Fritz Otto's Visitor

Fritz Otto was in his studio, exhausted after a long day of bookbinding. He was distracted by his phone and didn't even notice the soft knock on his open studio door.

"Hey, I know it's late, and you probably want to go home, but can I come in?"

Sigh ... "I was closing up, but sure, come in" Fritz Otto said. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, my name is Minerva Conciatore *, and I just graduated from college. I'm still figuring out what to do with my life, but I learned about bookbinding in a 'history of the book' class at the library's special collections. It was amazing, and we even made some simple books. Anyway, I live in town and found you while searching for things to do. I can come back another time if that's better..."

"That's okay. We can talk a bit, but I need to get going soon. 'Minerva,' right?"

"Yeah, my parents are hardcore bookworms, so I grew up with a lot of books, but I never thought of them as something to make. You have some cool stuff on your bench. What's that fish-like thing?"

"That? It's actually fish parchment. I'm obsessed with it. I can't show you the big books on the bench because they're still drying and need to set in that position."

"Listen, I'm tired and need to get home, but feel free to come another time. I'd be happy to show you more and chat. Just drop me a line, so I know you're coming.  You seem to have my contact info already."

"Okay, sounds good. I'll bring the books I made in that class, and something else I was experimenting with."

Minerva left, and Fritz Otto quickly finished sweeping up and headed out, almost forgetting to lock up. Reflecting on this chance meeting, he wondered about Minerva and her interests. Her experiences learning about books and their history made him curious to learn more about what they teach, and he was especially interested in seeing the "books" she made. Bookbinding is a small field, and it's important to encourage each other. He hadn't done much teaching himself, but wasn't shy about sharing his work and bookish experiences. The next day, he received a message from Minerva asking to set up a time to meet again. Fritz Otto checked his calendar since the studio was his personal space, and he still worked with "the boss." He also wanted to make sure he could show her more, but it was more important to see her work and let her describe what she learned and what her interests are.

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* Inspired by Bookbinder Barbie (her Insta here) who came to visit during the summer of 2019, Fritz Otto Buchbinder has been a “fixture” on the Pressbengel Project blog since August of 2019, and later on Instagram. The benefactor of the other doll, Minerva, is unknown. She arrived in May from an eBay seller, I did not order her, and it was not something I was considering adding. The eBay seller was in Indiana, and a note just said “gift from a fan”. Reached out, but did not receive a response back. The doll was clearly not new, no box …, was wearing little black dress, had no shoes, piercing holes in ears, but no earrings, and her hair was a mess. Still kind of is. That said, all her joints work, she is poseable, and can stand on her own. Not one to not take advantage of a gift and opportunity like this, I ordered some clothes and shoes. We’ll see how often she appears on @fritzottobuchbinder outside of this story. Of course, she needed a name … After a good deal of thinking, I arrived at Minerva Conciatore. Both name and surname are references to living individuals … 😉

We’ll see where the story goes.

Fritz Otto Finishes His Springbacks

And here we finish these springbacks / Sprungrücken started in the previous post, and the three others that were "dropped in". Whew! That was a lot of "malochen", aka hard labor ...

Full instructions (without me) can be viewed on the Book Arts Web at https://www.philobiblon.com/springback/. View the color images for the post on Insta.

Last check on spring foundation/spine stiffener.

Gluing out the spring foundation/spine stiffener from the outer edges
to the first crease.

Positioning the spring foundation/spine stiffener and then rubbing
down onto the thin boards.

Gluing out the fill that evens out the transition from
the spring foundation/spine stiffener.

Gluing down the fill.

Checking the layers of the spring foundation/spine stiffener.
In the German tradition the spine is built up in layers with the
width lining up with the inside creases.

Gluing down the thick boards. The thickness of the spring equals
the thickness of the thick boards.

Wetting out the leather.

Pasting out the leather.

Folding the outer sides of the leather with only the spine exposed
to make it easier to position on the binding.

Positioning the leather on the spine.

Working the leather into the groove and across the boards.

Turning in the leather in the area of the spine.

Making sure the turn-ins are nice and precise.

Putting down the pastedown.

