The OED

MY first meaningful awareness of the Oxford English Dictionary was in the mid-2000’s when I started reading David Foster Wallace. He’s become one of my favorite authors, but damn if he wasn’t making me look up words constantly. Unsurprisingly, it turned out he was a dictionary fan in general and of the OED in particular.  When I first vaguely ideated acquiring it, DW promptly disavowed me of it- to the effect of where the hell are we going to put it? The below being our living room prior to 2012

So that notion lay dormant even after a 2012 home remodel to accommodate our growing book collection, 

Forward to the pandemic markedly limiting our activities while increasing our reading and finding another author- Annie Dillard whose vocabulary required frequent dictionary use. Yes, this is 2020 when it’s simple enough to google the word or use a dictionary app.  But in the meantime, in reading Simon Winchester’s The Professor and the Madman, the LA Public Library’s 2016 celebration of the OED along with other periodic references to it. the OED went from ideation to plan.

Making room for 20 volumes was as they say necessary but not sufficient. It also needed to be accessible and in a setting where it can be used- with a flat surface to rest an open volume and with good lighting to read comfortably. This is the new shelving and books.

The read comfortably part ruled out the compact version requiring a magnifier. 

DW wasn’t happy at first with making the existing display spaces for photos/artwork smaller, the below being the before photo

She eventually humored me, after negotiating for a future project. Ordering individual used volumes through eBay, Biblio and Abes instead of a new complete set was time consuming but worth the savings. The shelving was straight forward with the only challenging aspects involving the recessed light.

The only wrinkle was installing the recessed lighting- a simple task requiring a bit of router work. 

 Hiding the wiring to the electrical outlets and for on/off operation without hiring an electrician and patching wall plaster took a bit more work but also was not too bad.

I had also, in the interval, purchased the concise OED edition in two volumes. It's a nice edition used but in very good condition and only missing the case which was not important to me.

The main advantage aside from being, well, concise, is it's a 2007 edition. It seemed more practical (I know- incongruous in this context) than getting the additions to the 1989 volumes (which are themselves dated as they were last published in 1997. In the reference material department, my remaining “want” is the OED Thesaurus which I have not been able to find used. 

Quarantine Project Kitchen Cabinet and Bookcase Addition

Our kitchen is small by modern day standards and with storage limitations even with all the work done on it over twenty five years. Some of the appliances and other items infrequently used are either in the laundry area or the spare bedroom. A classic first world problem but I figured DW would appreciate my doing something about it now that I had the time. Fortunately the lumber stores I frequent were open and I also had purchased some of the material as it was planned as a Summer project.

The initial obstacle was going to be removing and eventually replacing the granite countertop.  The local place I had done business with over the years was partially open for business but was not allowing customers to look at the available slabs and did not do any slab removals. The reason given for the latter was unwillingness to take on liability for damaging the cabinets. The phone contact also noted that most customers worked through contractors who replaced both cabinets and countertops. He wished me good luck with the project. Here is the 2015 before photo of the area that would be revised. The first step was to remove  the bookcase section

 I remembered they had used a liquid nails type adhesive when they installed the granite 8 years ago. 

A  heavy duty reversible Bessey clamp was able to exert sufficient upward force to allow a thin kerf Japanese flush cut saw- to fit in gaps with no adhesive and cut easily through the glue.

Note condition of saw- it's reserved for ugly tasks such as the above.
Another obstacle was the granite appendage extending past the inland.

A worm drive saw with a diamond blade, a plastic sheet covering me and the area getting sawed off and several pssses along with a disproportionate amount of granite dust and - Bob's your uncle. This was an important step in the process- it allowed the continued use of the existing countertop while making and installing the new components and awaiting the replacement slab.

Next was making the cabinet. Given that the cabinet was going to be used to store appliances such as mixers, cookers, etc, deep and tall drawers were preferable to shelves and doors, though the latter involve less work and the additional expense of drawer slides. Inset drawer design and full extension ball bearing slides- again more work and expense than the alternative overlay doors- were used to keep consistent with the rest of the kitchen cabinetry. The top, bottom and middle horizontal partition of the cabinet frame have cutouts both to facilitate further assembly steps as well as cutting down on the weight of the piece.

