer to melt the glue?

It would be AWESOME if you could provide links to the specific PVA glue and anything else we would need for book binding....thanks! :)

After one has the pages freed from the original binding, is there anything one can do about the acidity of the paper? Can it be treated somehow?

i couldn't find PVA GLUE so i decided to use White Glue, IS IT WORKING ?

It was fun watching you work with South African materials! You got an amazingly good result with the Spar bag painted with acrylic. Was it Dala brand? I’m so glad you saved those lovely classic Penguin covers

20:00 it looks like a white centipede

Wont wheat paste mold?

Is it the same process whe it comes to a thicker book?

I'm sorry if I missed it but why do you need to put string in the spine of hardcover book?

the book i want to rebind is also a penguin books one, and has an almost identical cover (its The Picture of Dorian Gray, edition from 1950) lol 😂

What kind of string did you use?

Are you just relying on the endpaper strength for the hinges of the book?

How appropriate using a fishing knife, you are scaling and etc.. just like you would a fish, except you wouldn't put the fish back together, haha. What glue just for a weakly glued cover on a new paperback ??? JSTN from Chicago

I dislike! She spends so much time speaking details and details, and detais about things not so important. The fases really interesting she accelerates the video. It is lacking the list of materials.

Just an amateurish odd job...