Make Your Own Piercing Cradle - Indispendable Bookbinding Tool - Two Versions: Easy and Easier!

Hello everyone, welcome back to my bindery!
In this video I present to you two easy-to-make versions of a tool I use for virtually every bookbinding project: the piercing cradle! If you're moving beyond the basic tool kit I described in my Bookbinding Basics video ( • Bookbinding Basics: Ch... ), then this is one of the first bits of kit I'd recommend you add to your toolbox. The good news is that I'll show you how to make one for yourself, first the easy way, and then the even easier (and basically free!) way.
If you find this video to be valuable then of course be sure to like it, and consider subscribing for even more bookbinding content. I've got some big things planned for this year, so you won't want to miss out!
Until the next video, happy binding!
Cheers,
Dennis
_______
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[@NatalAttack]

I made one of these after watching one of your previous videos, although it was tucked away. I don’t mind a fossick, however, it’s a gem so glad to see more people can find and make this. Thank you for making these videos and sharing your experience and skill. I have warm memories of watching your previous videos with my late mum - your videos truly are a joy to watch ❤

[@FourKeysBookArts]

Yes I thought this tutorial deserved its own video. I did tweak the design a bit, and also my sound quality is much better these days! Glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for sharing your fond memories.

[@samfumi9200]

Are you reading my mind? I was exactly wondering how to make one a few days ago! Perfect timing, thank you so much for your video! :)

[@FourKeysBookArts]

You're so welcome!

[@belac48621]

I never thought I'd want to make a book, but with your videos that are so informative and easy to follow, it's definitely in my future!

[@RomantiCynic]

Completely agree!

[@tomcatfoolery]

You are so accurate about adapting to the situation. It is a very important point that cannot be stressed enough.

[@agaspversilia]

I love to being able to build something easily with stuff I already have lying around 😅

[@MikeyCammish]

I've only just started bookbinding and I really appreciate you taking the time to share something like this. Not only does it make the task a lot easier, but it's a really great way to save some money on equipment! Thank you! :) I've just made one from greyboard and book cloth; it works like a charm!

[@samcollage7682]

I made one using my own design and I like yours much better. So, I'll make another one. Thank you; looking forward to watching all your videos. The cardboard cradle is pure genius.

[@randymerrill6146]

Your videos and techniques are made so well that even I can build one of these! Thanks.

[@bySusuko]

I´m looking for this for a long time! Thank you!

[@ohnoitskylie]

I just followed the first method tutorial with spare chipboard. It worked well, even with the lower stability you get from a 1mm thick board. (Makes cutting the notches a little trickier too, but that’s to be expected. I used the tip about adding paper to the supports so they fit snugly!) Once I get my hands on a sturdy box I’ll be trying method two. Thanks for the tutorial! 🎉

[@EllowynCassia]

I'm still a beginner bookbinder and have had the issues of the holes not lining up properly or not being directly on the spine. I've seen so many videos now with this tool and wondered where to get one but now I can make my own! Thank you so much for making this video and showing how to make one. I'm really excited to try to make one now! :D

[@EM-fh2tx]

Excellent! Just what I was looking for thank you

[@tjspeirs75]

I really like this whole series! Will I ever do it? I dunno prolly not 😂 But it looks fun!

[@bobp8414]

Excellent as usual. The presentation has been clearly thought out. The explanations are succinct and clear; matched by the first class photography. The end results are just the ticket too !

[@sandraforsman4971]

Yay a new video with Dennis! Love all your projects and thank you for using both inches and metric! 🥰

[@mettebusck1865]

perfect timing. i was planning to go back to your video about recycling books, to see how to make a piercing cradle, but now i could just follow along here. first cradle made. thank you so much for your help and inspiration.

[@joshcha680]

I’ve been really enjoying the videos and each one is as engaging and educational as the next. I hope this comment is seen because I’d be really interested to see a video in the future about an introduction to glue and gluing. Keep up the content my man.

[@suave-alpaca8412]

I cant thank you enough for the timing of this. I swear I was just thinking about this and earlier today when I was prepping my paper to bookbind. Then suddenly your video popped up! Will defo make this tomorrow!

[@pennythedomelady]

My students loved these cardboard cradles and they worked perfectly. Just a bit of my time to make 8 from a large paper shipping box. Thanks you!

[@FourKeysBookArts]

Wonderful! Thanks for letting me know :)

[@caingodrich737]

I made it! Thanks for the manufacturing guide!