The skeleton and boxes and drawer faces were made and finish applied in the shop. 

Watco applied to so much surface area made for a very unpleasantly smelly workspace even with all doors and windows open. It also made for a crowded shop. So the bookcase would have to wait until the shop was cleared of the cabinet components.

Once the smell dissipated, the drawer and slides were installed with the cabinet shell in its place in the kitchen.  The drawer boxes were installed with the faces trimmed and fitted. Besides being easier on my back to install w/o drawers, there are inevitable shifts and need for slide adjustments and inset design leave very small margins for error.

The bookcase design is simple and construction easy thanks to my Festool loose tenon joiner. The difficult aspect is fitting it into a corner that's not quite square and a 50 year old ceiling with a bit of sag in two directions and doing so with 1/8th inch tolerances. Another item which needed assembly in place. Again, something that would have been way more difficult without using loose tenons. 

The conversion fro bookcase to cabinet  provided an opportunity to remedy a narrow storage space by extending the existing island another couple of inches. Hopefully, the newer cherry wood will age to match the existing and sun-darkened cherry.

 I had attempted to use part of the old door but  this happened. I was using the table saw to trim the  rail remnants off and while flipping the piece over the tip caught the blade and shattered it. Scary as wood shards shot all over.

Fortunately the only thing damaged was the stile but that meant none of the old door could be used. 

All's well that ends well. Here is the revised and widened existing island area

and the new storage and bookcase.

In the TolstoyTogether timeline of reading War and Peace, begun on day 18 and completed for the most part  on day 74.

The qualifiers are still waiting on door hardware,  a possible base drawer for me to make and new countertop installed. The latter part will happen after W&P is completed. In the meantime, there's a ebonized oak plank to cover the portion extending past the existing countertop making the kitchen presentable for the month or so that it take for Marble Center Inc to measure, make and install the new countertop. 

In my younger, scuffling days, I might have left it at this stage, but our attraction to soapstone prevailed. 

Quarantine projects, Part One.

Decreased work hours, locked out of the gym, no travel, no eating out, social distancing, what to do? Well, first off more opportunity for recreational reading.  My IRL book club was one of the first losses to the pandemic. Towards the end of March I read about #TolstoyTogether. The prospect of a "virtual" bookclub seemed a pale substitute for IRL group give and take seemed kinda shaky- to boot, it was going to be on Twitter which I had avoided for, among other reasons, it being Trump's favorite media outlet. It's format, though- 15-20 pp/day and my newly expanded available time made it a- if not now, when- decision to start War and Peace.
My copy arrived (ironically?) on April 1st. By then #TT was on day 15, but thanks to the relaxed assignments was caught up by April 5th. I'm a creature of habits and the daily dose of W&P readily became part of my schedule, such as it was.
By the time the gym had to close up, the weather and longer daylight hours thankfully were making outdoor exercise not a hardship at all. We do miss the social aspects of the gym as it's our version of the pub. DW relented on having a bike trainer in the house as the newer ones don't spew out tire fragments, are compact and have a pedal feel much like a good stationary bike.

If it's raining, it's pleasant to pedal indoors with the TV on or listening to an Audible book.
Our library ladder rails serve double purpose as pull-up bars.

DW drew the limit on in-house gym equipment with the dip bars, thus that is done in the shop.

Speaking of the shop, that initially would seem as the best use of expanded non-work time. Early on the course of the pandemic, it seemed important to avoid any respiratory irritants. In that mindset I limited shop time to small projects such as this iPad handlebar holder and a waste basket to replace one the little round one I'd been using for 20-odd years; impractical now that I'm generating more paper waste as a bookbinder.

As the epidemic progressed, respiratory conditions appeared to be less of a factor for severe infection than other parameters. Since age and to some extent my profession were bigger risk factors, it seemed reasonable to increase my time in the shop. Thus yet another kitchen revision- the fourth in 25 years.

