We've moved!!

Last week we launched our website update at leonardsbooks.com — a new look for fall.  Have you seen it yet?  How do you like it? If some of you were on the site while it was being updated, we apologize. Hopefully this update will give you a cleaner look with more accurate pictures and easier navigation, for a better overall experience as you browse your possibilities at Leonard’s.

As you will see, our blog is now integrated with our website, which will prevent having to leave our site just to see what we’re saying.

In the next few weeks, we will be tweaking things here and there as we settle into our new home. We should be able to show you our newer leathers and then hopefully remove them quickly if they become out of stock. Take a look around — there are some new pictures you may not have seen before.

Feedback is welcome, especially if you notice grammar errors and misspelled words. When you’re up late at night doing this stuff, a few things get overlooked.  And suggestions for improvement would be great!

Thanks, and happy browsing!

~Margie

Of Perfect Bible Leathers and Corners

Well, things have changed again in the leather department.

Unfortunately, the beautiful colors of top-grain cowhide will now not be available, as the distributor has decided to discontinue them. We have only the in-stock colors of sky blue and mocha, until they run out. No one saw this coming, and these hides made great Bibles, but we must move on to other hunting grounds.

Leather supply for Bible rebinding is a moving target sometimes. There are very few places that supply leather for Bible binding anyway, and finding leather suitable for rebinding is an endless search. It has to do with having different needs than other industries, such as Bible publishing or upholstery, and a comparatively smaller market.

Most large Bible publishing houses with corner crimping machines need thin, flexible top grain leather or bonded leather in rolls, because that will fit in their machines and reduce waste. And bookbinders who mostly rebind hardcover books also like the thinner leathers; they fold easier.

But leather for Bible rebinding shouldn't be too thin. Our customers are already frustrated with bonded leather and the way it dissolves with use. And they mistakenly thought the genuine leather on their Bibles would last forever, only to find out it was the thin version (weight: 1 oz.) that would develop worn spots or even tears along the edges in just a few months. Some of our customers also have had problems with Bibles that were constructed with the edges of the corner crimping showing over the lining material. The sharp edges of the corners catch the pages of the Bible and tear them up. Here's a familiar picture of a factory-produced, crimped corner:

At Leonard's, we don't need to use the very thin top-grain pigskin because we don't use corner crimping machines. We also don't skive (pare) the leather down on a Bible so it can be folded. Instead, our corners are skillfully constructed so that they fold down gracefully over the corners without adding too much bulk. This keeps the corners durable but smooth, with nothing to catch on.

The furniture upholstery industry, by contrast, needs leather that is sturdy, but flexibility doesn't seem all that important. In fact, we see some thinner leathers made especially for the upholstery industry that have been backed with another material to add durability.

This is unacceptable to us -- the last thing we need is for extra added stiffness in a leather, just so it will last longer. Our customers want to be able to open their Bibles -- and to have them stay open.

So, our "perfect leather" would be in the range of 1.75 - 2.5 oz., but also good and flexible. Some of our leathers are somewhat less flexible but those make great covers for the very heavy study Bibles that need support for the weight. Perfect leather is not easy to find, but we will continue to seek it out. Our customers deserve it.

We still have plenty of really great burgundy sculptured Italian cowhide. The texture is primo! And for soft and flexible in a traditional black, we still love the glazed black pebble grain deerskin.

Blessings,
Eric

Leonard's Book Restoration Station
www.LeonardsBooks.com
Skilled bookbinding, restoration and repair services
P.O. Box 52***Burrows, IN 46916**U.S.A.
Phone: (574) 652-2151

What Do You Have in Burgundy?

From time to time, we're asked what we have in a certain color -- like ... Burgundy! :-)

Other times, a customer just says, "I want my Bible rebound in burgundy leather," but has no idea what the different leathers look like, and didn't know that we'd have more than one choice. (Kind of like asking for tomato sauce at one of those big super stores!)

Well, I understand! Being around Carroll County Indiana 4-H a lot has given me more than a passing familiarity with goats, sheep, hogs, cows, ... and even llamas, actually ... but until I began working with Eric in this business, I didn't know what their skins looked like under all that hair. (I still don't know what llama leather looks like.)

The fact is, we've now collected quite a few different options in burgundy, and I can tell you what they're like, but seeing the leathers and the grains may help a lot more. So let's do some comparisons. I'll show you some of these choices and you can decide for yourself what would be best for you.

First off, let me tell you we've just gotten in a shipment of very nice burgundy pigskin. Remember, "genuine leather" = pigskin on modern Bibles. So, if one or more of the following applies to you:

• If you want a good budget choice in genuine leather.
• If you just really don't want black or brown.
• If you believe burgundy is the new black in the realm of Bible covers
• If your original cover was a mission grain burgundy and you want it to look just like that
  

... then you'll like this leather. It has a semi-glossy mission grain texture and it's about the best we've seen. Yes, the linear texture is embossed into the leather, which hides irregularities and those visible pores unique to pigskin, that not everyone likes.

Here's a before picture of a burgundy Bible. It's nasty cardboard with an impressed grain.

Voilà! Here's an after picture of the same Bible, now covered in our nice burgundy pigskin. (It's a little hard to see the grain, but you can see how nice it looks.)

This leather is just the right size -- thicker than the "genuine leather" on many factory made Bibles, so it will last longer, but it's thinner than other pigskins and flexible so it won't be too stiff on your Bible. It's good for Bibles of all sizes.

