Choose between ivory recycled paper or FSC approved white paper in our standard books. A selection of gorgeous Zerkall papers are used in our Premium range.

A4 paper is cleanly cut in half to make the pages for our standard A6 books with smooth edges. Large sheets of Zerkall paper are sliced with a knife to give a soft deckled edge for our Premium books.

Each sheet is folded in half and grouped into sets of 3 or 4 (depending on the thickness of the paper) to make the signatures or sections.

Signatures are stacked into sets that will become books. Our standard books have 10 signatures, the slimline ones have 7 signatures and the chunky year-long journals have a whopping 23 signatures!

This nifty little frame holds the signatures open so that a template can be used with the awl to accurately poke holes in each signature ready for sewing.

Signatures are stacked with the pricked holes aligned ready for sewing. The book-sized stacks are given a good squash in the press to reduce swelling in the spine before stitching.

My go-to stitches for all my notebooks. The French link stitch is great as it is stable while being difficult to pull too tight (and I love the zig zag look). The kettle stitch is the perfect little stitch to give stability to the head and tail of the books.

Once stitched, the proto-book goes into the press to consolidate the spine and reduce swelling. Glue is applied for strength and stability.

Coordinating, decorative or plain endpapers are added to the book blocks by running a thin line of glue along the edge of the block close to the spine. These are the coloured pages that you see when you first open the cover of a book.

A thin strip of Kraft paper or mull cloth is glues directly to the spine to support the stitching and add strength to the book’s spine. A wider piece of Kraft paper is also glued along the spine, but this folds around to the front and back of the block and reinforces the hinge area when the book block is pasted into the cover.

A fine selection of tools for Vintage Paper Co in Orkney including bone folders, needles, dividers, corner jig, paper knife, set square and linen thread.

Screw punch - invaluable little tool for making all the holes needed for Japanese Stab binding

A simple version of a stab binding that I tend to use of A5 books to keep the spine area from getting too bulky

This is my go-to stab binding stitch for most of my A4 photo albums and memory keeper books. Adds a bit of variation to the spine design while still holding the cover boards and pages securely.

Just having a play with a simple longstitch binding on a soft leather cover.