Double Fan Binding

So far, I’ve been able make a book each month and learn something new with each book made- all four of them. As making photo books is my motivation for taking up this craft, one bottleneck is printing the material for the books. Having a collection of Valentines Day cards already done made last month’s book not too bad as far as time demands. 

It would seem that there would be more time available during March given social distancing and travel restrictions. As the month passed, however, I looked for content already printed in letter sized paper and of sufficient pages per topic/event to justify making it into a book. Some of the collections were ruled out as I had punched holes in the pages so they would fit into a ringed case.

Another goal that has developed as I’ve made these books is to learn a new step or technique while still hopefully ending with a viable product. While spending/wasting time on Reddit, I came across  double fan binding as a solution for single page binding. It was not an entirely new technique.

Several years ago, I had a go at perfect binding. I enrolled for a year at  IPRC- “ a Portland, OR 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to providing people access to tools and resources for creating independently published media and artwork”. Perfect binding seemed a means to binding my photos in book format without having to learn bookbinding and IPRC promised access to the equipment needed to make soft cover books- the perfect binding machine and block trimmer.

It was not a positive experience. Their hot press machine was on the wonky side and in order to use it a staff member trained to use it needed to be present. These members were in short supply and with irregular schedules. Further, much of the staff seemed to have the artistic temperament. It seemed that I gave off the wrong pheromones. Finally perfect binding should be (and is referred to by bookbinders) as imperfect binding. 

Double fold binding as presented by Darryn Schneider of DAS fame, does not require a machine and is stronger than perfect binding. It can also be reinforced with embedded threads. Further research presented the complication of PVA not working as well with coated papers. The suggested glue was polyurethane reactive which needs to be applied with a hot gun. Since I don’t have a glue gun, I went with the PVA and a variation of the embedded thread on Darryn’s video.

The first part was the double fan glue application using PVA Jade.

Pressure applied after dble bind gluing spine edges.

Then was a series of 1/16” deep cuts parallel to the spine ¼” apart which was a deviation from his method, but voiced by him as an alternate approach. My hope was that being parallel the threads would hold the pages in a stab binding manner. The thickest nonwaxed thread I had was a nice tight fit with the shallow slots made with the saw. 

Then I re-applied the glue six times in thin layers over two days to build it up. 

The rest was as usual. No attempt at rounding the back here as the book case was ¾” thick. 

I was a bit impatient in paring the leather, the consequence being a gouge. My good luck was in being able to move the gouge and it’s fill to a spine crease where it is completely hidden!

Gouge repair below exposed left hinge groove.

 

When preparing to attach the case to the cover, much to my chagrin I found that the cover was short about an ⅛” width narrow. The inkjet paper used was more film than paper in character, so I was apprehensive whether my paring chisels and Moxon vise would be up to the task. No worries; while the material dulled the chisel, the setup served its purpose.

A week later, the binding is holding up except for the lower ½” edge of the first two pages where it becomes unglued. This is not an issue except if laying the turned page completely down. 

The middle of the block is holding up well.

Thus, I’ll have to do research on hot-glueing with PUR if double fan binding papers with a glossy finish. It might will be that cutting the grooves for the threads a little deeper will do the job.

Twenty Years of Valentines Cards Made Into a Book

Lest I lose whatever skills acquired as a newbie bookbinder, I’ve been making a book every month or so. This being February, while figuring out this year’s Valentines card for DW, I was going through the cards we’ve given each other over the years and thought binding them into a book would make an appropriate project for this month.

Also, to keep things interesting, trying something new every book. Earlier this year, I saw some books using wood covers on Reddit. Being a woodworker, it’s natural to want to combine the two crafts. Reading up on it, aside from a Persian bookbinder, there was not much on combining leather and wood for a cover. Even though it was pointed out that, before cardboard, book covers were made of wood. My initial idea was to use a solid hardwood panel and make a thin rabbett to allow the leather thickness to match the wood edge. That would save me from paring the leather, time consuming chore that it continues to be. 

