Bindery Knot

The bindery knot is used for books and journals that are being sent to Preservation Services for repair or commercial binding. If you need cotton tape to tie books or journals please contact us.

A printable PDF version of this page is available here.

Start with a book or stack of collated journals, and a length of cotton tape equal to twice the height of the item, plus twice the width, plus a little extra.

Make a small loop at the end of the cotton tape.

Wrap the tape around the width of the book and pass the end through the small loop.

Wrap the tape around the height of the book.

Pass the end of the tape OVER the horizontal piece, and UNDER the vertical piece of tape, then pull down OVER thehorizontal piece.

Pass a section of the tape under the vertical piece, forming a loop.

Make another loop at the end of the tape, and pass it through the loop you made in the previous step. Pull the second loop towards the top of the book, tightening the knot.

When you pull the knot tight, it will look like this. This knot will secure your books and journals without damaging their covers and pages.

Last updated February 25, 2008