Springback Binding with Larry Yerkes

The third class that I had at PBI last month, was the Springback binding with Larry Yerkes. The springback binding was develped as a binding for account books which were used daily, needed to open flat to facilitate the keeping of accounts, and might often be left lying open all day long. Most books don't see that much use. So these account bindings are hefty, over-built, and durable.

After the textblock is ready, a tube is made for the spine. We made the tube by layering paper to make a thick card, then wrapping that card around a wooden dowel until it was dry. When it was removed from the dowel, it was a very solid tube that we then forced onto the spine of our textblocks.

A blurry Larry making a tube.


The tube, now on the spine.


So that makes the "spring" part of this binding. This binding has split board covers, so once the tube was ready on the spine, we made the covers and put them in place. Then we proceeded with the half leather covering; here's my lovely endcap:


We used fabric on the cover, and then did some blind tooling on the leather.


This is my finished book:


Now if you aren't familiar with the springback binding, this talk of a tube and springs etc might just leave you wondering, "why?", "how is this better or different"? Ah! I have a little video to show you that will make everything clear - hopefully - although watching the action isn't as fun as performing the action yourself. Nonetheless, I have tried to show the magic in this little video. So, here I am opening and closing a springback book to show you how the tube creates a springy action when the book is opened and closed:



Thanks Larry, for a great class. I learned a million things.