A visit to the Portland wood retailers led the realization that solid wood covers either needed to be either at least ¼” thick or completely covered on both sides as gluing the end pages would promptly lead to warping. Also looking at the veneers available opened up a whole new medium for book covers. A pack of poplar dyed red caught my eye as a good Valentines theme book color.

Baltic birch plywood is sufficiently stable that I could use 1/8th inch thickness for the covers as long as I veneered both sides. This was a much more appropriate thickness for the size of the book I had in mind.

Thus materials chosen and purchased and content decided, nothing to it but to do it.

As almost all our cards were in folded format and fairly heavy paper stock, grouping them into signatures was not an option, but single sheet signature would work; a concern was that would make for a thick spine. I hoped that rounding the back would solve that and that I would be up to the task. In doing this write-up after the fact, I found the tutorial for two-on and even three- on sewing which would have helped to address this issue and would have been more appropriate. Fortunately, as will be seen, it still turned out OK.

Up to now, I had used a punching cradle to make the holes needed for sewing the signatures. That was not an option here as the cards were of different heights. Plan B was to using a saw which worked out fine. 

Darren Schneider of DAS bookbinding had a nice tutorial on half bound books with leather corners which I used for the corners and the template shown was from his video.

The leather was nearly the same thickness as the veneer which helped to keep the assembly process from being too involved. Otherwise, both  the veneer and leather would have had to be pared to avoid a bulky abutment. That may still be something I do in the future, but then the veneer would have to be finished after the leather is applied which risks staining the leather. All things considered, I’d rather not have to deal with that.

I followed DS’s suggestion of making the corners a bit narrower than the spine, but wound up bit too small for my sense of proportions.

I blame that on the spine rounding and backing adding more to that area than was planned when I did the corners. A learning point- in the future I may leave making and fitting the corners after the spine is rounded and backed.       Another learning point was that leather when wet with glue has quite a bit of malleability and capacity for movement. I was counting on that to be able to abut the leather to the veneer in a gap free manner. But the lettering on the spine moved on me a bit. At first, it seemed quite pronounce which had me thinking very dark thoughts. But on settling under pressure, the alignment became much more acceptable.
      Both DW and I were very happy with the final result.

             And she already has another project in mind for me. Gleefully tells me it does not have to be perfect and as such will make for a great practice project. There is a reason why Wabi-Sabi holds such an attraction for me.

Downtown LA 1976 Revisited

The Holidays were over and with the start of a new year, it was time to make another book. A remake of the little 1976 photo book which had germinated my interest in making books felt like the appropriate next project. Like some other college experiences, its significance in my development to adulthood was disproportionate to an assignment in an undergraduate course so very long ago. In one way it had gotten me back on track after a terrible sophomore year. The photography course I had signed up for at Pomona College was taught by Robert Heinecken and up until the final project, I was not doing well- had the photographic equivalent of writer's block. That little book, rudimentary as it was book-wise, rescued me from a C minus to a B. The course overall though, convinced me that reliance on creativity/inspiration- what have you, was not conductive to an emotionally stable life.

Anyhow, as alluded in earlier posts on my bookbinding forays, the decades had done much wear and tear to it.

I could not find the negatives, but scanning the prints yielded surprisingly good results. As I’m still in the much to learn stage- this is my third bookbinding effort- I used matte photo printing paper. While matte surfaced paper seems the most “book-paper-page like”, there is concern regarding the delicacy of the coating and tendency of the ink to bleed onto the opposing page. So, let’s use it and see what happens. I had some Epson Hot Press Natural that had not seen use for years but was short two sheets for what was needed for the book. Rather than wait for a closer matching paper to come in the mail, impatient person that I am, I made do with another matte paper.

