The Blank Bible Chronicles, Part 5

Today I’m going to show you my ruined Bible as well as briefly discuss some accessories you will need to consider for the blank Bible, should you choose to build one for yourself.

The Ruined Bible

Now, I told you guys that I had the first Bible cut off too close to the words. Instead of 1/8″, I had 1/4″ cut off from the binding edge. If I’d had holes punched, this is what it would have looked like:

Click here to see it LARGE.

See it LARGE.

Notice how you can see the words through the hole in the blank. They’d have been cut off!

Now here’s the dumb move. I tried to figure a way to salvage my mis-cut Bible. I thought I could handle having it reverse-bound, meaning I had the holes punched on the opposite margin so I’d be turning pages left to right rather than the usual right to left:

I also told you I goofed by going ahead and having holes punched before stuffing. Here’s an unfortunate consequence where my blanks were concerned. Notice the missed hole punch at the edge of the pages:

And also on the Bible itself:

Well, that’s one Bible relegated to the trash heap. The blanks turned out to be a “good” goof, because now I have pre-punched blanks that I can use to replace pages in the successful Bible. All I have to do is hand-cut the length to fit. And I can cut off the messed-up end to create a nice, clean blank. Now let’s go look at accessories.

Accessories

Why would you need accessories? Isn’t that a woman thing, accessorizing? Apparently not. We guys are just as guilty about accessorizing, we just tend to do it with tools rather than jewelry, shoes, and purses. This blank Bible is no different! Why else do you go into places like Lowe’s, Home Depot, or the Lifeway on the SBTS campus?

Pens
Jesus Saenz has written an excellent post about what to use for writing in your Bible. I encourage everyone, even those who don’t or won’t use a blank Bible, to read this post. Basically, Jesus says (no pun intended!) not to use pens, pencils, or highlighters! Using regular pens, pencils, and highlighters will actually end up destroying your Bible. Read his post for a clear explanation why.

Why is this even a consideration? Well, for starters, there’s a reason you want acid-free paper for your blanks and covers. You don’t want to ruin your Bible. Acid can eat through the paper, and given the thin Bible paper it won’t be long before the paper deteriorates and maybe even disintegrates. If you have Bibles from 50 to 100 years ago or even as soon as 20 to 30 years ago, you know what I mean. The pages disintegrate, pens bleed through and further deteriorate your Bible pages, ink smears and eventually wears down the paper, etc. Especially if you have one of those old Bibles that have been marked up, you notice the wear caused by ink. Further, you may notice the ink fades dramatically over time. So in addition to acid-free paper you need specialized tools, all of which can be had cheaply.

Tony Reinke (and Jesus as well), in his instructions to building a blank Bible, suggests that you use archival-quality pens to take notes in your blank Bible. Specifically, he recommends you use a Pigma Micron 005 pen. This is an artist’s and archiver’s pen. These types of pens are also used by draftsmen and engineers.

See it LARGE.

The ink will not bleed through the page nor will it smear. It basically dries on contact as it uses pigment ink rather than dye ink. It is also an acid-free ink and thus won’t contribute to the deterioration of your Bible pages. The super-fine point will help prevent damaging your pages by punching through or denting as you write. You can buy this pen for less than $3 each at most art supply stores. I got mine at the Preston Arts Center on Bardstown Road for about $2.60 each. They come in all sorts of colors if you’re inclined to underline stuff. You can also go to Hobby Lobby and procure these pens. Hobby Lobby sells these in sets for about $15, so it’s a good buy.

Tony and Jesus suggest using the 005 pen for notetaking. This is because the super-fine point will allow you to maximize the notetaking space on the page instead of having big sloppy writing lines that take up most of your paper. Jesus suggests using the 05 size (not to be confused with 005) or smaller (03, 02, 01, etc.) for underlining.

Here’s an example of what my notes look like with this pen:

See it LARGE.

See it LARGE.

Yes, I’m possessed of an ability to write tiny. These pens make it much, much neater and easier to read, really!

Now, we bring our Blank Bible Chronicles to a resoundingly fun close. Go forth and blank your Bibles!

