Book protector

A leather/metal wrap to protect a paperback book.
When I commuted to work on a train I enjoyed reading but my books got damaged whilst in my ruck sack. Here I describe my solution, a leather and metal book wrap. 

Step 1 Materials

Materials:

• Leather
• Metal
• Needle & thread

Tools:

• Sharpe knife for cutting leather
• Drill
• 2mm drill bit

Optional:

• Leather punching tools
• Hammer

Notes:

Leather
    The leather came from ebay and was a handy 210mm x 295mm so mine didn't need cutting to size. A sturdy pair of scissors could be used to cut the leather depending on thickness but a knife can be cleanly run along the edge of a metal ruler to give a clean true cut.
    I've made a couple of covers like the one above and think that leather of at least 2mm thickness works best.

Metal
    I've used aluminium sheet for the one pictured but anything flat will do! The aluminium is a couple of millimetres thick and has held up relatively well to the abuses of being in my bag.

Leather punches
    Can be home made from a nail, instructable to follow.

Comments

[star_above_the_clouds]

This looks very nice!

[Nostalgic Guy]

A nice idea I wish I had one when I travelled to work by train all the time, sharing a bag with a laptop & all my cables & other paraphernalia did not do my books any favours at all.
When I first started to work with leather I would score my stitching line with the back of a butter knife then use the sharpened tines of a steel fork to mark my holes I still use this method occasionally but now have a wheeled stitch marker for the job. If you are going to do a lot of leather work you may find something like this useful. It helps to keep the stitches straight & if you score the line deeply enough your stitching will be flush with the surface of the leather.
I still carry books in my backpack when I know I will have a long wait for an appointment or I am travelling so I will probably make something similar, I like the idea of velcro but I may substitute the aluminium for a thin steel plate & use a couple of hard drive magnets for the closure.

[Phil B]

Could you add a Velchro closure?

[cbm104]

Yes, velcro could be a handy addition. I used an over sized wrap because it works for books of any thickness or multiple books, with velcro fastening you might use.one strip vertical on the inside edge and one horizontal on the outside.

[Phil B]

I was looking for something like this about a month ago. I finally settled for making a slip case from some nice wood. It allows me to include a companion volume in the one slip case.  Click on the link above to see is as an Instructable.  It is serving me well, but I still like your leather cover.

[Phil B]

Correction to my comment above: "to see IT as an Instructable..."

[seolfor]

Very nice!

[cbm104]

Thanks :)