My Favorite Book Press

The Workshed got a new window last week - a long-overdue improvement. With the sparkly new fixture, I was inspired to reorganize the workshop space and so spent a day at that task. The next biggest improvement was to bring my beautiful teak double-laying press to the center of the workshop, where it rightfully belongs. Mr. Dog is not pleased that I had to remove his sofa to do this, but now I'll be much less reluctant to illustrate my posts with photos.

Most of my heavier book binding equipment has been purchased second hand over the years. Since these items are rather specialized, it takes some hunting to acquire them. The laying press pictured here is one I bought from a "hobby" binder several years ago. The previous owner had commissioned two such contraptions from a woodworker who used salvage and scrap hardwood, mostly teakwood, from his boatbuilding work. The best book presses are built of hardwood to resist warpage from the moisture expressed in many book pressing operations. This press was designed by the original owner who was interested in the look of medieval scriptorium tables at which scribes, generally monks, worked head-to-head at copying manuscripts - the only way to get a copy of a book prior to the introduction of moveable type by Gutenberg in 1439. The base of this press is a rather fanciful adaptation, but works well to support the presses, the jaws of which can move freely to accommodate large books and additional pressing boards if necessary and still be totally supported by the base and allowing plenty of free space for work to hang down and worker to move around without hinderance. It's also a gorgeous piece of furniture, now properly showcased at Vinegar Hill.

After the signatures or leaves of a books have been sewn together, pressing becomes important at several subsequent phases of the binding process. The horizontal, or laying press, is used to hold the sewn book block while the spine is shaped and lined before attaching the cover boards. Because the spine of the book is held horizontally, the binder can get on top of the work and assure that the spine is even and uniformly shaped. This is critical to making a book that opens easily, yet retains it's shape when closed. In later phases of the binding process, the book boards will be lined and pressed, the book will be attached to the boards, covered and pressed, and finally any titling or decoration on the covered spine will be done while the book is held in the laying press.

Most hand binding work does not require a press as large or elaborate as this one, and I do have and use several other presses regularly. This press is so special because I can have two projects on the bench at once, the shelf slides the width of the table so I can keep tools and materials handy from either side, the dual presses accommodate huge books easily, and the shelf lifts off the base, so if I need a large, flat work surface - or a place to serve a romantic "studio dinner" - I simply remove it and any work in the presses and put down a formica-clad table top on the base.

Romantic Studio dinner? Hmm, gotta try that.