Now, here's a pic so you can compare the grain on 4 burgundy hides. From the top left, clockwise, we have smooth grained lambskin, deep burgundy calfskin, mission grain pigskin, and sculptured Italian cowhide.

Here's another pic. These are three different colors of goatskin, none of them called "burgundy." From left to right, we have maroon and crimson Harmatan wild-grain goatskin, and deep red premium soft tanned goatskin.


And here are some more Bible pics:

Burgundy lamb. The picture's a little too bright, but this is good leather for a smaller, thinner Bible.



Deep burgundy calf. Better for average to large sized Bibles.



Itallian sculptured cowhide. (Also a little too bright, but you can see a good representation of the color on the previous pic.) This is better on medium to large Bibles -- soft, thick, and flexible.

Here's a crimson Harmatan goatskin Bible. The maroon is much darker. Harmatan goat is good for larger Bibles.

And here's the deep red soft-tanned premium goatskin. It's good for all sizes of Bibles and is very soft and flexible. (See our recent posts for information on this goatskin.)


Here's another choice in red (not technically burgundy, but close):

Red calfskin. See how flexible it is?


We also have an imitation leather (cloth with a leatherlike finish) in an antique burgundy. (Sorry, I don't have a pic of that.)

And one more idea -- hand-dyed leather. Here's a hand-dyed, antiqued deerskin Bible. Blind-stamping and tooling is a favorite technique on this kind of leather.



We can also hand-dye natural grain pigskin; rustic goatskin (as on our Poor Man's Geneva Bible style), rustic calfskin (American West style), or kangaroo (Outback style). This is what it burgundy looks like on calfskin:

And here it is on kangaroo:


There you have it! We can encase your Bible in burgundy in many different ways. What looks good to you? If you have any questions, I'd be glad to help you with your selection. Click here for a free price quote,

Or go straight here for detailed ordering information.

Grace and Peace,

Margie L. Haley, Administrative Assistant
Leonard's Book Restoration Station
(574) 652-2151
http://www.leonardsbooks.com/

Goatskin Colors

Here they are, pics of our unembossed, natural grain soft-tanned premium goatskin, made up into Bibles.

• Yes, they are soft.
  
• Yes, they are ultra-flexible.
  
• Yes, they feel great -- nice texture.
  
• Yes, they are durable.
  
• Yes, they are a great price. :-)

That makes black, medium brown, and deep red. Anybody out there think we should add dark brown to the mix? Let me know.

~Margie

Leonard's Book Restoration Station
www.LeonardsBooks.com
Skilled bookbinding, restoration and repair services
P.O. Box 52***Burrows, IN 46916**U.S.A.
Phone: (574) 652-2151

Highland Goatskin -- What Is It, Really?

We've been wondering for awhile now about Highland Goatskin. In our minds, we imagined sweet little kids rolling on the grass on Scottish hillsides. Considering the post we did earlier about French Morocco and leather lingo, we should have known, oui?

We heard that these critters were softer than most. We saw pictures that showed remarkable flexibility. And we read that this is the only kind of goatskin that is so soft because it's 100% natural -- not embossed or impressed.

So we finally decided it was important to get the skinny on the skin. We asked our supplier, who in turn asked a tanner. This is what the supplier said:

I asked the question of the tannery about highland goat. He says it's generally just from some region in Africa, but more of a selling tool than meaning anything. It is leather that is not embossed.

They were right! We read on another website that the famed Highland Goatskin was not, in fact, made in Scotland -- it was imported from Nigeria. (So much for our over-active imaginations!)

Then she confirmed what we knew in our hearts. The leather we were buying from her was also all natural, not embossed. Same thing. The larger hides were from Africa, and the smaller ones were from the U.S. Only we didn't give it a fancy name. We're calling it "Premium soft-tanned goatskin."

If you want the same kind of soft, flexible, but durable goatskin that's called "Highland Goatskin" by others, you've come to the right place. Here are a couple of pics of two Bibles we just shipped out yesterday, in black premium soft-tanned goatskin. Look familiar?

This is the difference: Leonard's isn't a publisher. We do rebinding. That means, you can choose your own "insides." If you want the text block of your Bible to be your grandmother's Bible from the 1920's, or your own heavily-used Zondervan Study Bible with a glued spine, or a brand-spankin' new smythe-sewn Thompson Chain Reference, or a Gideon's pocket Bible, you can do it. We can put that premium goatskin on any of your Bibles. What's more, we'll soon be expanding your options to include more colors. Stay tuned and we'll introduce you to the color line.

~Margie L. Haley, Partner
Leonard's Book Restoration Station
(574) 652-2151
http://www.leonardsbooks.com/

Parts of a Book

This post is for people who aren't sure how to describe their book to us and just need to know a little bit about book lingo so we'll both be on the same page.

