show and tell and guess and ask....

I've been going over all the lovelies from that booky-find-of-the-century (yes I'm still pinching myself)... And we are now undertaking MAJOR changes to my small studio in order to accommodate all this gear (when that work is basically done I'll show you more of the larger booky bits in their new home)..... While the heavy duty (slow) work is going on, I've been going over the smaller things in the collection - and trying to work out (via the internet) the identity of some mystery items... gosh it's been an education! - like how HARD it is to track down quality useful information... Believe me I'm all ears and eyes (and gratitude) for any advice or leads anyone out there might like to share...

here are most of the small hand tools from the collection ....

and yes I know what some of the bits are (like that beautiful bone folder above.... and the backing hammers, awls and dividers below)

but from there it gets a bit 'interesting'. I have been scouring the internet trying to glean something, anything useful.... I was able to work out a bit via bookbinding suppliers like Faulkiners and Talas and J Hewit & Sons and Hollanders (all of these are in Europe or North America -as if I didn't need confirmation that there is a great lack of Aussie suppliers ... gosh where DOES an Aussie buy good bookbinding gear?)

Anyway back to this collection. Common sense told me that these...

.... are paring knives (for working leather in binding).... on the left, with the wooden handles, are lovely French paring knives.... and the others?... well that's where I start to get confused... does anyone know the difference between a French or English (or Swiss for that matter....) paring knife?

and talking knives does anyone know what these two would be used for?

... the serrated one is rather large and looks positively VICIOUS!


It took me all day but I finally worked out that these.....

... are sewing keys (used in conjunction with a sewing frame..... I posted a pic of the smaller of the two sewing frames from the collection last time) I THINK I can figure out how they basically work...

and this...

... I've discovered is a book plough - but I haven't been able to figure out how it works with either the lying press or finishing press (yes, you might have noticed I scored both of these in the collection too)..... I have NO IDEA what blade this beastie needs let alone where one can buy book plough blades from....

here is the underside of the lovely thing....

has anyone seen a plough like this before? .... (ps I found this site one of the most useful for tracking down info about old bookbinding gear....)

still - many more mysteries remain.... what, for example, is this?...

is it something to do with making mitred corners?

and how about this.....

I'm totally totally bamboozled!! (I THINK it has something to do with measuring.... the numbers seem to refer to fractions of millimetres... but what the heck might it be measuring?)


well I might not know all the ins-and-outs of the collection, but gosh the small tools are delightful! they are really beautifully made from quality materials. And while we are on the subject of quality materials - look at what I found inside a big garbage bag that came with the gear....

lovely book leather!

and sweet rolls of french linen thread

Don't be surprised my book-art-object friends, if some of this leather/thread stash doesn't end up coming your way in the next BAO edition!


Time to get back to cleaning/moving/re-modelling the studio (I've left that long-suffering man of mine working alone making a passionfruit support for the studio sink to sit under..... you'll have to wait for the finished pics for that vision to make sense!)




** November 5 update
thanks everyone for all your hints and help - both here as comments and as private emails - and thanks to anonymous bloggy angels for sending this out into the universe...... big thanks to jeff peachy for dropping by to add his greater wisdom to the mix..... I'll continue trying to track down further details regards all the gear.... (that book plough remains mysterious! what blades does it use? where would I find them? what press does it work with? and how? whats the best way of maintaining the wooden screw? etc etc etc!) ahhhh but learning about all this is GREAT fun!

.....