The Blank Bible Chronicles, Part 4

At long last, we arrive at the final step in creating a “blank” Bible — spiral binding! When last we were together, all we had left to do was to have our holes punched for binding and then actually bind the Bible. Once again, as a reminder I am using The Tony Reinke Method for building blank Bibles throughout the process. I implore you to read his instructions through several times and then come back here!

Punching the Holes
Once you have stuffed your Bible, and gotten the pages flush on the binding edge, now you are ready to have the holes punched. If you want to invest in a hole puncher, you can find some punchers that have the required 4:1 ratio (that’s 4 holes per inch) online for about $50. Otherwise walk back up to the desk at Kinko’s or whichever office supply store you are using for this project.

Tell the clerk that you want holes punched specifically for spiral binding. If you don’t, the clerk may assume you want it punched for a 3-ring binder or for comb binding. I nearly made this mistake with the successful Bible, and caught the clerk just in time to prevent her from punching my (to this point) perfect Bible for 3-ring binding! Make emphatically clear to the clerk to keep the pages on the binding edge flush or you will have to replace a lot of pages. If you have blanks wider than the Bible pages, you will need to explain to the clerk the special page-tapping method I told you in the last post. To recap that, take a small handful of pages — about 15 to 20 — and tap them vigorously by allowing them to drop between your fingers under their own weight. Add a little downforce if necessary. This will cause the Bible pages to drop down flush in the stack. Now let the clerk do his/her job.

My mistake at this point with the first, ruined Bible was to have the holes punched before stuffing. I dumbly figured that would make things easier. What I neglected to remember was that the holes actually make it tougher to get things flush. Stuffing first automatically gets everything flush for spiral binding. With the “ruined” Bible, we’re saving the blanks and will use them to create other projects or for extra blanks if I need to cut any by hand.

My second mistake was thinking the cut Bible could be reverse-bound. That is, instead of punching holes on the binding edge — which I cut too closely to the words — I had holes punched on the other side of the page, necessitating reverse-binding. This would cause the Bible to be read, by the page, left to right. I quickly realized this was too cumbersome and would have resulted in me having hissy fits over the clumsiness of the binding. So there you have it, one ruined Bible!

Once you’ve gotten it back, pay for their services, if they charge. Kinko’s was nice enough to do all that work for free, since I had come back after they and I together ruined the first Bible. The first time around, the cutting only cost about $6, so I’m guessing the hole punching shouldn’t cost much more. That’s relatively cheap! Now you are ready to go home and spiral bind your Bible, unless you want to spiral bind the Bible right there so you can walk back up to the desk and have any ruined pages copied onto your extra blanks. Me, I chose to go home, I’d been in there all afternoon at that point.

Spiral Binding Your Blank Bible
Now comes the really fun part. Set up shop on your work table once again (it was my dining table). Put your Bible stack in front of you. Separate the stack into volumes of at least 1″ to 1-1/8″, using natural page breaks in the text. If you don’t remember what I mean by that, a natural break is where a book of the Bible ends on the left-hand side of the book and the next book begins on the right-hand side. Make sure that you begin a volume with a blank in front of the first Bible page. I had to hand-cut some of my “ruined” blanks (they weren’t really ruined, since I never used them) so I could insert the blanks in the appropriate places. That’s why I say put 2 blanks in-between a natural break in Bible books.

Also, make sure you put your covers on the volume. I used a clear vinyl cover for the front and a cardboard backing for the end. Kinko’s provides the backing or you can buy your own in any office supply store.

Okay, now you can get your coils out. I bought a box of 100 coils sized 1-1/4″ (one and a quarter inches) in bulk for about $40, not counting shipping. Tony says any coil smaller than 1″ is not worth it. If you use coils smaller than 1-1/4″ you will need to make sure your volumes are a smidgen smaller than your coil size.

Select a coil, and check it against your first volume to make sure the volume is not too thick. You can measure the volume with a tape or eyeball it against the coil as I did.