• Spine: The "backbone" of the book; the part of the book that you see when you shelve it, the part you hold when you're balancing the book on one hand while you read it.
• Raised ribs or bands: The horizontal lines on the spine, giving a 3-D effect because there's something under the leather. These used to have a function. Now they are ornamental. Height can vary.
• Cover. This is the part you see when the book is closed, whatever it's made of. There's the front cover, the back cover, and the spine cover. It should all be connected.
• Boards. These are the front and back parts of a hardcover book. A board is made of thick, hopefully non-acidic, cardboard, but some antiquarian books have very acidic boards. On an antique family Bible, a thicker cover is made of several boards on top of each other, carved out in the middle.
• Text block: The pages; the "guts" of the book.
• Sewn spine. This means the book is comprised of groups of pages that are folded together, and they're all sewn together at the spine. If you look down on the top of the book, you should see something that looks like little booklets side by side. They are called "signatures."
• Glued spine. This means the book has pages all cut to the same size and stuck up against a glue strip at the spine. It means trouble when the glue strip pulls away or shrinks.
• Mull, or Hinge Cloth: This is the mesh stuff over the sewn spine. You're not actually seeing the sewing, but the reinforcement material. Actually, you're not supposed to be able to see it, but if your book is broken at the hinge, you can see things you're not supposed to see. Many modern books use what is called "super." They fall apart because it is not at all "super."
• Hinge: Hinges on a book are formed by the pastedown end page and the free end page. They're like the inside of your elbow. If they're torn, you can see the hinge cloth on the spine.
• End pages: These are the long pages that are glued down to the inside of the cover and form the hinge and the first page of the book (often colored, and in a Bible especially, made of leatherette). On Bibles, these are sometimes called "liners", but often Bibles have a lining material between the leather and the end page to stabilize the leather, so to avoid confusion we prefer to use the term, "end pages."
• Interior liner: This is the part you don't see, sandwiched in-between the cover leather and the pastedown end page. In general, that can be anything from card stock to nothing at all.

  At Leonard's we don't use card stock and we've discontinued the use of leather for the interior liner. Instead, we most often use a thin fiber liner that adds stability to the leather, but not stiffness. Any stiffness or suppleness in a leather option, then, would be from the thickness of the hide and the way it was tanned and finished.
  

  When we want to reduce the flexibility, we use a heavier liner.

• Headbands and Tailbands: These are little strips of cloth, often striped, attached to the spine edges of the pages at the top and bottom of the text block. These, like the raised ribs, used to have a real function, but today, they make the book look nice and cover up raw edges.

Hope that helps!

Blessings,
Margie

www.LeonardsBooks.com
Skilled bookbinding, restoration and repair services
P.O. Box 52***Burrows, IN 46916**U.S.A.
Phone: (574) 652-2151

New Leathers In -- Old Leathers Out

Hi!

It's been awhile since we've posted anything, but things are good here in Indiana -- no earthquakes or tsunamis, no record snowfalls, just a good blanket of snow that waters the fertile soil for the winter wheat crop.

And yes, we've gotten over the Christmas rush, but we still have plenty to do. Our theory is, every book or Bible that we do right is our best advertisement. And the Lord has blessed that approach.The news is, I've gotta get the website changed soon. We have several leathers not available anymore and other new leathers that you might want to hear about. Until I get the website changed, here's the scoop.

Not available anymore: bomber jacket lambskin. I know, that's all over the place. It was nice while it lasted. Another leather, aviator sheepskin, is just not meeting our standards. We are also not going to be able to get several of the pigskins anymore: notably, the teal, plum, and deep burgundy.

But here are some new things that we believe you'll really like::-)The first is a top-grain cowhide. I know, in other posts, we've mentioned that top-grain cowhide is the uppermost portion of a piece of older leather, and that we prefer using a full-grain younger leather. But these cowhides look very nice indeed. Each has a pleasant light pebble grain, is soft and supple, and should be good and long-lasting. The best part is they come in 25 different colors. No, not black or burgundy, but 25 other colors like peacock, ivy, mocha, bright red, yellow, and purple. We like the combination of the thickness (durability) and the softness (flexibility).


The second is that we have some good flexible calfskins in several more colors now. We have them in a thicker black, brown, navy, burgundy, and forest green. These have the same nice grain I called "rustic" on the website. (Someone asked me what "rustic" meant recently. The answer -- it's not slick-smooth!) These calfskins look and feel wonderful on a Bible. The grain is mostly a small pebbly grain.


One more bovine option: burgundy sculptured Italian calfskin. It only comes in burgundy, looks "pre-wrinkled" and is wonderfully thick and flexible. I know, we were just teasing about the nationality of leathers in our last post, but then this stuff came in, and it really is nice. (The picture looks lighter than it really is, but shows the texture.)


Now, about the deerskin. We have done lots of really nice deerskin Bibles lately. They are very soft and flexible, and many people are looking for that feel nowadays. But there's a color you may have seen, both on our website and on other sites, called "natural tan" that's really not what it seems to be. The pictures of "natural tan" are actually a leather that's been hand-dyed to a glossy medium brown. Natural unfinished deerskin has more of a matte finish and could be even an eggshell color. So if you like the pictures, you would want to order "natural grain deerskin, hand-dyed to a glossy medium brown finish."


We also have burgundy, brown, and gold, that we can leave as is if you like, without that hand-dyed glossy finish. Here's a pic of some natural brown deerskin Bibles:

That's the scoop for now. We'll try to post more often.

Blessings in Jesus,
Margie

www.LeonardsBooks.com
Skilled bookbinding, restoration and repair services
P.O. Box 52***Burrows, IN 46916**U.S.A.
Phone: (574) 652-2151

Just Use It!

The following is a recent daily devotional by Greg Laurie, Harvest Ministries, that we thought you'd appreciate. Our hope is that we can shore up your well-used Bible so it can continue to be active in your life, as you serve the living God.

Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.
--Psalm 119:11

A Bible that is falling apart is usually the sign of a life that isn't. I like to see beat-up, marked-up Bibles that are coming apart because that is a good sign.

