Contact me: hanno@braun-odw.eu

Hanno Braun

making and small-scale manufacturing

Notebook #2

A closed notebook, bound in cork leather. (click for full size)

This is the second notebook I ever made. I made this a number of weeks after finishing the first one. My mom was looking for a notebook, and I was looking for an excuse to make another one. Win-win.

An open notebook with blank pages. The sides of the paper are visibly rough. (click for full size)

The finish of the sides is as rough as with the first one, which is just a consequence of the process I'm using to finish these. I actually quite like the look.

A closeup of the right side of the notebook. The edges of the paper and cover are visibly rough. (click for full size)
A closeup of bottom side of the notebook. The edges of the paper and cover are visibly rough. (click for full size)

My priority was to do a better job of attaching the cover to the text block at the spine. That worked, but it's still not as close as I'd like it to be. There's always something to do better with the next one.

A closeup of the bottom end of the spine. There's a small gap between cover and text block, and the signatures aren't quite straight. (click for full size)
A closeup of the top end of the spine. There's a small gap between cover and text block, and the signatures aren't quite straight. (click for full size)

It's really fun to sign these, and I'm glad I started doing that with the first one. It's fun to make something very similar to what I made before, getting to improve the process, but still make something unique.

The notebook, showing the following mark on the inside of the cover: Notebook · Hanno Braun · 2022-W04 · #2 · Made in Odenwald (click for full size)

I tried to film the complete process of making this one, but quickly realized that my Android phone isn't suitable for extended filming. It doesn't have enough memory for long videos and the batteries would really need to be replaceable.

I still managed to make a video of the first few steps.

Other than that, I got a bunch of pictures of intermediate stages from the build. Here's the sewn text block.

The text block, facing the spine, sewn. (click for full size)

This is some printer paper from the 90s that I found. It's a bit thicker than regular printer paper. I doubled it up and used it for the end pages.

A stack of old printer paper. (click for full size)

Here I've glued on the end pages, as well as a protective sheet of paper to the spine. The signatures moved while I glued on the protective sheet, so this backfired a bit.

The text block, covered in protective paper sheets that were glued on. (click for full size)

Here's the cover added, before I cut the notebook down to size.

The notebook almost finished, with the cover glued on. (click for full size)

The trash from cutting the notebook to size.

A small pile of trash, paper and some cork, that was cut off the notebook. (click for full size)