How I learned the Craft of Book Binding

Dec 10, 2019

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I learned book binding جلد بندی from my relative Ehtisham Haider Chacha (منّو چچا) . I went with him to Raja Bazar, Rawalpindi in 1975-76 when I was in 8th class and living in Islamabad. He helped me buy the needle, thick thread, and glossy paper sheet, scissors, etc. He then taught me how to prepare home made glue (میدہ کی لئی ), make holes in the book, thread the book with needle, attach thick card from used hard binding of copies, tie it to the thread, cut it, put the spine cloth, glue it and paste the glossy paper. I used this skill to bind hundreds of books in my home collection. I still have a few of those bound books with me. Unfortunately I could not get the opportunity to graduate to the finer art of جزو بندی which is a more involved craft requiring sewing with fine thread different parts (جزو) of the book.

See the sewing of one of the binding that is exposed of this book

I was encouraged by my mother into this book binding project. She motivated me that one need to learn crafts skills (like book binding) so that during adversity one has the skills to survive. She told me about the plight of well to do people after partition who suddenly found themselves penny less when they lost their lands, jobs and privileges and had no skills or craft with which to become self employed or survive.

These were the times when recycling and reuse was the order of the day. Most of the hardcovers thick cardboard came from the discarded school copies. Inner paper was often the brown cover used for covering the copies and books. There was so much emphasis on not wasting thread, paper or hard covers. I remember using the same scissors and the piercing tool for the next thrity years.