I think there ought to be a Bible especially for preachers, which I have mentioned to some of the people who publish them. I have told them, "Make a preacher's Bible. Give it a steel binding."

After all, preachers really use the Bible. As we are speaking, we do things like shake it, hold it up, and point to it. Why do we do that, I don't really know.

But we believers shouldn't simply shake our Bibles or hold them up or point to them. We need to read God's Word and memorize it and hide it in our hearts.

It is good to carry a Bible in a purse or briefcase, but the best place to hide the Word of God is in our hearts. As the psalmist said, "Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You" (Psalm 119:11).

Hide it in your heart. Know it. Then, when temptation comes, you can use God's Word to defend yourself. When opportunities come, you can use it to share the truth of the gospel with those who don't know Him.

Remember that God has given us His Word to both deflect and to attack and strike blows for His kingdom.

God promises that His Word will not return void. Whether a person believes it or they don't, it won't return void. It will prosper in the place where God sends it.

So use your Bible. Use it until it is falling apart!

Used by permission from Harvest Ministries with Greg Laurie, PO Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514

www.LeonardsBooks.com
Skilled bookbinding, restoration and repair services
P.O. Box 52***Burrows, IN 46916**U.S.A.
Phone: (574) 652-2151

Bible Leather Lingo and Its Evolution -- A Call for Honesty

A pet peeve of mine has always been intentional misrepresentation and misnomer. The old classic examples are the word "official" on a kid's baseball mitt, "limited edition" on something that has no defined limit, and "authentic" without any qualifiers.

Every field of marketing surely has its own Orwellian New Speak. In the furniture world, a piece of wooden furniture may be called "vintage walnut," "classic walnut," "walnut finish," "walnut grain," ... all of which probably mean one thing: the piece is not solid walnut.

New Speak also exists in the world of Bible manufacturing. I'm not referring to the text, though I'm sure examples could be given. I'm thinking more of the Bible covers, which is my field of craftsmanship. We commonly receive Bibles marked "Genuine ... (whatever)." I sometimes wish Bible manufacturers would just print the word "Genuine" and leave it at that.

Here are my favorites.

Genuine Bonded Leather .. sort of like saying "Genuine Particle Board." Bonded leather is a great binding for Bibles that are seldom used. It's known for disintegrating with frequent contact with human beings.

Italian Calf ... What makes it Italian? Does anybody know? Just asking.

Spanish Bonded Leather ... ???

Top Grain ... Sounds like it's the best, but it's actually considered second best when compared to "full grain." The best leathers are those that have not been skived or split, but are the full hide. "Top Grain" means that you are getting the top side of a split hide. The best hides for binding are those that are from younger and therefore smaller animals, providing a naturally thin hide. Top grain cowhide is nice enough, but you can't even necessarily assume that the words "Top Grain" on your Bible assure that it's cowhide. It only means that whatever leather they used, it was the top side of the split. At Leonard's we use calfskin rather than cowhide. (Younger vs. older.)

Genuine Berkshire... Come on -- it's pigskin. There's nothing wrong with pigskin, if you can just call it what it is. There are more than seventy hog varieties in the world. But has anyone ever heard of a Bible bound in "Chester White," a breed so popular that it has its own journal? While there are a few examples of Berkshire bindings actually being calfskin, most are pigskin, dignified with a classy British sounding name. In fact, if your Bible says "Genuine Leather" and nothing else, it's most likely pigskin. Just look under the grain closely. Do you see little tiny pores like on your own skin? If you do, you have a pigskin binding. By the way, pigskin is a very durable leather and inexpensive here in the U.S. Though there might be a few theological issues for some, we highly recommend it for its durability.

Genuine Morocco ... Last I checked, Morocco was a country, not a leather. But a few hundred years ago, someone rubbed some goatskin on a rock or a board and came up with a unique, bumpy grain. This became a preferred binding leather and was known as Morocco goatskin, presumably because it happened in Morocco. Somewhere along the line the word "goatskin" became unnecessary to describe goatskin. All that was necessary was to say, "My Bible is Morocco Bound." (Sounds like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby -- "Like Webster's Dictionary, we're Morocco-bound.")




French Morocco ... Also a country. Actually, it was someone's idea of a new kind of Morocco. And, no, it wasn't made from French goats. It was sheepskin.

Finally we come to the current state of this misnomer. A major Bible manufacturer lets on that their "French Morocco" is made of thin cowhide. I give them credit in that they at least told us what it was made of. There's nothing at all wrong with a cowhide Bible, ... just tell it like it is. However the Bible in question is not Morocco in any sense of the word. It doesn't even have a morocco grain. It looks like what is commonly called "mission grain."

To press this issue a little further, let me use buffalo wings as an illustration. Now everyone knows what buffalo wings are and are not. We know that buffalos don't fly any more than swine do. Buffalo is a misnomer for hot, and is used in conjunction with wings as in chicken wings. Twenty years ago, a person may have looked at you rather oddly if you offered them a plate of buffalo wings; today we don't bat an eye, but eat them with every expectation of tasting spicy chicken.

But what if you bit into what you thought was chicken and tasted pork? What if you took your concern to the cook and were told that, "Our buffalo wings are made from pork"? Hmmm. Maybe pigs do fly.

