The Gently Mad : Edinburgh Bookbinder and Bookseller

~ Menu ~

Bookbinding Services

Books for Sale

Sell Your Books to Us

Examples of Work

Meet Rab & Baz

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~ Bird Prints ~

19th century hand-coloured bird print by F.O. Morris

19th century
hand-coloured prints
~ click here ~

~ Selling Books? ~

To find out how
~ click here ~

~ bookbinding services ~

Gold being applied to the spine of a book

At The Gently Mad we undertake most types of book restoration. We insist on using time-served, traditional bookbinding methods, materials, and tools, to carry out our work.

Some of our clients have included Edinburgh University, Film Director, Robert Jan Westdijk (The Waterboys), Her Majesty the Queen on behalf of the RAF, and The Robin Chapel (we bound a special visitors book for the Queen's visit in July, 2013)

~ restoration and repairs ~

SYMPATHETIC RESTORATION & REPAIRS Bible Restoration - Rebacking - Sympathetic Rebinding of 18th and 19th Century Volumes - Cloth and Leather Work - Page Repairs - Book Cleaning and Polishing - Endpaper Replacement - Hinge Reinforcement - endpaper replacement - dust jacket protection

Bible before restoration	Bible after restoration

~ bespoke binding ~

SPECIAL BOOKS

Visitors/Guest Books - Artist's Sketchbooks - Log Books - Sporting Registers

Diaries - Wedding Albums Fine Bindings - Student Thesis - Box-making

Slipcases - Art Portfolios

~ see our bookbinding price list ~

~ gilding and hot foil blocking ~

We offer a gilding and hot foil blocking service.

Hot Foil Blocking / Printing (sometimes called Hot Foil Stamping) is where a pre-glued metallic foil, is pressed by a heated die, inserted into the blocking machine, onto the surface of the leather or bookcloth. This is a permanent way of applying a quality & decorative finish to your books, menus, art projects, etc.

Our large blocking machine, seen on the right, is called Mr Sturdy and weighs in at 320kg. He is around 100 years old and is of made from cast iron.

We bought the press from a bookbinder in London and it took us four attempts to have it delivered to our shop in Edinburgh . . the first three couriers attempted pick-up but found Mr. Sturdy just too awkward and heavy to handle.

Large blocking press for gold foiling book covers and title labels

We finally found a brave man in a van (and his brother) and Mr Sturdy was safely delivered to the pavement outside our shop . . it took 5 hours for Baz and I just to get it through the front door of our shop, and a further day with four strong men to get it to where it now lives. It was well worth it, but we ain't moving it again!!

~ Binding Menu ~

Marble Papers we Use

Tools we Use

Our Price List

~ Mini-binding ~

Miniature leather bound boo by The Gently Mad Bookbinder

To see our gallery
of work
~ click here ~

~ Dutch Onlay ~

Example of Baz's
leather onlay work
~ click here ~

~ Egg & Flour ~

We use eggs and flour in all our fine leather bindings but we dont bake them!
~ find out more ~

The Gently Mad : 2 Summer Place, Edinburgh, EH3 5NR : 0131 261 6028 / 07702592972