Five kinds of work, taken in this order

Pamphlet, coptic and case binding, sewn one signature at a time on the bench and pressed overnight. The structure is chosen to match the use: a pamphlet stitch for a thin book that lives in a pocket, coptic for a blank book that must open flat at any page, a case binding for a text block that will be read for years.

Bench note: the sewing is the book. Boards and cloth can be remade; a text block sewn soundly and pressed properly keeps its shape, and everything else is repairable around it.

What we need from you Tell us how the book will be used — pocket, desk or shelf — and whether it has to open flat. Bring or send any cloth, paper or keepsake sheets you want bound in.

Working books put back to work: resewn sections, tightened hinges, replaced endpapers, corners squared. The repair is matched to the book, not to an idea of the book — a cookbook that is read with wet hands gets sound materials and no ceremony.

Bench note: most failures arrive at the hinge, because that is where the strain lives. We replace the endsheet that carries the strain and leave the original sewing alone whenever it still holds.

What we need from you Bring the book itself, whole, even if the pages are loose — loose pages travel in a box, never rubber-banded to the text block. Tell us how it is used and what has already been tried on it.

Short runs set and printed by hand, numbered in the colophon and recorded in the shop ledger. The press takes a poem, a family record, a society's proceedings or a broadside; the edition is sewn and cased or stitched here, and every copy is collated before it is entered.

Bench note: type is set by hand from the cases, so the run stays short on purpose. The ink is mixed for each run — the evening's colour is recorded next to the entry, in case the edition is ever continued.

What we need from you Send the text early and in plain form, with the page count you can live with. Tell us if the edition will be numbered, and who signs the colophon.

What we stock and why: how each paper takes ink, fold and time, and which thread suits which weight. The notes are written for people who bind at their own kitchen tables as much as for our own bench — the reference list on the ledger page is the short version.

Bench note: grain direction decides everything. A sheet that folds sweetly one way will crack and cockle the other, and no thread or board fixes a text cut against its grain. The full argument is in the grain guide.

What we need from you Tell us what you plan to make — pamphlet, blank book, case binding — and how often it will be opened. We will point you at the stock and thread the shop actually keeps.

How to keep a bound book alive: light, humidity, shelving and handling, written plainly for real rooms — not for museum cases. The guides are shop practice, gathered from the books that come back for repair and the ones that do not.

Bench note: the shelf guide covers what a steady room does for a sewn book, and where a shelf should never stand. It is the second half of every repair conversation: fix the book, then fix the shelf it goes back to.

What we need from you Describe the room, not the book: where the shelf stands, where the window and vents are, and whether the house holds a steady temperature. Read the shelf guide first if you like.