Oriented strand board (OSB) is an engineered wood product that's made with flakes or large chips of wood. The panels are formed from layers glued together with their strands at 90-degree angles to one another. The cross-orientation of the layers adds strength to the panels and makes OSB well-suited for use as a structure board in sheathing and underlayment. It can be cut with all power saws but since it's a structure board, it's not suited to shaping, sanding or other milling operations.
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While OSB is mainly used as an underlayment, paint and primer will adhere to it for projects that require finishing. OSB panels are 4-feet-by-8-feet in size with a thickness of 1/4 inch to 3/4 inches. It's also available in tongue and groove panels.
Book board is used to make the covers of a book. You might hear it called &#;binder board&#;, &#;Davey board&#; or &#;museum board&#;. While these are all good book boards for binding, each of them have differences. I&#;ll explain the differences, including thickness and application, while also giving you extra nerdy data in table format because&#;why not.
At it&#;s most simple, book binder&#;s board is a high quality, strong-yet-flexible and acid-free sheet of pressed organic material (wood pulp or cotton fibers, primarily). The quality of the final board depends on the manufacturing process used to make it. I&#;ll talk more about this below.
Book board thickness, raw materials (cotton, wood pulp) and uses are some good-to-know board basics. I&#;ll cover these first and then get into thickness and application.
First, a quick heads up&#;everyone in the bookbinding world is crazy about archival quality everything. &#;Archival&#; or &#;pH neutral&#; just means &#;acid-free.&#; Acid-free is important for the long haul. If you want your books, boxes and other paper creations to last a long time, you&#;ll want the materials they&#;re made of to be acid-free. Otherwise, the materials will yellow, turn spotty, become brittle and break down over time. This is bad. Very bad.
Book board is made up of layers of thick paper. Some are on the thin side (single to 2-ply) and others are thick (4-8 ply) to make them sturdy. 2-ply boards have two layers of thick paper while 4-ply boards have four, and so on.
Generally, book makers prefer 2, 3 and 4-ply thickness.
Book board made from cotton is often called Museum board. These boards are softer (read: much easier to cut) and can be found in most art supply stores. Don&#;t be fooled, though &#; just because they&#;re &#;softer&#; doesn&#;t mean they&#;re not strong. In fact, museum board is available in thicknesses ranging from single ply all the way up to 8-ply!
Museum board (courtesy: Talas Online)Book board made from wood pulp is called Davey board (can also be called Binder&#;s board). This board is buffered and harder (read: not as easy to cut). It&#;s perfect for books up to 12 inches tall. If your book is taller than 12 inches, it is recommended that you glue a couple of Davey boards together to get the right thickness.
Davey board (courtesy: Talas Online)Boards are used for both book covers and spines, but spine boards (also called &#;spine strips&#;) are usually thinner than the cover board. Choosing the right thickness for your spine strip is important because it adds balance. Read more about this in my post on the topic, Create Visual Balance with the Right Spine Strip.
Board thickness is given in mm, calipers, inches or points depending on where you are in the world. I made a table to help with equivalents because I am very helpful ? and these things can be confusing!
millimeterscalipersinchespoints1.70..06~681.90..07~742.10..09~80board thickness equivalents across different measurementsNow that we have a good understanding of book boards, let&#;s talk about board thickness vs. book size.
It&#;s pretty simple &#; smaller books need thinner boards. Bigger books need thicker boards.
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It all comes down to making sure the book has thick enough covers to support its overall weight. I made another helpful table to give you some guidelines on picking the right board thickness for your project:
Book ExamplesBook SizeBest Board TypeBest Board Thickness Children&#;s books, travel & tasting journalsSmall &#; 6&#; or less (A6)Museum or Davey0.06 in.Journals, standard booksMedium &#; 6&#; &#; 9&#; (A5, B5)Davey0.07 in.Photo albums, scrapbooks, sketchbooksLarge &#; 10&#; &#; 11&#; tall (A4)Davey0.07 &#; 0.09 in.Tomes, grimoires, scrapbooks, sketchbooksXLarge &#; 12&#; tall (A4)Davey0.09 &#; 0.10 in. (or 0.06 in. x 2)Specialty booksXXLarge &#; 12&#; + tall (A3, B4 and larger)(2) Davey boards glued per cover (4 total)0.09 &#; 0.10 x 2 per coverbest board thickness to support book sizeAll of this information is great, but the facts are just that&#;facts. As a new bookbinder, it can be hard to translate those facts into a decision when you&#;re not even sure where to begin. I totally understand.
I remember begging a fellow binder to just TELL ME what to buy. I&#;m serious. I literally said to her, &#;This is awesome, but please&#;.just tell me what to buy! Where do I start??&#; If this is you, welcome to the club!
If you&#;re just getting into bookbinding and want to make a simple book for family (example: sketch books for the grandkids), I can definitely recommend a good beginner&#;s board.
I personally used a Lineco acid free binder&#;s board when I got started. I still use it today for various projects. This board is neutral in acidity (not acid-free, read up on that here), which makes it a great starter choice.
The Lineco binder&#;s board package includes 4 sheets of size 15&#; x 20.5&#; at a thickness of 0.067. This will give you plenty of board for various sizes, but you will need to cut it down yourself using an Olfa knife or similar. This particular board is a great starting thickness (less than 0.07), so it should be easier on your wrists.
As of the date of this article, Blick Art Materials has the best price (around $22 or so per package), but keep an eye out for other retailers who might offer free shipping. Remember &#; this size may ship with oversized fees from some retailers, so keep that in mind.
I hope this information was helpful for you! Good luck!
&#; What tools do I need to get started bookbinding?
&#; Looking for a simple way to start making books?
Try a Complete Book Materials Kit. Each one has everything you need (+ tutorials & videos) to make a beautiful book without all the fuss.
Thank you for taking me along on your book making journey!
Misty
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