Now here is where, later in the process, I discovered a way to make this easier. Flip your volume over, face down, holes pointing away from you. Now take a handful of pages off the top of your stack (which in actuality is the bottom of your volume) and push the end of the coil through the first hole. Set the pages and coil down, with your backing on the bottom. Fiddle with the coil until the threading end is sticking up. Then you can just grab handfuls of pages and lay them down over the end of the coil, threading the entire first hole of the volume.

Now that you’ve done that, pick up the volume, being careful not to take the threaded coil out. Grasp the volume firmly on top, a little bit down from the coil, to keep it tight, and gently thread the coil through the holes. In the pictures below I did not learn to grasp the volume on top until later. Push the end of the coil through the holes at a slight angle to the side (to the right, in the pictures) so as to get cleanly through without accidentally punching through pages.

Click on images to see each larger

Once you reach the end of the volume, leave at least one full coil past the edge of the paper. This will protect against movement and the end holes coming off the coil. I left at least a coil and a half for room.

Cut off the remaining coil, taking care to leave at least a full coil to a coil and a half past the edge of the paper for movement. This is what you’re left with:

Now you can get started on the other volumes. My Old Testament came out to four volumes total due to the way I separated them, and my New Testament came out in one neat volume.

Here’s what it should look like finished:

Now you can breathe a sigh of joy and relief, and enjoy your brand-new, handy dandy blank Bible!

The Blank Bible Chronicles, Part 3

Last time, I discussed the cutting process. To recap, take your de-covered Bible and a couple of reams of acid-free paper to Kinko’s. Have them cut 1/8″ (one-eighth of an inch) off of the binding edge of your Bible. This removes all the remaining glue. Measure your cut Bible and have them cut blank pages from your clean paper to the exact size of your Bible pages. You might have those blanks come back a little bit wider than your Bible pages; I will leave it up to you if you want to leave the pages wider or if you want to send them back to have more taken off until it is exact. I promised to tell you how to deal with wider pages in this post.

Okay, you have your cut Bible and blanks. Now you are ready to stuff your Bible with blanks. As a reminder, I use The Tony Reinke Method all throughout this project. If you haven’t read his instructions yet, go read them a couple of times and then come back here.

How to Stuff Your Blank Bible
What you want to do is set yourself up with an “assembly line” so as to make stuffing easy. I used Tony’s setup, which should look like this:

As you can see, on the far right is the cut Bible. At the top is the stack of blank pages. In the middle is the stack with blanks “stuffed” between the Bible pages. On the far left is a “neat” stack of stuffed pages. The procedure is pretty simple. First lay down a blank page at the bottom of your stack. Then take a Bible page and flip it over onto the blank. That’s right, flip it onto the blank as if you were turning the pages of your Bible:

Then you will take another blank from your stack and place it on top of the Bible page:

Yes, it really is that easy. A couple of points I’d like to make that I noticed when I got to the binding part:

• When you come to the end of a book of the Bible, pay attention to where the next book starts.
• If the next book of the Bible starts on the back of the page you’ve just flipped, put one blank on top.
• If the next book of the Bible starts on the next page after the one you’ve just flipped, put two blanks on top.

Doing it this way will make the binding part a little easier, because you will need to divide the stuffed Bible into volumes, and it is easier to separate it at a natural division; that is, you will want to separate your volumes with a blank and the first page of a Bible book as the first two pages of a volume. You will need a clean break between books of the Bible. To understand what I mean, open a Bible you have near you. The first page of the book of Genesis is on the right-hand side. Now look at the stuffing stack picture above. You see where Deuteronomy is? It is on the left-hand side of the Bible. If you were to flip that page over, you would find the end of the book of Numbers. Obviously, you can’t end a volume like that; the volume would have to begin with a clean break between books. So every time you have a clean break between books, put two blank pages. Otherwise you will have to get extra blanks, punch holes in them, and insert them at the proper place. And that will just waste time on your part.

As you stuff, every few pages you will need to transfer your middle stack to a “neat” stack on the far left (see the stuffing stacks picture). The binding edge of your Bible pages should be on the right in both the middle stack and the far left stack. Take your middle stack after about 15 or so pages and tap the edges against the table several times to straighten up the stack and bring the pages together flush. This will ensure that the holes are punched evenly and correctly. I’ll get a picture for you after I wake up this afternoon.

