Is there interest in handbound books?

[Thorgrimr]

I'm planning to make a hand bound leather covered book. I'm using acid free 70 lb bond paper and sewing it with waxed linen thread. Would anyone be interested in such a thing? What would folks be willing to pay for somethikng like that? (I gotta know if it's worth the time I think it's gonna take.)

[Randy W]

Yes I would, I do not however know what it would be worth, but probably more than I could afford

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70lb is almost certainly too heavy. When I did my first one I think I went with a 60lb then I went down some to like a 32lb, then I flipped through the pages of an actual Caxton and I went to a 24 or 20lb depending on what I could find.

[Sean Powell]

BLANK books? I don't know how much of a market there is. You are essentially selling to 16 year old girls who want to keep a diary and not have it available on facebook/whatever. I suppose I could use it to record 'milk, bread, eggs, dog-food, etc' but that seems trivial. I'm never going to replace my disposible shop note-pads for a nice leather book, I need to handle them with dirty hands. For day-to-day medieval notes I have a wax tablet.

Now replica medieval books may be a different matter. There are people who will buy something that looks medieval because their persona would have carried one but there are even more people who need to have certain information available but don't want it to be glaringly obvious. Example: It would be nice to have a printed in gothic text version of the Marshals Handbook, Siege handbook, Combat Archery Handbook and maybe rapier handbook in a nice non-descript tome... possibly even with a pocket for a flat marshals gage. That would be something I would take with me frequently.

It's sort of like getting a wonderful period drinking vessel to hide the fact that you are drinking gatoraiderather then a bottle to stand there and look pretty but has nothing in it.

Just my opinion obviously.

Sean