Only one thing is missing—the text.
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Thanks for this.
Did you notice: when he was tooling the leather, even on the front and back, he seemed to be doing it completely by eye. He may have used a guide or a pattern for those two rectangles, one within the other, but if so, it was not apparent in the video.
He sure seemed to be “in the zone.”
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It would have been enlightening to have included an elapsed time clock as the work proceeded. I would imagine several days to nearly a week. As to time and effort, imagine such a book with illuminated manuscript! I would thing that might well require a full year or more - especially without the precise modern tools used in the creation. It is a sort of microcosm of building a cathedral back then.
And, somehow after viewing this, reading an ebook will never be quite the same.
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The description on YouTube says that the elapsed time in making the book was 60 hours. I don’t know whether that includes the time for pressing components, waiting for glue to dry, etc. or just time working on the book.
The maker of the video has made a five-part detailed series on the making of this book, each part around a half hour.
Part 1: Folding Pages, Endpapers, Piercing, and Sewing
Part 2: Trimming and Rounding, Edge Decoration, Sewing Endbands
Part 3: Wooden Boards, Carving and Mortising, Attaching the Covers
Part 4: Paring and Applying Leather
Part 5: Leather Tooling - Brass Hardware - Final Assembly
Here is a video on making the brass “furniture” for the binding.
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This turned out to be far more fascinating than I imagined before watching. Given that, like most everyone, time and attention have become precious resources, I suspect I have missed some interesting things which I have skipped over - based on nothing more than title or superficial presentation. Thanks.
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Here is a two-part tutorial series on a much simpler (and less expensive) leather binding process, achieving an appearance similar to Easton Press and Castalia Library books:
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