I really don't mean to sound judgmental. We probably have our own misnomers that folks could pick at. We advertise an Outback Bible made of genuine kangaroo from Australia. It is indeed from Australia but we really have no proof that the unfortunate creature was from the Outback region of Australia. It could very well have been bagged in Sidney. But we do our best not to misrepresent our product. It may be common practice in a fallen world, but for some reason we feel that those in the business of selling Bibles and Bible covers should be held to a higher standard. What do you think?

--Eric J. Haley

www.LeonardsBooks.com
Skilled bookbinding, restoration and repair services
P.O. Box 52***Burrows, IN 46916**U.S.A.
Phone: (574) 652-2151

Valentine's Day

With Christmas and New Year's Day behind us, it's not too early to be thinking about Valentine's Day!

Having your spouse or fiance's Bible rebound makes a very special Valentine's Day gift. Turnaround here at the shop has been running 4 weeks or less from the date of receipt for Bibles. This gives you a window of opportunity to snatch a well-worn Bible and pack it off to us to clothe it in a magnificent new skin before that special day arrives.

If your husband has had this sad-looking bonded leather Bible since high school, think how surprised he'll be with a Lone Star specialty binding on the familiar pages. Does your girlfriend just love purple? We have purple calf that will look great on her Bible.

Think fast!

--Margie L. Haley
Administrative Assistant

www.LeonardsBooks.com
Skilled bookbinding, restoration and repair services
P.O. Box 52***Burrows, IN 46916**U.S.A.
Phone: (574) 652-2151

The Best Leather / Book Restorers' Prices

Question:
What do you believe is the best quality leather out there?

Answer:
I can't answer that question easily except to say that the best leather out there is the leather that's right for you. But I know, that was not the question. The best quality leather is leather that comes from a healthy animal, and has been tanned and processed properly.

Let me just mention some of the good/bad things I have found in each of the leathers we have used in binding softcover Bibles.

Pigskin:

• Good: Great durability; readily available in lighter weights; comes in natural or pressed grains; does not easily scuff.
• Bad: The natural grain has pores which bother some people; tends to be a little stiff with a pressed grain; natural, unfinished hides usually have a lot of scars. (Pigs are kind of rough on their bodies.)

Calfskin:

• Good: Good durability; tools well; finishes nicely; especially suited for antique finish; large hides are the norm.
• Bad: Hard to find in lighter weights; hard to find in a grain and temper suitable for bookbinding since most calf is processed for upholstery use.

Deerskin:

• Good: Great durability; good natural grain; soft to the touch.
• Bad: Somewhat elastic; a little on the heavy side for bookbinding and harder to skive or pare edges.

Goatskin:

• Good: Good durability; natural wild grain or grained are both available; naturally lightweight.
• Bad: Expensive, small hides; mostly tanned outside of the U.S.

Sheepskin:

• Good: Good durability in the right weight with quality hides; naturally lightweight; very soft; available in some pressed patterns and natural rustic look.
• Bad: Somewhat elastic; occasional poor layer adhesion requires extra caution when selecting hides; a little spongy and does not take foil imprinting well; scuffs and soils easily, though not a problem a dark skin with rustic look.

Lambskin:

• Good: Good durability with the right weight; naturally light weight; imprints well.
• Bad: Somewhat elastic.

Kangaroo:

• Good: Great durability; finishes beautifully using antiqued finishes; naturally lightweight; tools great; imprints great.
• Bad: Tends to scuff and dent easily. (Don't use it as a surface for writing a check.)

Ostrich:

• Good: Great durability, naturally lightweight, soft (except for the bumps).
• Bad: Expensive; not readily available; often confused with common ostrich grained pig or calfskins (no real comparison); natural pimples make imprinting difficult if not impossible.

Buffalo:

• Good: Good durability; good grain; imprints well.
• Bad: Usually not available in light weight; a little stiff.

Question:
Why is there such a difference in the prices bookbinders and book restorers charge for their services?

Answer:
Easily answered -- regional economy, personal economy, experience in the field, name recognition, services offered, and other factors that affect a free market system. These apply to every trade and product.

My own question:
How do you know when someone's work is overpriced?

Answer:
When they don't have any customers. :-)

~Eric

Leonard's Book Restoration Station
www.LeonardsBooks.com
Skilled bookbinding, restoration and repair services
P.O. Box 52***Burrows, IN 46916**U.S.A.
Phone: (574) 652-2151

New Leather and Paper!

Working with genuine leather can be interesting! As we've said before, genuine leather is not like Pringles, where everything is guaranteed to be the same size, nor is it like toilet paper. It's the real thing, and there's waste along the edges, real marks of originality on the skin itself (we do avoid holes!) and variation in the thickness of the leather.


But sometimes, we get some really wonderful stuff in, and we want you to be the first to know it. In the last week, we've picked up some beautiful skins of pink, brown, or turquoise, partial hair-on cowhide. This is for the guy or gal who really wants something different for Christmas! The effect is a sky-and-clouds look for the turquoise, a Neapolitan ice cream look for the pink, and a rocky road ice cream look for the brown.


Sometimes we'd wondered what it would be like to bind Bibles in a skin with the fur still clinging to it, but we'd always decided it really wouldn't work well. But this is flexible enough for a Bible, does show some of the skin, and gives us room to fold over the corners without getting hair on the glue. You can be the first (and only) one on your block with this fabulous skin covering your Bible! (Think of the animal skins on the tabernacle.)



