Reviews
Paper craft materials: storage and housing
Paper craft case studies materials: storage and housing guidance — enclosures, paper and plastic, buffered board, and the standards worth knowing by name.
Section
Reviews
Reviews
A beginner examination kit: six cheap tools for looking, not making
Beginner kit for examining paper objects in 2027: six inexpensive items for looking rather than making, how to tell printing processes apart under a loupe.
Reviews
Storing bookbinding tools means separate boxes for steel and organic stock
How to store materials used for bookbinding tools: steel wants dry, organic stock wants stable, and they should not share a box. Pest treatment, cavity packing.
Reviews
Two tools can replace four: bookbinding categories compared for buyers
Categories compared on the one specification that matters in each, plus the two tools that replace four and how printers solved small-tool storage.
Reviews
Which error should decide your next bookbinding tool purchase?
No tools were bought or tested, so no ranking is given. A framework instead: survey first, judge by the error prevented, buy as failures appear.
Reviews
Mold comes fourth on the shopping list for independent paper makers, not first
Buy the mold fourth, not first. The purchase order that works, why even pressure matters more than a press, and why one fiber beats three at once.
Reviews
Independent paper makers: four surfaces needed, and only one is a bench
Four surfaces, four jobs, and only one is a bench. Heights, materials that survive standing water, and why couching decides how many sheets you keep.
Reviews
Sourcing bookboard and paper in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver compared
Canadian paper suppliers in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver compared on bookboard stock, minimums, shipping and pickup, so you can choose local or mail order.
Reviews
Davey Board vs Chipboard: Which Book Cover Board Holds Up?
Davey board vs chipboard comes down to density, acidity and price: buy Davey for case bindings and chipboard for mock-ups and practice covers.
Reviews
Choosing recoverable materials keeps a bookbinding mistake from becoming permanent
Choose so a mistake stays recoverable. Reversible adhesives, replaceable coverings, materials that carry their own hazards, and a ten-minute test.
Reviews
Bookbinding mistakes: what a beginner's notebook should record
A beginner's bookbinding notebook, one page per book: the five lines that catch grain, tension, adhesive, pressing and swell mistakes before they repeat.
Reviews
Marbling supplies split into three separate storage problems, not one
How to store materials used for paper marbling: dry goods, wet chemistry and finished sheets each want different conditions. Alumed paper does not keep.
Reviews
Trays compared first: paper marbling equipment, sorted category by category
Paper marbling equipment compared by category, starting with trays: what each item must do, which plastics survive size and pigment, and what to make yourself.
Reviews
The tools that actually earn bench space in book arts, and what can wait
The short list of tools that actually earn bench space in book arts, what each one is for, where to spend, and which purchases can wait until year two.
Reviews
Which bookbinding tools earn their price, and which are a budget trap?
Rank bookbinding tools by cost per use, name the specific items worth buying, and see which cheap supplies quietly cost more than they save.
Reviews
Judging decorative paper: start by holding the sheet up to the light
Hold the sheet to a light before you judge the pattern. Chain lines, struck-through color and grain direction, and why no shops are ranked here.
Reviews
Good bookbinding work needs two separate benches: one for cutting, one for pressing
Best work surfaces for bookbinding projects: cutting and pressing want opposite things from a bench. A comparison of surface types for bookbinding.
Reviews
One level tray matters more than a level bench in decorative paper work
Wet decorating work wants different surfaces from cutting. Trays, glass, blotting boards, and why a level bath matters more than a level bench.
Reviews
Awl versus screw punch: comparing tools for a handmade journal
Handmade journal ideas tools compared for first-time buyers: awl against screw punch, bone against Teflon, and what thickness of polyester pocket to use.
Reviews
What actually separates good book arts materials: pH, lignin or grain?
How to choose materials for book arts in 2027: paper, board, cloth, thread and adhesive judged on the properties that matter, pH, lignin, grain.
Reviews
Choosing bookbinding supplies by what they do to their neighbors, not the invoice
A bookbinder's guide to judging supplies by lifetime cost: acid migration, plastic off-gassing, a specification checklist, and when to stop over-specifying.
Reviews
Storing handmade journal materials: avoid crowding, avoid contact damage
Crowding and contact cause most damage to stored paper. Enclosures, interleaving, and where in the house to keep stock for handmade journals.
Reviews
Paste or PVA for first bookbinding projects: three questions
Wheat starch paste or PVA for first bookbinding projects: three questions on reversibility, speed and durability settle which adhesive to buy first.
Reviews
Buying decorative paper supplies works better technique by technique, not by category
Buy for one technique, not for the category. Paste paper, marbling and suminagashi need different kits, and the medium decides the aftercare.