![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lb_leeThree ordinary plebian objects that I will never choose to live without again:
Insightful decade-old blog posts from someone who's since disappeared off the Internet? Print, staple, fold. Academic articles on fiction-based religion that are murder to read in fifteen-minute increments on my desktop? Print, staple, fold. Some short comic that went out of print fifteen years ago, cannot be bought anymore, but got reposted online in a horribly inaccessible (yet high-res) way? Print, staple, fold! Need to go over my own work and edit multiple times? PRINT, STAPLE, FOLD! PRINT, STAPLE, FOLD!
My life is forever changed and improved. I live a life of riches and abundance, all thanks to maybe $30 and ransacking the closed-down Theology School for office supplies.
...oh shit I just realized I could print out a bunch of the old SBing experience database from twenty years ago and read and annotate at leisure! I could just print and bind all my stupid plural sources, organize them properly, and NEVER LOSE THEM AGAIN. I AM DRUNK WITH POWER.
Biff is sick of us complaining about having to do workarounds for anything longer than fifty pages, so he's considering learning how to stitch together book covers using scrap cardboard, rubber cement, and/or needle and thread. If he does indeed end up doing this, move over Elon Musk, because we are now the richest.
- Left-handed scissors
- Long-arm stapler
- A bone folder
Insightful decade-old blog posts from someone who's since disappeared off the Internet? Print, staple, fold. Academic articles on fiction-based religion that are murder to read in fifteen-minute increments on my desktop? Print, staple, fold. Some short comic that went out of print fifteen years ago, cannot be bought anymore, but got reposted online in a horribly inaccessible (yet high-res) way? Print, staple, fold! Need to go over my own work and edit multiple times? PRINT, STAPLE, FOLD! PRINT, STAPLE, FOLD!
My life is forever changed and improved. I live a life of riches and abundance, all thanks to maybe $30 and ransacking the closed-down Theology School for office supplies.
...oh shit I just realized I could print out a bunch of the old SBing experience database from twenty years ago and read and annotate at leisure! I could just print and bind all my stupid plural sources, organize them properly, and NEVER LOSE THEM AGAIN. I AM DRUNK WITH POWER.
Biff is sick of us complaining about having to do workarounds for anything longer than fifty pages, so he's considering learning how to stitch together book covers using scrap cardboard, rubber cement, and/or needle and thread. If he does indeed end up doing this, move over Elon Musk, because we are now the richest.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-11 11:06 pm (UTC)Also: Left handled pencil sharpener. It will rock your world.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-11 11:14 pm (UTC)(Also, we have used righty scissors for most of our life. It's fine. We can do it. But if we have to cut and fold over a hundred one-pagers at a go, we damn well want our hand to be comfortable during it.)
no subject
Date: 2022-12-12 12:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-12 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-12 06:53 pm (UTC)But I find righty pencil sharpeners so painful to use, not to mention ineffective, that for years I used a knife or, more often, threw away pencils altogether so I wouldn't have to bother. (I suppose an electric sharpener was also an option, but I have issues with both the sound and my inability to empty those without spilling everywhere.)
no subject
Date: 2022-12-13 12:40 am (UTC)(We do it with the pencil in our left hand, but turn the sharpener horizontal and insert the pencil vertically. It never occurred to us that this might be strange.)
no subject
Date: 2022-12-12 04:29 am (UTC)(in our basement, due to the nature of basements accumulating mysterious objects, we actually have a paper folding machine that will even do the folds for you. this... is not necessary, and probably is not even useful outside of an office environment. but there sure is one in my house :P )
no subject
Date: 2022-12-12 04:12 pm (UTC)paper folding machine!
Date: 2022-12-17 04:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-12 04:57 am (UTC)Also, what's a bone folder?
no subject
Date: 2022-12-12 04:19 pm (UTC)A bone folder is made to fold paper more easily; you see it with crafters, bookbinders or printers, and zinesters. You can get them cheaper in plastic, but we prefer the traditional ones made of bone because they feel sooooo nice to the touch. (And they aren't that expensive! I think we got ours for $15-30 at an art supply store.) They come in a few different sizes, to accomodate different sizes of paper maybe? Ours is eight inches long, about one inch wide, and flat, with all rounded edges so it fits comfortably in your hand. It tapers to a point at one end, so on first sight it looks like a pencil that got steamrolled flat!
You use it to get really sharp creases, and to fold many sheets of paper at the same time. (We have used to fold thirteen at a time.)
no subject
Date: 2022-12-12 08:21 am (UTC)Oooh, I think you've just revolutionised my life, too. <3
(As for sewing simple books together, it's very easy - there's a pattern to it, but basically the gist is that you must start with an odd number of sewing holes, with one centred in the middle of the fold. The other key thing is to use strong thread - e.g. buttonhole thread. Also, it's great because once you know how to make a simple sewn book, you also know how to make quires - that's the "chunk" of pages that a hard-bound book is divided into. So, you're well on your way to binding bigger stuff if you want to. Source: my mum is a bookbinder. Also, weirdly, my primary school taught us basic bookbinding principles as we hand-made a book to put each term's work in.
Here's a video with the stitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWHkY5jOoqM
Though personally I always folded then sewed. I also never put such a stiff cover on - these are meant to be soft booklets, not hard books. Sewing with a blunt needle will help get through the holes without damaging the paper.)
no subject
Date: 2022-12-12 04:25 pm (UTC)We have tried using colorful construction paper for covers and binder clips to hold them together, but they keep getting caught on things, flopping over, and getting battered, so it's time to upgrade! (The colors were mostly so we could tell what they were; too many anonymous white booklets just disappear into the shelf, never to be read again. We never realized how important a spine is!)
no subject
Date: 2022-12-13 08:16 am (UTC)With the soft sewn booklets, it's easy enough to give them hard covers if you want. The steps are:
- make a sewn booklet (i.e. one quire-worth - you totally can do it with more quires, but I don't know the method)
- cut two covers out of thick cardboard, slightly bigger in every dimension than your booklet except accounting for space for a spine (see below)
- cover them with your desired outer material (just on the outside and round the edges)
- if desired, cut some triangles of the same or contrasting material and fold and glue them around the corners, for extra reinforcement
- take a piece of fabric and cut a long strip about 1 1/2 inches wide
- glue the fabric down to join the two covers, leaving a tiny gap so they can open and close easily and gluing the ends of the fabric down on the inside
- cut endpapers - the same size as your booklet and sufficient to cover the folded-over edges of both the cover material and the spine material
- glue the endpapers, one at a time, first to the inside of the cover and then to the outside of the first/last page of the booklet (as applicable) to join the booklet to the cover
- you have a hard-bound booklet!
no subject
Date: 2022-12-12 01:38 pm (UTC)