Four Options For Binding Your Cookbook

Putting a cookbook together is a fun and interesting project, and can make for a great fundraising tool. Here are some of the best bind styles to consider for your cookbook.

1. Plastic Comb Binding. This is a very common binding style, and one you have likely seen many times without knowing what it was called. This style of binding is called plastic comb because it employs what looks like a long-toothed comb to keep the pages of your book together. The teeth of the comb wrap around each other to keep the pages in place. When you bind with the plastic comb system, you place your pages in the punch, creating rectangular holes down the margin of the sheets. Then the binding spine is placed inside the holes by the use of the machine, and you have your book. There are several advantages to creating your cookbook with plastic comb binding. For one, the book opens flat for easy reading while lying on a countertop. This is also a very rugged binding style that can stand up to heavy use. Books that are bound with plastic coil are also fairly easy to edit if need be.

2. Spiral Coil Binding. If you can picture the typical wire bound school notebook, then you have an idea what spiral coil binding is. In this style, instead of the metal wire of notebooks, the spiral coil is made out of plastic. These spines come is a wide variety of colors, so you can choose one that matches the look of your cover if you wish. The binding process is similar to that of plastic coil in that one part of the machine is a punching mechanism, and the other is a binding machine. The depending on whether you purchase a high end machine or something a little more entry-level, the insertion of the wire can either take a lot of hands-on effort or not. Advantages of this style are that not only does this type of book open flat, it can wrap around completely, and it works well with laminated pages. It also tends to look a little bit more elegant than plastic comb binding does.

3. Twin Loop Binding. This is a style that you often see used with hard cardboard covers for use with journals, address books and the like. A clear step above the previous two in terms of looks and elegance, this is a style you might want to consider if you are looking to create a look that is a cut above what you might normally see in a home or small office-produced document. The process is similar in that punching is required and there is then a part of the machine that closes the wire loops in the holes binding the book together.

4. Thermal Binding. This is the binding style that is used to produce hardcover and softcover books, and you may be surprised at how simple it is to do. In most thermal binding machines, all you need to do it place the pages into a cover with a glue strip, then place the book spine down in the binding machine. The glue is then heated and your book is finished in less than a minute in most cases. This is the most elegant and permanent of all the binding styles, but the books generally won’t lie flat, so they may lose some points on functionality.

Author Bio: If you are interested in more information about how the right Binding Machine can help you with your cookbook, you might want to visit MyBinding.com. They offer a great price and Free Shipping on orders over $75.00. Plus, they carry a full line of Binding Supplies.

Category: Arts and Crafts
Keywords: plastic comb binding,comb binding,binding machine,binding style,plastic comb

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