In my last blog post, I went through the foundational steps to the binding process of our Bibles. Today, I would like to take you through some of our more tedious processes. Before we start with today’s content, let’s take a moment to recap.

We start with the design process which takes a great portion of time as we scan, clean, format and process many of our text styles. With a knowledge of the printing process, we have been able to develop our own text styles and are continually developing others. From the design process, the files are sent off to our printers where they will finalize the formatting process, print, gather, sew and palletize the Bibles for shipping. Once the Bibles arrive, the bindery does a first inspection and nips the spines for a better fold of the signatures and to help ensure that the Bible will be able to lay flat later on in the binding process. The next step is the “glue off” station where the spines are straightened and glued. This step is necessary to the process as it will help ensure that the pages are not going to be able to move during other binding steps. From there the Bibles are inserted with the endleaf pages which will be attached later on. The last step we covered in the previous post was the “smasher” machine which applies 33,000 pounds of pressure to the Bibles to take all of the extra air out from within the pages and help towards giving us our final spine width measurement.

The next step our Bibles are taken through is the trimming machine. We take the three, rough outer edges and trim them to within 1/32 of the final footprint size of the book block itself. Overall attention to detail must be taken to another level at this point as this is where the cosmetic process of the Bible binding begins.

From the trimmer our Bibles are taken to be clamped into a rolling cart where they will stay for the next two processes. Each Bible has its own thickness and therefore the amount able to fit into a clamp will differ between Bibles. On an average, 17 Bibles will fit into one clamp. When it comes to the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs there are 98 New Testaments in a clamp! Having the Bibles in the clamp allows them to spin freely during the next process. While building them into the clamp, the time is taken to get the book blocks as square as possible and tight to help ensure a better sand.

The sanding process is one of the most detailed step the Bibles go through. A black die is sprayed on the three edges of the Bible which will be sanded to help the sander see any imperfections that may have been missed. The corners are free hand sanded with an orbital sander as one would with a regular wood board. Sanding belts of 100 grit, 150 girt, 220 grit, and 320 grit are used on each clamp of Bibles to give a finish as smooth as glass to the Bibles.

After the Bibles have been sanded they are sprayed with a dye and adhesive in preparation for the art gilding process. Pieces of foil are cut to the size of each side of the Bible before being melted onto the Bibles. The gilding machine has multiple rollers which are heated at different temperatures allowing for optimal melting points. The operator of the machine melts the corners in a free hand style with yet another roller to give a beautiful and polished art gilding for all sides of the Bibles. If you could see the clamp in person after the gilding process it would look like a large brick of solid gold.

The next step of the binding process is what we like to call “opening”. During this step, the Bibles are released from the clamp and we take the time to fan the pages which have been stuck together because of the adhesive for the art gilding. If you have ever purchased a Bible from a local Christian bookstore, you may have had many of the pages of that Bible be stuck together and hard to open. By taking the time to open the Bibles we can help ensure that the pages will be able to fan nicely as our customers look through their new Bible for the first time.

For the next step, the Bibles are inserted by hand with the ribbons chosen for that particular design style, (i.e. which colored ribbons will go with what cover color later on). Each of the ribbons have been cut by hand on a special jig that has been pre-measured to fit each Bible size available – Handsize, Midsize, Large, compact, etc. A special “knife” is used to hook the ribbons on before they are inserted into the Bible and stacked for the next step.  

The last steps of the binding process are intricate and greater detail is taken with each individual Bible. Stay tuned – once again – for next weeks post in which I will finish “taking you on a tour” of how our Bibles are made.