Hand-bound and individually crafted

Hare & Fish Bookbinding produce quality books, hand-bound in high quality materials (acid-free, hand-produced or recycled wherever possible), using traditional methods taken directly from medieval bookbinding techniques. Our books will provide use and pleasure for a lifetime.

The process...

The paper inside is the essential part and soul of any book. Each book block is made by folding and sewing together the required number of pages by hand.

We choose to use hand-made, deckled-edge (rough, untrimmed) paper wherever possible. Paper comes in large sheets, so it has to be hand torn to the correct size.

We mostly use goatskin for hardback books. Goatskin is the traditional material for covering books. It is tough, durable and very beautiful. The true beauty of this leather comes from the delicate grain pattern and unique blemishes in each piece which show it is a truly natural material.

We use cow-hide for softback wraps. It is vegetable tanned and beautifully pliable and we dye each piece to order. The more you abuse and batter a cowhide book, the more beautiful and individual it becomes!

The main body of pages in a hand-made book is stitched and glued together. Each book block contains a number of signatures (sections) of 12 pages/24 sides each. Depending on the number of pages required, a batch of signatures is sewn together onto natural fibre cords or linen tapes. Then mull (a thin material) is applied to the spine and glued in place. This helps the book stay solid.

In machine-made books the book block is usually sewn or cut and glued without the strengthening cords and mull. A book that has been cut and glued can never be satisfactorily rebound and is very fragile – the glue will disintegrate and pages will eventually come loose and fall out (like in old, well-read paperbacks)... This will never happen in Hare & Fish books.

Head and tail bands (the silk, coloured bands at the top and bottom of the spine) are hand-sewn onto all Hare & Fish books. In most books today, the head bands are not real – they are simply a decorative band which has been glued to the book block. A hand-sewn headband is time consuming, but ultimately far superior. Both beautiful and structurally important, it helps the book keep its shape and preserve the spine when repeatedly pulled from a shelf.

The covers (and spine boards where required) are cut to size. The cords onto which the book has been sewn are laced through holes in the cover boards and glued down. The whole book is then covered in leather. You will have to try very hard to tear the cover off one of our books!

There are two types of binding – hollow back and tight back. In a tight back medieval binding, the spine leather or covering is glued directly to the book block, and bends when the book is opened. The raised bands are the actual cords onto which the book has been sewn.

In the hollow back binding, the spine is separate from the book block, allowing it to move independently when the book is opened, and so not suffer or crack. The hollow back spine also allows for flexibility for decoration with false bands.

Endpapers are the finishing touch and cover the inside cover and first page if the book. Endpapers are chosen to match the cover colour and the paper of the book block. These can be either plain or decorated, with hand-marbled paper being a traditionally popular choice.