We also got in some great new lambskin in black or navy, and a wide selection of special papers, marbled, printed, and satin that can be used for end pages or a very special leather & paper hardcover binding. If you have a special children's book you've been storing from your past that would be a good Christmas present if it were fixed up or restored, now's the time to brush it off and send it to us.

Margie L. Haley, Administrative Assistant
Leonard's Book Restoration Station
(574) 652-2151
www.leonardsbooks.com

Of Leather Supply and Flexibility

Question: Do you have a page with pictures of all your leathers and colors?

Answer: No. This is much harder than you would think.

If we did Bible covers in bonded leather as others do, we wouldn't have to worry about supply. Bonded leather comes in rolls like paper towels and there's no waste. It reminds you of Pringles, being formed out of leather dust and glue and made into precisely the desired, predictable shape. It comes in predictable amounts and can be ordered all the time, like your favorite brand of toilet paper.

But we see far too many bonded leather covers that are cracked, broken, chipped, and completely deteriorated to ever use the stuff. And real, genuine leather is harder to find.

Our stock of leathers is constantly changing -- at times we run out of a particular leather and find out it's no longer available, and at the same time, we receive beautiful new leathers, not previously available to us. Sometimes this is a little difficult if you received a price quote from us several months ago and have saved up the money gradually for a rebinding job. When there's a time lag like that, it's often advisable to ask for a new price quote. That will give you an opportunity to browse the current possibilities and maybe even change your mind.

For instance, we were out of buffalo grain burgundy pigskin for quite awhile, but have just gotten new hides in. This glossy leather with a beautiful criss-cross grain makes a very lovely Bible cover. We also have recently added a very cool soft chocolate brown sheepskin, good for smaller Bibles, and flexible purple cowhide. There are no pictures of these on our website, and it could take awhile before we are able to upload anything. But they would make great Christmas presents!

Question: In your opinion, is the mark of a good Bible binding the amount of flexibility in the leather?

Answer: (Answering this may get me into trouble with some higher profile Bible lovers, but I'll do my best.)

No, it's more complex than that.

Personally, I don't have a whole lot of appreciation for a floppy Bible. The "butter melting in the hand" model is inconvenient for carrying and unless you're in the habit of twisting your Bible into a pretzel, too much flexibility makes a Bible hard to hold while preaching.

On our Bibles, we try to reach a happy medium in flexibility, something that flexes without puckering or creasing, yet lends support to the text block. This is a challenge with genuine leather.

Keep in mind, the softcover Bible is, for the most part, a 20th - 21st century thing. Great flexibility requires the right glues, the right leather temper, and the right liners, all of which have become more available in the last few decades. The weakest link is in the leather supply. Leather tanners just don't seem to consider Bibles on the top of their priority list. So most leathers are not suitable for Bibles, either because they're too heavy (thick), or too stiff, or because the layers of the leather are not firm, creating puckering when flexed.

So my case against floppy Bibles is this. To achieve it nearly always requires a very thin leather with no interior liner, and almost no glue to secure the end pages. Because it's so floppy, the reader is then tempted to fold the Bible over backwards while holding it. <wince!> This stretches the sewing, warps the spine, and/or breaks the glued binding. The end result is a short-lived Bible. Eventually, that result will reflect on the one who made it a floppy Bible in the first place.

At Leonard's, we will always strive to satisfy the goals of our customers. But we want to do that without sacrificing the quality you have come to expect from us.

~Eric

Leonard's Book Restoration Station
www.LeonardsBooks.com
Skilled bookbinding, restoration and repair services
P.O. Box 52***Burrows, IN 46916**U.S.A.
Phone: (574) 652-2151

Meet Our Other Bookbinders

Hi, everybody! Hope you're enjoying the summer!

Most of you are only familiar with Eric, since he's the one whose face is all over the website and on YouTube. But I thought I'd go ahead and introduce you to the other book binders here at the shop.

First, you should know that one of our binders, Robyn--whose cheerful face you can see on our YouTube video--created a wonderful matched set of the three volumes of Ted Dekker's Circle Trilogy for the Carroll County 4-H Fair. This project won Grand Champion for Basic Crafts, so it will be on display at the Indiana State Fair starting August 6. Not that we're proud of her or anything, but, well, ... we're proud of her! :-)

Robyn acquired ex-library first editions of each of the books. She had to sand off the library markings first of all. Then she bound the set in a soft brown sheepskin, with goatskin spines to match the original color of each of the volumes. If you aren't familiar with the Circle Trilogy, the titles of the books are "Black," "Red," and "White." The books were color matched to their titles in the end pages, ribbon markers, leather labels, and even the headbands. The boards were carved with the circle pendant emblem described in the books, and the books were tied together in a calfskin lace.

Robyn has posted on www.teddekker.com concerning her work, and we expect it to take home honors. Robyn can make you a custom-bound set of the Circle Trilogy, too, if you're a Ted Dekker fan, or perhaps a custom-bound Journal.

This is the second time one of our bookbinders has won that title at the Carroll County Fair. Before her, Chris also accomplished that, with his copy of a book by Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley. Chris has recently rejoined us in the shop and we're glad to have him back, He's going to be a father in a couple of weeks!

Our third binder is Susie, also an accomplished binder specializing in Bibles. She delights in getting things in near-perfect condition for you.

Oh, Eric is still in the shop, too! He's there to answer the hard questions and work on the creative and antiquarian projects.

Now that you've met the gang, let me just say that if you have a project in mind for Christmas, think about sending it now before the rush begins. We have a team of creative, talented crafters waiting to serve you!

