Calico | Technical fabrics & materials

Long live the book, so bookbinders say. Besides the usual preservative measures, a restorator decides to take further action when the expressiveness of a piece or artwork is at stake or if it is about to loosing its substance. In former times, a satisfactory appearance of damaged artwork was pursued, whereas nowadays, we know that even the most careful cleaning or fixing imply an inevitable infringement into the history of an object. Nowadays, the ethical aim is a minimally invasive restoration. All measures should be reversible.

Preservation and prevention

The ravages of time gnaw on books, paintings and graphics. After completion of a piece of artwork, an inexorable natural ageing process begins more or less quickly. The changes of the physical and chemical specifications have impact not only on the outer appearance, but also lead to a successive decay of the object. Any measure taken to preserve the traditional, historically grown, state of the artwork belongs to conservation. The tools and preservative agents chosen are supposed to enable individual, object-related preservation of the artwork. Prevention includes measures serving to reduce prophylactically the extent of all unnatural changes and damages of the original.

Collection and exhibition supplies

Where cultural assets such as books, paintings or graphics are collected, special measures for their preservation and care have been developed. Nowadays, there are special materials and ancillaries enabling the optimum storage and handling of sensitive objects. ''Collecting, preserving, researching and teaching'' is the educational duty of anybody taking care of our cultural heritage. The objects being exhibited have to be transported, handled and presented in an appropriate and professional way. For this purpose, we have a wide range of special tools, materials and ancillary.

Ascocolor Marbling Colors

Developed back in 1981 in the Atelier Hugo Peller in collaboration with the Centro del bel libro in Ascona, the colours of AscoColor® still represent the reference for high-quality marbling colours. With a bit of practice, impressive works of art can be created on the basis of the oil paints in combination with the Gelasco marbling base. End products are smudge-, wash- and light-fast. The production location in Germany ensures a consistently high quality of all components. In addition to the traditional oil-based marbling paints, we have expanded our portfolio of marbling paints under the AscoColor eco brand in 2021, focusing on environmental compatibility.

English Arbelave Buckram

English Buckram (also known as Arbelave Library Buckram) has been the binding fabric for high-quality and durable library covers for over 75 years. Today, professionals also choose this fabric for particularly heavy-duty products such as menus or sample books. We carry the entire range of English Buckram products with their wide variety of colours (a total of 69 different colours in four types); all from stock and available from 1 metre.

Filmolux

Filmolux films are used to protect or reinforce books and are available in various qualities, adhesive properties and dimensions. In addition to the classic films, bio-based and particularly environmentally friendly films are also available.

Filmoplast

Filmoplast are book repair tapes made of special paper and cotton fabric. The Filmoplast range includes Filmoplast P and P90 for repairing book pages as well as P90 plus for framing, Filmoplast R for heat sealing and Filmoplast T and SH for reinforcing, folding etc.

Gudy

Double-sided adhesive films for equipping paper, prints, photos and other graphic applications, acid-free and non-ageing, available in different qualities, tacks and dimensions.

iBookBinding Tools

iBookBinding is a podcast and blog about book art and book history (you can find it under iBookBinding.com). In addition, iBookBinding produces many practical tools for book binding itself. These tools are made with innovative 3d printing technology, making them perfect for DIY projects, as they can greatly simplify the work for a slim price. Thus, a wide variety of work can be realized easily, quickly and neatly. In particular, the tools are suitable for making notebooks, scrapbooks or boxes. We are pleased to offer a selection of their tools from stock, immediately available.

Maroquin Leather Care

We took over the Maroquin brand and the production of the well-known leather care products in 2016. In addition to the well-known Maroquin Leather Balm and Leather Vaseline, we have expanded the range to include Maroquin Aniline Leather Paint and Leather Brushes.

Planatol adhesives

As a premium dealer, we carry the entire range of high-quality Planatol adhesives for the specialist trade. Dispersion adhesives, hot melt and PUR adhesives, PLANAMELT adhesives, all available from stock and can be ordered in small as well as large quantities. As a specialist for Planatol adhesives, we are very familiar with the entire product portfolio and can recommend a suitable adhesive for your individual application. Especially in the field of adhesives, good advice is essential for a high-quality and durable end product.

Machines

By Function

Accessories / Parts

Book Block Making

Case Making

Casing-In, Pressing and Joint-setting

Finish, Emboss, Personalise

Gluing

Refurbished Machines & Remaining Stock

Solutions

Books-on-demand

Entry-level solution hardcover

Individual Solutions & Consultation

Photo books & XXL formats

Output Level

Level 1: up to 100 pcs/h

Level 2: 101 - 200 pcs/h

Level 3: more than 200 pcs/h

Demo Center

Digital Meeting

Virtual 3d-Tour

Guides & Tutorials

DIY Guide: Hardcover Made Easy

In this guide we show you how easy it can be to bind your own hardcover book. With our detailed step-by-step instructions including a video we want to inspire more people to discover the world of bookbinding.

Leather-paring with Schärffix

The original: Schärffix® is a device to pare leather products, especially for leather book cases. A sharp blade and a suitable paring roll thin the leather on the inside which makes the leather easier to turn-in or hinge. It is small and handy is supplied in a case including spare blades, different paring rollers and tools. We supply plenty of tools for leather treatment, such as paring knives, paring stone, leather scissors, leather dyes and leather care products.

Edge-gilding with gold leaf

Besides edge-gilding with our edge-gilding roller and foil we also offer tools and consumables for gilding with real gold leaf such as gilding knives, agate burnishers, gold leaf, binding agent, gilder's tip and gilding cushion.

Edge-gilding with edge-gilding roll

How to gild edges in just 5 steps - A step-by-step guide to edge gilding. Book-edge finishing was historically used for very high-value books - in the past, every valuable and special book had an edge covered in gold, chalk, graphite or dye. The gilded edge was the highest quality method and was done with real gold leaf (see also our tutorial with gold leaf). Nowadays, edge gilding is used very little and has a very special effect as a result.

Manual gilding with gilding tools

For gilding, edge gilding and decoration of books and leather products you need the right tools and materials. In the following video, we show a selection of our products you can use for this purpose.

Make book cases with the casemaking square

If you are going to create your own book case, you may use our case-making squares. These help you to easily position boards and spine on the cover sheet so that the case will be straight and square.

Attach book corners with PräPremo

It is not always easy to apply metal book corners. To make this easier, we have invented a little press, which comes in two versions: manual PräPremo and PräPremo Pro with air pressure. In this guide, we show how to use them and how easy they make it to fix book corners to a book cover or finished book.

Marbling of paper

Marble is a limestone that has a special colour structure. When marbling paper, you want to achieve such colour structures or marble effects and capture them on paper. For DIY enthusiasts, this is also possible at home and not many tools are required. The special thing about marbling paper is that the marble effect looks different every time, each piece of paper being unique. The good thing is, anyone with a little patience and enjoyment can actually learn how to marble paper.

Adhesive / Glue Guide

Discover our comprehensive guide to adhesives for bookbinding. Find out which adhesive is suitable for which material and application, from dispersion to hotmelt.

Sale %

All Sale Items

Here you will find all our bargains: Current promotions, items with slight defects and discontinued items.

Refurbished Machines & Remaining Stock

Here you will find used, reconditioned machines at favourable conditions as well as remaining stock of discontinued models.

Sale: Material & Tools

You are not interested in machines? Here you will find our bargains only from the categories material and tools. In addition to current special offers, you will also find low-priced items with slight defects, B-goods, returns or discontinued items.