Making Notebooks using our DIY Bookbinding Tools
One of my favorite hobbies to come back to is always bookbinding: it’s fun, relaxing, and you end up with something tactile for yourself or others. This time I decided to make some notebooks - because they’re great for gifts, and I also feel like I can never have enough!
You can do bookbinding without fancy equipment at all, but it’s a real treat to use the tools we’ve built: the press, sewing frame, book vise, and plow cutter. They’re classic tools that make the whole process smoother, more efficient and you get very nice results.
If you’ve ever been interested in making tools like these yourself, I’ve put together detailed building plans for each one, along with videos showing them in use. They’re solid woodworking projects and a good fit if you enjoy traditional, practical tools.
This time around I made a series of small notebooks, using marbled paper for the covers and a heavier cotton paper for the pages. Bookbinding is a craft that moves at its own pace—there’s sewing, pressing, trimming, gluing, and lots of drying time in between—but that’s part of the appeal. You settle into the rhythm and let the materials do their work.
If you’d like to see the tools in action or learn more about making them yourself, you can find the video and plans linked below. And if you end up building any of them, I’d love to see what you create.