This is also where you can take care of blanks that are a little wider. The problem is that if you tap the edges on the table normally, the binding edge of the Bible pages will not align flush with the edge of the blanks. If you look at your handful of pages from the top or bottom edge, you will see this easily. I found a quick fix for that. You will still tap the edges on the table. However, you will not hold on to the pages closely as you normally would, but allow them to drop onto the table under their own weight between your fingers. You could even add a little downward force as they drop to give a little extra “oomph.” This will force the Bible pages down until they are flush with your blanks. If you look at the edge again you will see that they are flush at the binding edge.

As you transfer from your middle stack to your “neat” stack, make sure that you leave the pages as they were in the middle stack, that is, flipped over. Do NOT flip them back up as if they were back in your far right pile! This will ruin your stack completely and you will have to sort through the stack to put your pages in the proper order. Remember, the binding edge in your far left pile should be on the right.

Continue doing this all the way through until you are done. My wife assisted by doing the New Testament and then the Psalms through the Minor Prophets.

Once you are done, praise Jesus a few times and breathe a big sigh of relief. Shake off the cramps too!

You will be left with a nice stack nearly 4 1/2″ high; I think mine was 4 1/4″. Dang.

See it LARGE

If you’ve made it this far, breathe easy — the end is in sight! Make sure that any covers you want have also been cut by this point. All that is left is to have the holes punched and then to spiral bind your blank Bible. That will be addressed in the next episode of The Blank Bible Chronicles!

The Blank Bible Chronicles, Part 2

Last time, I showed you how to remove the cover from your Bible so that it is ready to be taken to a printer and cut. Let me first answer an obvious question.

“What if I use a paperback Bible instead of a hardcover?” Well, in his instructions, Tony Reinke says you do not even have to remove the cover from a paperback Bible. Just take the Bible with you to the printer and then follow the steps illustrated and explained below. Again, we are using The Tony Reinke Method in constructing this blank Bible.

Okay, you should now have your Bible de-covered (if you have a hardcover). Next you need to measure 1/8″ from the binding edge and make a mark. That’s one-eighth (an eighth) of an inch. If you go any further than that you run the risk of ruining the Bible and having to start the entire project over. This is where I made the goof that ended up ruining the first Bible:

See it LARGE

As you can see, I made my mark at 1/4″. That’s one-quarter (a quarter) of an inch. Yes, I know, the place on the tape measure is actually 1-1/4″, but if you measure with the 1 as your zero mark, it is actually 1/4″. But to get back to the point, make sure you mark your Bible 1/8″ from the binding edge. For those of you who can’t read tape measures, start at the 1 and then count the little lines in between the numbers. Count to the 4th line and then stop, marking your bible above the 4th line on the tape. If you get to the line in the picture, you have gone too far, count 4 lines back until you are halfway between the 1 and my mark in the picture.

The reason for not taking more than 1/8″ off is so that you have plenty of room in the margin for the spiral binding holes to be punched. Any more than that and you run the risk of the holes punching through the words on the binding edge! That was the main problem with my first attempt. I’ll show you how I ruined it for good in the next post.

Now, you are ready to take your Bible to be cut. To have the Bible cut, I went to Kinko’s on Bardstown Road. The assistant manager (also named Tony, incidentally) helped me through the entire project. On the way to Kinko’s, stop at Office Depot or Staples or somewhere like that and pick up a couple of reams of acid-free paper. A “ream” of paper is a pack of 500 sheets. Get the lightest paper you can buy as a ream, which is 20 lbs. Brightness doesn’t matter that much. I bought a 3-ream box of 20 lb., 110-brightness paper for $15 at Office Depot. I won’t ever buy those $6 or $7 packs of printer paper again, I’m buying the box from now on, it’s cheaper. Also, if you want your own covers, you will need to get a vinyl cover while you are at Office Depot or wherever. Kinko’s has some, and they are nice, if you want to use theirs.