[@FourKeysBookArts]

Fantastic!

[@_sadwax]

Yay! I've been looking forward to learning how to do this since you mentioned it in another video haha. Thanks so much!

[@theweatherisaokay4964]

Thank you for such a brilliant idea, now I can make them and start binding some books. Just started practicing calligraphy and used a lot of papers and now I can do it in books instead.

[@Loveulott-lz5pb]

Greetings Dennis, I JUST MADE ONE! I followed your incisive tutorial, pausing & rewinding, and replaying the video and I'm very happy with my result :D THANK YOU :)

[@FourKeysBookArts]

Fantastic!

[@RomantiCynic]

Another great tip video! Thanks, Dennis!

[@FourKeysBookArts]

You're very welcome!

[@rylandpeters8982]

im commenting on the latest video in hopes for a response. I have had a hard time finding information on the broad picture of how everything in book binding ties together. I understand what everything is and their use, like the book covers, stitching, signatures, gluing the spine ect. My mind works by needing to understand why this thing is needed in order for this other thing to work and thus leading to the book as a whole working out. It is just videos on how to do this part or this part, nothing about why they're doing it. I need to know the why are we doing this, to understand the bigger picture. I hope i explained that properly

[@7WordsWorth]

You have made the video I have been waiting and searching for! Thank YOU!!! Your tutorial was clear and concise and I will get right on it. 😊

[@FourKeysBookArts]

Glad it was helpful!

[@philippdetambel1350]

Really love your videos, they're both very informative and incredibly relaxing to watch. Can't wait for more!

[@Mr.FernandoEscobar]

Beautifully made cradles and video, congrats!

[@kevinknutson4596]

I love the editing you've done for this video. Super informative and having it all on screen makes following along much easier!

[@FourKeysBookArts]

Thanks so much!!

[@turtlesilk]

This is great! I have a folding book board one I made years ago. Now when people ask me how to make one, I’ll have a reference for them! Thanks

[@LeticiaUPC]

Where was your channel all this time? I'm not a traditional book maker, I do my own books and journals, but I never had one of those, and to punch the signatures was always a struggle. Thank you for this tutorial! I'm doing it as soon as I can! ❤

[@dirktermagant5629]

Fantastic. I'll have to make one!

[@EclipseAtDusk]

Perfect - building one of these for my next project!

[@LunteBooks]

Clear and helpful video, thank you!

[@BumperChip_]

i have never done any type of bookbinding and never found it super interesting, nor do i have the materials or time to start. i just subscribed to this channel because i find your voice really calming. im having a very stressful year so far, but i have binged a few of your videos and have been able to relax. thank you.

[@lenellamaxwell6934]

Thank you for this tutorial. It is so very useful. I love that you have something for everyone and there are no excuses why you cannot become a book maker. Truly, thank you!

[@3534538]

Thank you so much for this video. Your instructions are so clear and concise that it'll be easy for me to follow. I especially like your unhurried explanations plus anticipating problems and giving tips to overcome them. I'm so happy that I now can build a piercing cradle myself without having to invest in a bought one or in expensive material. That I can store it flat is quite neat. The second one is such an ingenious way to use those delivery boxes. 🥰

[@marionlyding7935]

Brilliant! Thank you!

[@annacount3682]

Way cool! Thanks for the how-to!!

[@celineworotniak4349]

Great and easy to understand instruction. Thank you!

[@moliere9677]

Terrific design! Thanks, subscribed!

[@PamelaB1212]

This is great information. Thank you so much!!

[@murielzelateur1708]

Very ingenious idea !!! I love it and I will do my own. Thks for the sharing ❤❤❤❤

[@ubiquitousLeees]

What a beautiful (and useful!) tutorial. Thank you so much!

[@robbabcock_]

Very cool! It's so relaxing and fascinating to watch the bookmaking process, including the construction of the specialized jigs and tools!👏

[@dr.robertt.mullaneiii1561]

Much better than my past technique of a stiff large automotive sponge placed under the paper. I know I will never make enough journals to invest in equiptment. Great video.

[@LolaBeM3]

❤❤❤ Thank you much.

[@MH-gb5ky]

That's a neat thing. I have been restauring books for more than 20 years, but always did the piercing free handed.

[@beatricetreadwell5785]

This is great!!! Thank you so much!!!

