When people think of handmade books, they often think of the coptic. What a classic. The exposed spine, and the intricate stitching cause it to be one of the most asked about (and picked up) handmade books available. But to the binder, the coptic can sometimes be dulled to the dread of sticky hand-cramps. Sticky hand cramps are the number one reason I don't teach the coptic binding in my beginning class (immediately followed by the difficulty of finding waxed linen thread.)
Why sticky you ask? Why cramps? Well, the sticky comes from the waxed linen thread; the wax can be a pain. But the cramps come from punching holes in the binders board. Binder's board never wants to be punched and it's hardly worth the heartache of mourning your bent awl. What's a girl to do?
Finally, I get to the point... a girl in my position has no other choice than to rush out and get herself a crop-a-dile. Ordinarily, I'm resistant to fancy tools that do for me what I can do for myself. After all, that's what handmade books are about. Plus, I'm cheap.
But I offer up for discussion exhibit A. The hole on top punched by hand and the grommet set by hand (yes, I used the edge of my knife to cut off the volcanic excess.) The hole below, set using the crop-a-dile. What a gem. I shall never leave home without her.
I personally have the crop-a-dile II tool (which is made by We R Memory Keepers.) Though they have 2 other crop-a-dile models which appear equally as handy.
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