Our Materials

Book Board

Our board (aka Grey Board or Davey Board) is a 100% recycled material that is made from waste paper. It is compressed and made into a strong and flexible board. We use 1.5mm, 2mm and 2.5mm board. We often glue these various thick ness boards together (laminate them) with PVA glue to create a thicker board, or step jointed board for strength.

PVA Glue

PVA (or PolyVinyle Acetate) is a non toxic, odourless glue that is water dispersible, but when dry is extremely strong - or certainly strong enough for our applications. It has a neutral Ph and is ideal for archive materials

Book Cloths 

Buckram is generic name for a cotton cloth with a water resistant acrylic coating. The same buckram cloth on your box or binder will more than likely be in use in national libraries around the world, such is their reputation for wear and longevity.

Colorado & Windsor book cloth are a tissue lined 100% Rayon cloth. Neither of these have a coating, so are not water resistant or shinny, and are softer to the touch than Buckram, Windsor has a slightly heavier grain and feel than Colorado. Neither have been given any coating so mark and wear more easily than Buckram.
The Linen coverings we offer come in a natural weave and depending on the colour, both the weft and warp are the same or different colours.

Faux or Vegan Leather, is PU (Polyurethane) textured cover that has been especially created to a look and feel of luxury leather. It is cleanable, but care should be taken as it can ware.

Leather

3.5mm Leather is a full grain (top surface of the cow hide) and as such is the most valuable of hides. It is also is vegetable tanned. This is ancient way of tanning leather which goes as far as the Romans. Vegetable or veg tanning uses natural vegetation to tan the leather, which help gives it, its distinctive smell.
The leather has been "dyed through" which as the expression suggests, the dye has been allowed to go through the whole hide.
Lastly the hide has been "tumbled". This process involves putting the hides into a big drum and tumbling them to soften them up. This gives it a slightly bubbled effect (hence the occasional reference to "3.5mm bubble" The denser the hide, the less it breaks down, which is why there is never any constancy and how each hide appears.

2.5mm Leather is the same as the 3.5mm. It is top grain, veg tanned and dyed through cow hide. It is also tumbled, but because the hide is thinner, the fibres break down a lot easier which s why there is far more feature in this leather. 

1.5mm Leather is the leather we use to bind around book board (in products like a leather bound ring binder). This is a chemically dyed leather and is not full grain, but rather comes for lower down the hide.  

Plastic Page Protector Sleeves

Our plastic sleeves are made from clear Polypropylene. This is an acid free plastic, and therefore archive quality. It is also exceptionally good quality 110micron thick material that is also very clear.