Picked up an old book press - Anyone know anything about them?

[MayerMR]

Picked this up today, damn thing weighs better than 200lbs I'd bet. We had to use an engine hoist to load it. Would love to learn anything about it's history if anyone can point me in the right direction! Really interesting that it has the Star of David on it.

 

[jimreed2160]

Back in the day, book pages were printed front and back on large pages called "signatures". These were folded over several times, cut on the edge, and then sewn together at the spine. Later, multiple signatures were stitched together. The book press was used in this process to hold the signatures and signature bundles tightly.

A hammer or mallet was used to pound the signatures and round them over in preparation for binding.

All of these operations required that the fragile sheets remain immobile--hence the stout nature of the press.

 

[DD T/A]

Thank you Jim for that explanation. Some of us belong to a generation who would NEVER figure these things out or would just read Wikipedia.

 

[Hawk]

That is a very good explanation Jim. I used one in my 30 years working in the pressroom. lol

 

[southalabama]

Seen people use them for pressing flowers and ferns. They used special paper.

 

[Russell]

Book presses are having bit of a resurge, people making their own books...sold one recently...100$ shipping to California from N.M.