Once you have your paper and Bible, and have arrived at Kinko’s, have the clerk cut the Bible first. This will allow you to take an accurate measurement of the dimensions of the Bible so that the blank pages can be cut to size. Explain to them that you want 1/8″ cut off of the binding edge, and make sure they know to clamp the Bible down as tightly as they can so that the machine does not stair-step cut the binding, which will result in a ruined Bible for you.

When the clerk brings back your cut Bible, inspect it to make sure the cut is clean, and then measure your “brick.” My successful Bible came out to 8″ x 5-3/4″ (that’s eight inches long by five and three-quarters of an inch wide). Again, if you can’t read rulers or tape measures, have the clerk measure it for you. You are now ready to have the paper cut to size.

I suggest you give the clerk 2 reams of paper minimum. That way you have extra blanks for stuffing or future use. If you use a Bible similar to the one I used in my second attempt, you will actually get 2 exact sized blanks to one sheet of paper and won’t need the extra ream in order to have plenty of extra blanks. But if you have extra blanks cut, you will have plenty of blanks for stuffing the Bible, and you will be able to replace any Bible pages that get ruined in subsequent steps or pulled out of your blank Bible in the future. More on that in the next post.

Once the paper is cut, double-check to make sure it is sized properly. You may have blank pages a little wider than the Bible pages. That’s ok, if you want — I left my blanks slightly wider than my Bible pages. Otherwise have the clerk take off more until the blank fits exactly. I’ll tell you how to deal with slightly wider blanks in the next post.

Do not go ahead and have the holes punched in either the Bible or the blank pages!  This will potentially throw you off completely and result in a ruined Bible, ruined blanks, or both — meaning you’ll have to start over!

I couldn’t give you any pictures of the cutting process for obvious reasons; most businesses won’t allow you to photograph their technology or their work while it is being performed. I decided not to run the risk of being told “no” and left the camera in the bag at this point.

In the next post, I will show you the “stuffing” process; that is, putting the blank pages into the Bible!

The Blank Bible Chronicles

UPDATE: Thanks to Alex Leung at Six Steps, I am finally able to use Flickr to post images to the blog. Mad props to Alex! Enjoy the much cleaner pictures. Anyway…

I recently told you I was going to make my very own “blank” Bible. I got started Monday. It was both a failure and a success. I’ll be elaborating on both in the course of the next couple of posts. Enjoy the ride!

I discovered what I am now calling The Tony Reinke Method for constructing a blank Bible while reading a link to Tony’s blog provided by Justin Taylor. Fascinated, I realized a blank Bible was exactly what I had been wanting for such a long time! I read and reread the steps Tony outlined, and after a major goof that resulted in a ruined Bible, I successfully built one on the second try.

Steve, with his utter lack of handyman-ship, thought about making one as well, but apparently got stopped cold in his tracks. I told him I would pictorally document the process so he’d be able to follow along. That’s why this “chronicle” will turn itself into at least one or two more posts — the pics take up space! I want to thank my gorgeous and pregnant wife, Tricia, for taking most of these photos. So with no further ado, we look at the first step in making a blank Bible. I follow the Tony Reinke method in each step. I suggest you read through his instructions several times before attempting this project!

Obviously, first you gotta actually have a Bible. For the first, failed attempt, I used the ESV Wide-Margin Reference Bible.

On the second, successful attempt, I used the same Bible Tony recommended, an ESV Classic Center-Reference Bible. Why? Because the second time around I determined to follow his procedure to the letter. You’ll see why later. So let’s move on to deconstruction.

Removing the Cover
I (and Tony as well) used a hardcover Bible for this project. That means you have to remove the front and back cover, which is basically one long, bent piece of cardboard. To remove it, all you have to do is open it up and with a utility knife, cut along the crease between the cover and the first page. Do this on both sides front and back. Remember, always cut AWAY from your body!

You may have to do some additional cutting with the utility knife in order to get the front and back cover cleanly separated from the book itself. Don’t try to get fancy — just cut along the length of the crease until the cover cleanly separates from the front and back. At this point the spine of the book is the only thing attached to the cover. You can just grasp the book firmly and pull it away from the cover.