[@conniec4629]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[@josuelservin]

I really love the cardboard version! Over the years I have made a few useful jigs out of cardboard, is surprising resilient, cheap and easy to prototype. I will make me a wooden version ( just because I have the tools and materials) but really appreciate and thank you for the effort you put on the alternatives.

[@FantasyApprentice]

thank you so much for showing how to make this, this helped alot for my bookbinding and your amazing, keep making those magical books

[@Feeoryne]

Thank you!!

[@berolinastrassmann]

Excellent ideas, with clear instructions and using materials that are easy to come by. Thank you so much!

[@halarkin]

Thank you so much. I'm making a goodish number of books for my class, this will help immeasurably.

[@pennythedomelady]

Brilliant! I've made other punching cradles similar to your first version, but I was thinking I would have to teach students in a beginning bookbinding class I'm teaching to punch signatures at a 45 degree angle. Your cardboard version is a perfect solution. If students continue bookmaking, your first version is an option for them to upgrade. Thank you so much for this. I'll let you know how they work for students.

[@Beryllahawk]

Great!! Definitely planning a little book making for my summer crafts this year. I unearthed the small "book" I made a long while ago (at least a decade) and though I did my best (knowing basically nothing), the binding is actually pretty terrible, haha! Already I feel excited to do that project over again, but better this time.

[@reinapearse9111]

Most useful video I watched in ages. Thanks 👍

[@AlaraTokcan]

thank you so much! It helped a lot. And it was also fun to do :)

[@uniquelylily1166]

Awesome!

[@dawsie]

I still have the one Dad made me 45 years ago when I told him the problems I was having in trade school. I hated sawing the spin for stitching as it was never neat plus the holes were bigger on the outer pages to the last inner page. I use to pierce each page on its own and then place them into their groups. It took the same amount of time as if I had used the saw but each hole was perfect. Only difference is we never used wood glue it was either hoof glue or rabbit skin glue or starch glue for all hand bound books. There use to be a fourth glue gum Arabic but this was used for making the needle out of the thread. I have not been in the trade for years due to allergies develop from the carbon less paper and some of the inks used. I’m fine with books older than 100 years old, but many of the more modern printed books causes my skin to brake out in hives 😿

[@dominictramonte2687]

I've watched just about your whole channel by now. And you are a great book binder and a good woodworker. But how you can do that left handed is beyond me... Seriously. I just watched your medieval binding series and you really got to me using the drill the wrong way round when you were morticing the board covers.

[@beverlywalker8215]

I've destroyed the remaining phone books in the house by punching holes for book-making. I was about to experiment with building some form of a cradle when I found this video and your very informative channel. Thank you so much for sharing your methods!

[@heksedansd.2919]

Thank you!🙂👍

[@elviramcintosh9878]

Excellent ideas. It's the little things that make the difference. Greetings from Australia.

[@MASI_forging]

Nice work dude 😍😍

[@ericispublius]

All of your videos are incredibly helpful! I'm going to bind my first poetry book and have had no idea where to start. I'm excited to be a little messy starting something new The biggest issue I'm trying to solve now is figuring out how to layout my pages in signatures 😅 It's so much trickier than I thought!

[@neilthebookguy]

So great! I will certainly be making one of these very soon. I might even try my hand at a wooden one! Do you think you will ever make a video showing how to take a modern paperback and turn it into a hardcover? I know you kind of did that with the D&D series but would love to see a video from a perfect bound book into a hardback.

[@scanerang]

I've made one from mdf. It works amazingly well! It made my current project go faster. Could you make a tool for cutting the edge of a book? It is the only part of bookbinding that I am having difficulties with

[@boigeorge1149]

Is there any chance you might make a video specifically surrounding paperweight, swell, and how to plan ahead for that? For example how to pick the paper and thread to have either more or less swell for rounding and backing.

[@sasariwtf]

Piercing cradle sounds like the name of a medieval torture device.

[@robertojosenerymoraes277]

Perfeito, gostei!

[@JtheArgonaut]

A phenomenal tutorial! Definitely my next project. Did you try to make it from a standard 3mm hardboard (HDF)? I'm guessing it would be sturdier than the cradle made from grey board and you could use pretty much the same tools for making it.

[@Kayokimaho]

Very good🤌🏼

[@j1t172]

👍👍👍👍

[@Alexander-tp6kh]

I have seen people using a saw while pressing the signatures together, is that technique bad for some reason, it seems a lot faster but I have no idea. Love your work!