It's been a busy few weeks with three more springbacks added
to the batch, as a rush job, of course. 

Here, the cutaway springback open ...
It springs!

Full instructions (without me) can be viewed on the Book Arts Web at https://www.philobiblon.com/springback/. View the color images for the post on Insta.

So, what should I work on next?

Fritz Otto Starts Some Springback Bindings

Decided to pull out the old, analog Pentax again to put Fritz Otto in front of the lens ... (35mm lens with Ilford HP 5) 

Below we see Fritz Otto starting a modest batch of 2 springback ledger bindings in the German tradition. Works just like the English version, with the major difference being in the spring construction. In addition to being used for ledgers and other official records (Excel is life ... now), they are used as guest books and can be decorated like any other finding bindings.

Folding the endpapers.

Rough-cutting the endpapers to size.
His cutting mat has a backstop to use with a triangle or "L" square
to ensure the cuts are square. The one I use in real life can be seen here.

Tipping the endpapers on to some old text blocks that were in the studio.

Trimming the endpapers flush with the text block

Sewing the endpapers onto the tapes that were there.

Lining the spine.

Gluing on the endbands. These are traditionally glued on ...

Ready to start on the distinguishing features of this binding technique.

See the conclusion of this project on this blog here.

You can see more images of Fritz Otto at work on these bindings on his Insta, @FritzOttoBuchbinder. There are four posts in this series so far ...

Bradel According To Denninger

A few years ago, the Stichting Handboekbinden posted the availability in sheets of Johann Denninger's De Bradelbinding (The Bradel Binding), also here. The New Bookbinder (1996) had published what I consider an abridged version with some history of the structure and something about this Bradel ... Like the article, this book started off with a lot of "according to" history, before going into the step-by-step instructions for what ends up as a hybrid historical/old school Pappband/Edelpappband, the latter so called because of the corner and head/tail reinforcements in parchment or leather, something that was first described in the literature around 1905. I describe the history of the Pappband structure, including a review of the literature and step-by-step instructions for the Ur-form in a 3-post series starting here.

But, back to Denninger ... I rarely follow instructions from a manual when binding it, but decided to in this case. The text is in Dutch, but I could get the gist of most from the illustration and my German/English Denglish. For those parts I couldn't figure out, I took screen grabs from the PDF available at the link above, then using Google Lens to translate the image. Then copy and paste into a Word ... document.

Making the endsheet section: this is a fairly standard historical
endsheet consisting of a double-folio text-like paper to which a
"decorative" folio is adhered resulting in a "made" endsheet(the schutblad). A 
single waste-sheet is hooked around this. You'll 
see why in later steps. 

The signatures were then rough cut. The top edge will get ploughed later

A template ensures that all the sewing holes line up ...

I sewed on three untwisted and frayed out cords, so like tapes, but ...

With the sewing done, the endsheet section was narrowly tipped-on
the adjacent signature, then the spine was glued up nice and square.

After rounding and backing to 45° at the shoulder with my "kashtoir",
I lined the spine with muslin between the sewing stations.

Then, I used my fray shield to clean up and untwist ... the strands
of the cords so that they were nice and clean ...

Next, I applied paste along the spine edge of the waste-sheet
and to the cord, neatly fanning them out and smoothing with a
folder so they weren't lumpy ... (Read image from right to left) 

When dry ..., I ploughed the top edge. Then, I applied a nice rolled
endband, I made mine of leather, and line the spine from end to end. 
 A simple one on, two off hollow was also suggested as an option,
but I went with just a simple paper lining as this is a very small volume.

Denninger then suggested a "gebrochener Rücken", scroll down here, the quintessential
hallmark of this style, or this little piece that was the width of the spine +
2x the slope of the shoulder. I had only seen this in connection with the
"Danish millimeter" binding, but gave it a try.

The edges were pared, then the over-long piece was adhered only
at the shoulder. Then, the boards were attached to the waste-sheet
adjacent to the shoulder. Glue should only go just beyond the fanned-out cords.

In keeping with the style, I made dainty little leather corners/tips.