As you look at the “brick” of paper that is left, you may notice that where the spine attached to the cover, there is a strip of glue that should have binding thread attached at both the top and bottom that forms a kind of tab at each end. You can actually (and you should) pull this off. You may first want to take your utility knife and work one tab loose from the binding to make it easier to pull it off. Make sure you are trying to separate only the glue and tab from the binding. Do NOT cut into any of the pages! Then, simply grasp one of the thread tabs firmly and pull.

This is what you got left:

Notice the strip of glue in one hand and the brick of paper with a somewhat clean binding left where I pulled off the glue strip. Don’t be deceived; the pages are still bound together. There is more glue than just that strip. The pages won’t suddenly fly off into space and mix up beyond recovery. You won’t actually remove all the glue until you’ve had the brick cut. More on that in the next post.

If you want, you can take off the top and bottom papers (the black pages in the previous photos). I took off the top the first time; the second time I left them on. I heavily suggest you leave the bottom black page on, as it is attached to a map and cannot be removed without potentially (almost for sure) tearing up the map. Remove it at your peril! In the end, this is what you are left with:

And this is what your work table should look like at this point, with all the pieces you’ve separated:

Yes, I know, I drew a line on the Bible for cutting purposes. Ignore it for right now, that is actually the first goof. I’ll explain in the next post.

But last, and most terribly, if you are like me you are ultimately left with this:

That’s me confessing the great deal of guilt I had at cutting up a perfectly good Bible! Yes, that is the sign for “guilty.” Make the hand shape and then beat your heart with that shape a few times and you’ll immediately get the idea!

If you’ve made it this far (*poke Mr. Dye*), you’ve done well. You are now ready to have the Bible and the blank pages you will use cut. Come back next time for the next step in The Blank Bible Chronicles!

Building a “Blank Bible”

Recently, my family threw a baby shower for us. Last week we put together some of the items we received, such as the stroller and car seat. Yes, yes, pics of those will follow after while.

But putting those things together really made reality start to sink in for Tricia and I. I realized (selfishly, of course) that all these neat toys I was building weren’t mine. So I decided to look for a project I could do to make myself feel better.

What I came across was Tony Reinke’s “blank” Bible.

This is exactly what I needed. I have long wanted a note-taking Bible but didn’t really like the options available. Wide-margin Bibles have been hard to find for some reason, especially in the translations I want. The ESV Journaling Bible is nice, but still not really want I want. Then after getting a link from Justin Taylor about another thing, I browsed Tony’s site and found his blank Bible project. I was immediately sold. And for that I blogrolled the guy.

What is a “blank” Bible? A blank Bible is simply a Bible that has blank pages in it for note-taking. For example, you’ll have a page of text, a blank page, another page of text, then another blank page, and so on. The pictures on Tony’s site will make clear what I mean. Just imagine! To be able to keep all of your sermon and personal study notes right next to the text of the Bible! The possibilities for personal spiritual maturity and insight are endless when that happens.

How do you make a “blank” Bible? Well, first you need to select a Bible. I will be using the ESV Wide-Margin Reference Bible, hardcover to build this book. To actually put it together, Tony has divided the entire process into 8 steps: cut, rip, clamp, saw, slice, stuff, punch and bind. Yes, I am actually going to cut up and do various painful and otherwise blasphemous things to this Bible. In the step marked “stuff,” I will actually put the blank pages into the Bible itself. Then it will be spiral bound into 3 volumes for ease of use.

I fully intend to make this blank Bible my personal study Bible. The advantage of a blank Bible, besides having your notes right there next to the text, is that you can add pages for more notes if needed. So you could imaginably have a page for expository notes, a page for study/sermon notes, a page for illustrations, a page for questions, or even (in my case) a page for application to the Deaf (or your ministry focus). I salivate to think of how much more rich my sermons and personal study could become.

A quote from Tony about the blank Bible:

“It is awesome to know that God, through His Spirit, can fill every blank page through humble meditation as the “living and active” Word of God comes alive. Each blank page represents our anticipation that God will open up His Word to reveal more of the width and height and depth and length of God’s love in the Cross!”

If you’re interested in making your own, Tony’s series on the blank Bible can be found here.