[@hotbecky880707]

Question, if you are making a book that you are planning on using as a junk journal where you add items to it, over time it will expand. Does this damage the book over time as it gets fatter? Should you bind it in a different way according to its intended use?

[@juanmiguelpalacioesteban5591]

Awesome job my friend. I love rpg games call of chtulhu, vampire, lord of the rings and dungeons&dragons, between others. I have seen your covers for your dnd books, for giving you a new idea for a new video and catching more visits I suggest you doing a grimoire at beorning style from.lord of the rings. With metal ornaments plunged. A very muscled barbarian in fronts at middle, with a big large hafted axe in spiked hammer butt, plunged into a pile of corpses of all kind monsters and an ice dragon surrounding coiling the pile. Image closed in an ornamented gothic but beorning style carved circle. Ringwights nazhgul around menacing him and sending fierce demons (demon warrior,sorcerer, thief,a demontroll barbarian, demon explorer, demon.mentalist, shapechanger in dragon or chimera shape, vampire demon, evil druid demon And flaming sauron eye on top watching spying) borders in carved beorning tribal ornaments. A lock for books. The behind cover with all gods faces of tolkien and the same bodybuilder hypermuscledmassed barbarian ascending to the skies, like a paladin or a saint- warrior. With his holy axe and all the before told enemies(demons and one only nazhgul) fallen to his feet. The barbarian is now meeting again with his fallen death family: blacksmith father,menthalist mother, menthalist andvexplorer brother (older than him). They are emotionated, a tear or two on his mother face, for being reunited with the long lost son, and pleasured for have been veanged. And the ascending saint/holy barbarian paladin of the gods of battles and physical strenght god too, in a full glory face expression (no scars, no eye lost, full of glory on his body too, but still looking some savage and wild.... a saint holy barbarian paladin of the gods of strenght,battle ,hunt and nature). Like the ecstasy of achilles when he dies and ascends to heavens but with that epic taste of roleplaying heroes images. Pages in scroll olded paper,some little burnt,others besides with antique humidity loses, covers marked with "sword cuts" dry blood, old mud stains....sonething like "the book of mazarbul from lord of the rings, or the invocation book of "witches times" from nicholas Cage film, you know.old, medieval, ancient, handwrited, and an item that has "lived" very much...wasted, cured, olded, lots and lots of pages, and some big (I imagine 50centimetres of height if you heights at 1,60metres....or 1,10metres (that it would be the size of a real medieval grimoire,just like the writing monk's books of medieval monasteries. On his "scriptorium". But at end, the size its all at your choosing. .of course this is the "perfect supposed thing" but too could be only an image (painted,not carved). I know,I know, this is a mad thing for doing, bit as I said it is "the perfect iconic idea". As.much you can be near of that, better than better. I think it would be a great artwork for being proud, and very great for looking, and you could attract all roleplayingamers, all leather workers, all book lovers or collectionists, and lovers of art, and bookadicts. I hope this idea could be useful . If you do something even far seemed, you will have another like from me and my real friends and my mail,facebook and youtube contacts, I will spread your page (and fame)through them. Thanks for reading, and thanks for hearing the youth dream of a guy interested in this world. Congratulations for your work and overall for your talent,discipline, skill and patience, and your liking on doing/designing. I admire all of this from you... I hope you upload a nrw video soon (not necessary about the idea I have suggested of course)😊 (Good luck my dungeons and dragons friend)

[@AlbertDebruijn]

Hi, may I ask what that big block is you use as a weight? Kinda looks like a brick, but it is wrapped in something?

[@user-zn5sj6kc7p]

Mr. Denis, I have a book But it has the spine like a U instead of being flat or on an "n" form. Would you have the patience, time, knowledge and kindness to show us how to fix that? If I take off the glue: would I create an unfixable mess? What liquid I need to take off the glue? Will it be easy to bind the one thousand pages again? Thanks in advance for your answer, I really appreciate it.

[@user-eb5mv2xt2o]

Vedio about cutting book

[@AmandaRosales-ys1tr]

Hey Friend, do you by any chance sell commissioned books?

[@user-eb5mv2xt2o]

How to cut the book

[@Tornament2007]

Funny enough i made one myself, without watching this video, or knowing that such device is more or less official

[@jjsarmiento]

Can you please bookbind a Holy Bible