~Margie L. Haley, Administrative Assistant
Leonard's Book Restoration Station
(574) 652-2151
www.leonardsbooks.com

The Value of Restoration and Rebinding

Question:  Am I depreciating the value of my book by having it repaired?

Good question!  First it has to be determined whether or not your book even has a value.  Contrary to what many people may think, most books do not retain their value or increase in value after publication.  There are relatively few books out there that have investment potential.  Those are the ones, really, that we're talking about.  A good place to find out if your book has any significant value is Advanced Book Exchange (ABE).  Keep in mind, the default on the search results is lowest price first, and the market is flooded with junk copies of many books.

In nearly all cases, a book that is worn and tattered can only benefit by quality restoration, rebinding, or repair.  The exception to this might be something that is very worn and tattered but it is a good example of a particular binding that is extremely rare.  If you were to have a book that, in pristine condition, is worth several thousand dollars, you might have to do a reality check considering the copy you own.  The understanding of "pristine" is that the book is as published, perfect in every way.  There is no way that even a moderately worn copy of such a book will ever be that.  So the value of that particular book starts with the condition of the copy.

A worn copy is what it is--a worn copy.  Good restoration work will only increase a worn copy's value somewhat.  But it will never be increased to the pristine value.

Question:  Can I have a common book rebound in leather and have it become more of a collector's edition?

Sure.  That works!  It's always best to start with the best edition you can find--in other words, quality paper, a sewn binding, maybe even a first edition, or perhaps a signed copy.  Rebinding something like this will always increase its value, assuming the value was originally low.

It's generally not a good idea to rebind a rare modern (20th-21st century) first edition.  While they're few and far between, this particular field of collectability could include books with values in the six figure range.  However, a missing dust jacket, a torn dust jacket, or even a fly speck in the wrong place can be devastating to the value.  People that collect these are very particular.  A dust jacket on a rare first edition could actually be worth many times more than the book itself.  But some of these copies with major flaws and no dust jacket would make good candidates for rebinding.

Let me give you some examples of what I've done with what we might consider pretty good books--but with major flaws.

1.  A first edition Laura Ingalls Wilder "On the Shores of Silver Lake"--a nice book with a nice market ... but a bad water stain on the front.  A perfect copy of this might be worth $250.00 without a dust jacket.  My copy was probably worth no more than $20.00  So I put it on the stack for rebinding, eventually got around to it, and did it in a 3/4 leather cover (green leather spine and corners, with rose print paper boards).  I sold it for $75.00.

2.  A book called "The Uncanonical Gospels"--weird stuff, probably not worth reading, even if I could read it. (It was all in Greek!)  Purchased with brown upholstery tape all over the spines of this two-volume set, very yucky-looking, for $75.00.  We put new leather spines in place of what was probably originally cloth and aged it to match the boards.  They sold for $800.00.  I have no idea what the books would have been worth with the original spines, but I doubt if it was significantly higher than the $800 price.

Sometimes the binding really should not matter that much, but when it comes to selling the book, it really helps to have a cover that looks nice.  When it comes to owning a book ... ditto!

--Eric

www.LeonardsBooks.com
Skilled bookbinding, restoration and repair services
P.O. Box 52***Burrows, IN 46916**U.S.A.
Phone: (574) 652-2151

Not Bound

I came across an interesting verse in II Timothy, that I'd like to share with you.

"Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the Word of God is not bound." ~II Timothy 2:9

Is this a problem with bookbinding?  Should we go back to scrolls?''  Or maybe we need to take a second look at Bibles.  Are they the Word of God?

Judging from the shape some Bibles are in when they come in to our shop, you wouldn't think people worship their books.  They come in broken, twisted, taped, and miserable.  Nobody could confuse these woebegone articles with the powerful Word of God in the verse, that is not bound.  These Bibles are begging to be rebound, encased in something beautiful that will last a long time -- because their owners use them regularly and are a teeny bit harsh with them.

Then, if it's not the book, that is new today and old tomorrow, what is the Word of God?

Good question! 

The Word of God in the Beginning was the second person of the Godhead, the Son, Who created all things.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
~John 1:1-3

The Word of God Incarnate (in the flesh) is Jesus Christ.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.
And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
~John 1:14-17

Jesus said man lives, not just by our natural food, but by the Word of God.  The Word is what we read there in our Bibles, that speaks to our hearts and nourishes us spiritually.

And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
~ Luke 4:4

That is what is unbound, unfettered, unchained--unlike Paul.  You can't hold it back.  They killed Jesus, but not the Word.  He came back.  You can burn a Bible, but you can't stop the Savior from saving.  Even when Paul was in prison, he wrote entire books to add to the New Testament.  Ultimately, the Word of God will reign on the earth.

Are you ready for that?

Blessings!

Margie L. Haley, Administrative Assistant
Leonard's Book Restoration Station
(574) 652-2151
www.leonardsbooks.com

Now on YouTube!

Hi, Everybody! Hope you're staying warm!

Remember that the Lord has promised there will always be a spring to follow winter while the world remains.

For those of you who like our video about why we don't use bonded leather, it's on YouTube now, and you can share it with your friends.

Leonard's Books & The Restoration Station
Quality used and out-of-print books
Skilled bookbinding, restoration and repair services
www.LeonardsBooks.us
www.LeonardsBooks.com
P.O. Box 52***Burrows, IN 46916**U.S.A.
Phone: (574) 652-2151

Page Repairs

Sometimes I'm asked about how to do page repairs. Really, no variety of Scotch tape is good for those types of things. The tape (and the page) will turn yellow and it's really only a temporary fix.

