Seeing bookbinders in Vienna work with antique presses hit me hard.

I was in Vienna last month and visited a bindery that's been around for centuries. They still use presses from the 1800s, all iron and wood. It made me think back to when I began, we had some old gear too, but it's mostly plastic now. The feel of leather under those old tools is different, smoother somehow. I miss that touch in my own work. Maybe we should bring back some of those ways, even if it's slower.

3 comments

3 Comments

noah_smith1mo ago

Oh wow, I read this article about how the pressure from those old iron presses actually changes the leather's fibers over time. Makes total sense why the feel would be so different from modern stuff.

grant_hernandez1mo ago

No way! I always figured it was just about age, but that makes so much sense. The pressure thing really explains why old leather has that unique feel. I guess I never considered how the making process itself could change the material over time.

grant.finley27d ago

That article @noah_smith mentioned lines up with what a cobbler told me once. He said the old presses compacted everything so slowly that it made the leather denser, almost like stone polishing. Modern machines just don't work the material the same way. It's not just about being old, it's about how it was made.