Making a Set of Simple Leather Journals: Book Forwarding and the Joys of Working with Leather

Leather is a beautiful material and when combined with some covers becomes an excellent shield for the rather fragile book body. When binding books, some considerations are to be made when choosing your leather. Vegetable tanned leather is a must. It possesses the qualities to absorb water and to be molded into the shapes you wish it to be formed. Of course, after all the work is said and done, these qualities should be controlled in order to protect the book from moisture. In this case, various oils and lacquers are used to coat the leather surface. There is a difference between the vegetable tanned leather used for belts or saddles and the one used for bookbinding. The leather should be thinner, 1mm or below. Books have movable parts and thicker leather would restrict the movements of the joints and prevent opening or closing. The seven journals made in the video are part of an order, I’ve been busy with the last month. I’ve been using vegetable tanned goatskin, which I’v