What you need is document repair tape. It is made out of this Japanese tissue and has a peel off back. You can order it from Hollanders. com. Unfortunately they have a $10.00 minimum shipping so it drives the price up a bit from the normal cost which is maybe $7.00 a roll. I think what they sell is 1/2 inch wide, but you can slice it down the middle to save on tape.

If you only need a foot of it or, give me a holler and I'll sell it to you at an astronomical price! :-)

--Eric

Leonard's Books & The Restoration Station
Quality used and out-of-print books
Skilled bookbinding, restoration and repair services
www.LeonardsBooks.us
www.LeonardsBooks.com
P.O. Box 52***Burrows, IN 46916**U.S.A.
Phone: (574) 652-2151

New Items

Over the last couple of months we have added some new features to our offerings in Bible rebinding.

After several years of searching, we have finally found a supplier for the leatherette end pages (or liners) common in most Bibles. Not only does this stuff look good, but it greatly adds to the flexibility of our Bibles. When you have a small binding shop, one of the biggest hurdles is to get suppliers to talk to you. Unless you're willing to buy in large quantities, many of them won't bother responding to inquiries.
I knew this stuff had to be available and though we had to purchase it in 25 yard rolls, it was nice to find a supplier that would sell it in rolls and not pallets.
We have three colors available; black, chocolate brown, and wine. In case you chocolate lovers are wondering, I tested it and it's not scratch & sniff. :-)
We also recently found a supplier for morocco grain pigskin. While it's only available in dark brown, it can easily be dyed black and buffed to a beautiful luster. It also has great flexibility.

My leather supply is growing, but keeping a consistent supply is always a problem, as it is with many natural products. This is why some of the more successful Bible binders are now using bonded leather. There is never a shortage of bonded leather. There is also never a shortage of bonded leather Bibles that are falling apart.

God Bless,

Eric

Leonard's Books & The Restoration Station
Skilled bookbinding, restoration and repair services
Quality used and out-of-print books
www.LeonardsBooks.com
P.O. Box 52***Burrows, IN 46916**U.S.A.
Phone: (574) 652-2151

New Video, New Leather.

Hey folks.  I want to invite you to view the first in our series of video clips.  This one is on leather strength, but an interesting title might be The Sound of Leather featuring Eric and Robyn Von Haley.  It could also be titled Fun with Bonded Leather.  Call it what you want, but it's a must see video. (see Home page)

NEW LEATHER OPTION!!!

We just completed a display copy of a Bible using Imperial patterned sheepskin.  This is a good, soft, durable sheepskin with a unique pattern.  The pattern is too busy and too deep to imprint, but it makes a beautiful bible covering.  See what you think.  You can find it on our Specialty Bible page.  Several colors are available.  Prices start at only $59.50 plus return shipping and include a ribbon marker (so you can tell which end is up without looking bad at Bible Study.)  There is a limited supply of this leather, but enough to do a bunch of Bibles before Christmas.  

God Bless,

Eric

Leonard's Books & The Restoration Station
www.LeonardsBooks.us
Quality used and out-of-print books
www.LeonardsBooks.com
Skilled bookbinding, restoration and repair services
P.O. Box 52***Burrows, IN 46916**U.S.A.
Phone: (574) 652-2151

New--Bookbinding Quote Form

For your convenience, we've added a form to the website now, and links so you don't have to fish around to find it. If you're just wanting to know "How much?" you'll be able to communicate this quickly to us and get a prompt reply. Use as little or as much of the form as you need.

Fair warning, though. We'll be closed most of Monday and all day Tuesday. Everybody needs a break now and then, yes? And October is typically beautiful, so this is the time to enjoy it.

There's still a little time left to get your pastor's Bible to us for Pastor Appreciation Month. God bless you!

--Eric

Expansion Done, More Coming Soon!

Hi, this is Margie. Just thought I'd update you on the goings on in the website department. Besides the actual bookbinding expansion Eric talked about in his last post (new bookbinding presses), which is completed and should double his processing speed, I'm working on a bookbinding quote form for your convenience. (Don't try it yet, though. I'll let you know when it's done.)

We're also producing a new video for the site. This will show Eric in the process of evaluating a book, whether it simply needs a facelift an entire new cover, or something in-between. You can use this video by applying the principles of book evaluation to your own book or Bible, which will give you an idea of what services you'll need from us before you write or call.

--Margie the Webservant

More room in the shop

I'm expanding my bookbinding space. Not the shop, just the space, by reducing my book inventory and adding new workbenches and book presses. This is good news all around, since it will reduce the turn-around time, increase our sales and keep me gainfully employed.

It has also given me the opportunity to give away hundreds of free books, so if you happen to be in town and visit my shop, you better lock your car doors if you don't like to read. :-)

Speaking of turn-around time, if you have a pastor, or Sunday School teacher, or a missionary friend who needs a Bible rebound, we can put it on the fast track at no extra charge. Since October is Pastor Appreciation Month, it might be a good time to bring your pastor's Bible out of the duct tape look and into something more presentable.

Eric

Welcome to My Blog!

So hopefully you've seen our new, redesigned website and are enjoying it. If you saw that long list of recommendations on that one page, and wished you could post your recommendations, too, this is where you can do it. I'll stop in from time to time and chat with you.