Then I added the head and tail leather edging, when dry, I reduced
by paring the leather, and then sanded carefully so the transition
would be almost imperceptible.

Important, I also tore off the waste sheet so that it was nicely feathered 
out, and then sanded it so that it was all smooth. That way, the fanned-out
cords don't show through under the pastedown.

The same was done with the corners. They will be "invisible" 
when the cover is viewed board-on, and almost invisible on
the turn-ins.

Here, head [and tail] after covering.
After covering and making the turn-ins, I trimmed out the verso
of the board, so it was all neat and tidy.

And the corners from the inside showing the turn-in.

Finally, the overall. I made the oil-marbled paper in 2019. It was my
introduction to marbling in 1984, and 2019 was the first time in over
30 years ... The title is a laser printed recessed label with an edge,
something I learned from Bill Minter when I worked for him a
l.o.n.g. time ago. I describe how to here.

All-in-all, an interesting exercise and fun excuse to get back into binding after an extended absence.

This also ties in well with something I'm working on regarding the evolution of the Pappband/Bradel into the Edelppband, and now this thing called a Sandgren Binding. Nomenclature is important, but gets VERY messy with multiple languages and "creation myths".

So That Up Is Up

In a world that is verSPINnert, ahem spinning, it's important to tell up from down, right from wrong, ... So too in bookbinding. That's why I, @FritzOttoBuchbinder, always put an up arrow on the end sheet indicating up, and a "V" for vorne (front). Helps prevent confusion and casing-in upsidedown. Of course, that NEVER happens to me. 🤔🙄😮‍💨

Dog Chew Cod Parchment

As many will know, fish skin for bookbinding, whether as parchment and tanned has long been an area of interest for me. This interest was sparked by several articles on the subject by Ernst Collin and others largely during Germany's Weimar era. The 2020 Fish Skin Bind-O-Rama was a sort of culmination of my efforts to bring attention to this material, but more so I am very pleased to see binders and book artists still working in the material, in particular Karen Hanmer and Debra Frances.

Some time ago I was given a package of Icelandic cod doggie chew snacks by a friend. Those chews looked gnarly and I wondered if they could be processed into parchment or leather, you know, as an experiment and proof of concept.

Dentley's "Exotics" Icelandic Cod Skins

These things are big at 18 inches, so I needed some help holding
them upright. Note how they are folded/rolled up. 

The third skin in the pack. Keeping this "as is" as a sample and control.
Side "A"

Side "B"

So, as one can see, they're big and folded/rolled up lengthwise. Also rock-hard and in need of serious cleaning and scaling.

First step was to [re]hydrate so I could unfold ... and get them into a quart-sized Mason jar. Plugged the kitchen sink and into the first bath of COLD water with isopropyl and strong dish detergent. Surprisingly, that worked so that after about an hour they could be pulled flat and pushed into the jar. 

Soaking in isopropyl, dish detergent, and COLD water.
This went into the fridge with several changes of water and
dish detergent, accompanied by massaging to help loosen the fibers,
and starting to scrape away flesh, fat, and other stuff. Lots to do there ...

Next was descaling. "Shinies" EVERYWHERE in the kitchen.
"Shinies" was coined by one of the youngest fish skin binders.
In the end I didn't do as good a job as I thought. 🙄

Finally, the skins were stretched out to dry.

Evident on the lower one are parallel lines from something between being caught and dried for packaging. Both skins also have areas where the skin was chewed up. This makes for very gnarly look. I may well use the top one. Would be a shame not to after all that work.

As I was going through all this I googled for these fishy dog chews. Cod and haddock seem most common, with both available in different sizes and shapes, e.g. dainty rolls for that favorite "tea cup" dog. The steps are essentially the same as with fresh caught fish, but this is much easier to store. Maybe these could be good for more basic workshops where skinning a fish, or cleaning a fresh skin is to messy and gross in the eyes of the participants. Simply soak and rehydrate first, then let they have fun scaping and stretching out or tanning.

Though he said he was sick of this fishy business, Fritz Otto snuck off and processed his own cod too ... Probably won't use it, but makes a splendid Dekoobjekt / objet décoratif.