I had used glue-on leather spine titles on my first two books in the hope that I’d be happy with that. I had first considered using a Sharpie, but my handwriting is lousy and it just seemed wrong to do that to a handmade book. I then googled companies that could print the title for me, but no one in a 70 mile radius was interested in a single use order. I looked at hot stamping machines as Cri-cut seemed too amateurish. The Kwikprint  machines if on eBay were expensive to start with, and with the need for type, ribbon and shipping, not to mention the “purchase-as-is” clause, were too expensive for the uncertainty and risk involved.  The cost of purchasing the machines and accessiories new was not justifiable, regardless of my OCD level.

For the next month, I did check in periodically on Craigslist and eBay, hoping for something used and nearby. Early this month, there was a Craigslist ad for a Kwikprint plus accessories in Vancouver WA, a hour away from me. One-stop shopping, I had everything I needed to make a book with a title printed, not stuck on, the spine and at a price I could sorta justify.

The learning curve was not too bad and took a few practice stamps with scrap leather to figure out how to make guides for proper placement, along with force and length of pressing. Just in case, I had cut the leather a little larger than necessary; Nori paste allowed for a very slight reposition of the spine backing.  The title being in the desired position, the cover was trimmed to size, the edges were pared and the cover bonded. Gluing the leather has gotten easier.

The finished project.

A close up of the title.

Other advances were improved corners.

Here is a video of the content.
https://imgur.com/cgUayx1

Bookbinding: Avoiding the Sophomore Jinx

There were quite a quite a few anxious moments and opportunities for self-criticism in making thelll first book. When going through all the boo-boo’s with DW, she commented- “I hope you aren’t going to point all that out to everyone you show it to”. This is a reflection of her longstanding exposure to and irritaton with that aspect of my behavior. Mind you, overall I considered myself quite pleased with how it turned out, but wondered if it was a case of beginners’ luck. With all that,  I was chomping at the bit to have another go at it. 

By stage, the learning points were:

Layout- give wider margins. It looks better and provides more room for trimming if steps further along the way require it.

End pages- The paper chosen has a wonderful feel, color and pattern, but it is delicate and will use sturdier paper for future projects 

Glue- This part generates the most anxiety. I’m grateful for Nori paste as it works well with leather binding and allows for repositioning- essential feature at my level. PVA thick glue is recommended for rounding the spine, but I had not been able to find it. 

Cover inside corners-  A clean well done leather corner requires thinly pared leather, sufficient material to cover the board corners yet not have so much overlap as to be bulky and the excess to be cut off at a 45 degree angle. and The leather cover for the most part wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. I managed to avoid gouging the skived portion.  Thanks to experience sharpening chisels and knives, frequent sharpening compensated for inexperience in paring leather.

It is a messy activity that will best be done in the shop where leather shavings can coexist with sawdust rather than my office/work area in the house.

Rounding the back. On the first book, I waited too long to round at the PVA nonthick glue had already set. This time I started to shape the back while the glue was still sticky to the touch. Thanks to a YouTube video, the leather to board glue up went smoother with the case spine up on the vise.

I made sure to have a 45 degree cut and sufficient pared material past the corner tip with the resulting improved inside of the cover.

This went better on the second book but still suboptimal. While the rounding was more even and symmetrical, the lateral mushrooming was not achieved.

Whether I did not use the right glue (PVA thick is specified in the instructional guides consulted, but I could not find), did not pound the lateral pages sufficiently (I don’t have a sufficient feel for what is excessive force and stopped when it seemed I was venturing in greatest enemy of good is better territory) or it’s due to the paper (I get the feeling this is the real culprit- double sided luster finish material is not that flexible. As the ribbons were correctly placed and outer edges of the book and the angled corners more accurate, now the spine inlay joint could be well defined and I could make use of the brass edged boards made for this step.

Making inlays for the ribbon were made too deep on the second book,

Fortunately, DW and I decided we like the look, so might do that on purpose in future books.

As I did not have to re-shape the block, the second book is  ⅜ inch taller and 3/16ths inch wider. The image margins are much better and are square.

I’m lucky that the first book wasn’t a loss. The second book is much more presentable; dare say, I’m pretty happy with it.

I’d love to sink my teeth into another book, but the Holiday season is just about upon us. So a third book will have to wait until next year.