Shop ledger · Chicago, Georgia · est. at the bench
Nikerina, Inc.
Bound by hand, kept for good.
A small hand bindery and press workshop. We sew notebooks one signature at a time, put working books back to work, and set short editions by hand. Everything that leaves the bench is written into the ledger, and the ledger is kept in the open on this site.
Sewing at the bench, mid-signature
From the bench
Dated notes, entered as the work happens. Nothing here is written after the fact.
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Ledger 214
7 March 2025
A 1953 field guide came in with its spine gone to brittle glue. Cut the old adhesive away, resewed the four loose signatures on linen, and the book opens flat again.
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Ledger 213
28 February 2025
The press ran all evening: twenty-five pamphlets for a marsh bird count. Ink mixed thin so it would sit on the laid paper without filling the counters of the type.
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Ledger 212
20 February 2025
Waxed and cut thread for the week's sewing. A signature is folded before it is sewn; grain runs head to tail, every time, no exceptions taken at the bench.
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Ledger 211
12 February 2025
Coptic No. 5: sixty leaves sewn over four stations with waxed linen. Boards cut square this morning; the case waits on book cloth from the shelf.
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Ledger 210
4 February 2025
Rebacked a family cookbook that had been repaired once before, badly. New endpapers, hinges tightened. The grease stain on page 88 stayed where it was, as asked.
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Ledger 209
27 January 2025
Cut and folded the stock for Pamphlet No. 7. Grain checked sheet by sheet before the bone folder touched anything; two sheets went back to the pile for running the wrong way.
How a book is made here
Four steps, in order, on the rail. A book that skips one of them shows it within a year.
Fold
Sheets are folded with the grain, bone folder along the crease, into signatures of four to six leaves.
Sew
Waxed linen thread joins each signature to the last. Sewn through the fold, never glued at the spine.
Press
The text block goes under the press overnight so the sewing swell settles and the spine stands square.
Case
Board, cloth and endpapers are cut to the block, and the case is drawn on while the paste is still open.
Editions record
The shop's own work log. What was made, on what, and where it stands.
| Edition | Sheets | Thread | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pamphlet No. 7 — Marsh Notes | 3 folded sheets, 12 pages | Linen 25/3, natural | 25 sewn and pressed; entered 28 February |
| Case No. 3 — Shop Almanac | 12 signatures, 96 pages | Linen 18/3, dyed oxblood | 12 cased; standing on the shelf rack |
| Broadside No. 11 — Tide Table | 1 sheet, folded once | Pamphlet stitch, linen 30/3 | 40 stitched; stacked flat to settle |
| Coptic No. 5 — Blank book | 60 leaves, cream laid | Linen 18/3, waxed | 8 sewn; boards cut, waiting on cloth |
| Repair file — Ledger 214 | 4 signatures resewn | Linen 18/3, natural | Returned; hinge holding, opens flat |
No edition leaves the shop until it is collated and entered here.
Paper and thread reference
What the shop stocks and why. Full notes live on the work page.
- Cream laid, 80 gsm
- The default text stock. Takes letterpress ink cleanly and folds without cracking, provided the grain runs head to tail.
- Charcoal cover, 250 gsm
- Stiff enough to protect a pamphlet in a bag, soft enough to sew through without punching a new hole every pass.
- Linen thread, 18/3
- Three-ply, waxed at the bench. For case bindings and any book that will be opened often and read hard.
- Linen thread, 25/3
- The finer line. For short pamphlets and light text blocks where a thick thread would show as swell at the spine.
- Beeswax
- Drawn along the thread before cutting. Keeps the linen from kinking and lets the knot pull tight without shredding.
- Book cloth
- Woven cotton with a starch fill. Cut with the weave, not across it; a case squares only if the cloth wants to lie flat.
- Grey board
- Grain running head to tail, cut one square at a time against a steel rule. Boards cut across the grain warp in the press.
Two guides from the bench
Paper grain: find it before you fold it
Three bench tests for grain direction, and why a fold against the grain cracks the paper and throws the whole book out of square.
Read the guideShelves, light and humidity: keeping bound paper
Where to stand a shelf, what a steady room does for a sewn book, and the handling habits that keep repairs from coming back to us.
Read the guideEntry closed · Nikerina, Inc., Chicago, Georgia · sewn, not glued