Books, Manuals, Publications

Got any great sources for leather? Tools? Machinery? Looking for sources?
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#276 Post by alexander »

I have a question that might have been asked before... I have a copy of Golding, Boots and Shoes, the first and modest 1902 edition, not the 8 volume set. In the foreword there is mention of a second volume, wich will cover the making of the shoe, my edition only handles the upper, foot and last. I have not yet found the second volume mentioned anywhere, so does anyone know a second volume even exists or has been printed?

Alexander
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#277 Post by headelf »

Hey everyone, the videos of the last couple HCC Annual General Meetings are now in the Guild Library for sale. I just purchased some this morning and clicked to pay via PayPal. I didn't see an announcement so sorry if I've stated the obvious or posted this in the wrong place. Great stuff immortalized--Nasser making multi-ply sewing threads, Lisa sharing her secrets of inlay, Sharlot's technique for using fabric for mean forms, DW's mastery of pull holes, Dick's sharpening tips, Rick's computerized pattern program, and on and on. Check it out. Great gift idea if your loved ones are stumped over what to give you!
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#278 Post by dw »

Georgene,

Thank you!!

I was asked several weeks ago to make this announcement, and although I hadn't forgotten it, I have been up to my knickers in alligators what with the website edits and a student. Image

I figured to add them to the Guild Library page but upon further reflection, I think that not only is this announcement good, it may very well have been what John wanted in the first place.

And to the esteemed Mr. Bailey...I will look into why you can't seem to post in the HCC Bulletin Board area. Soon...I promise...soon.

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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#279 Post by marc »

BOOK REVIEW
Saguto, D. A. and François A de Garsault. M. de Garsault’s 1767 the art of the shoemaker, an annotated translation. Williamsburg, VA: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, in association with Texas Tech University Press, 2008.

It is always exciting to me when I receive a book I have been waiting awhile for. This is one of those books. Without wasting a lot of time on detail, this work has traveled a lengthy, winding path between pen and final publication. I have known about this work for some time, and even offered meager suggestions regarding the bibliography. So when I received my copy, you can understand that I was ecstatic as I began digging through it. I have to say up front, it has not disappointed me. The translator and compiler, D. A. Saguto is extremely well versed in his topic, and besides being the leading expert on eighteenth century footwear from a researcher's perspective he is also a Master boot and shoemaker, having learned that trade in the traditional fashion under the late Ernest Peterkin. This means that he not only knows the history of the trade academically, but also from really makes shoes and boots. Saguto is currently is Master boot and shoemaker for Historic Trades, Colonial Williamsburg.
You may note that I said translator and compiler. That is because this work is more than a simple translation and facsimile of Garsault's treatise. Saguto has also brought together materials from other contemporary (relatively speaking, to Garsault) sources that serve to further elucidate what Garsault has said. Also he includes a lengthy photographic appendix showing originals of many tools described in Garsault and the supplementary texts; as well as shoes, shoe fragments and reconstructions - all intended to illustrate what has been discussed. Finally he concludes with a 19 page glossary, detailing the historical usage of many of the terms, mostly English but some French terms as well.

The glossary is a spot that may lead for some interesting discussion, as some of the terms, for example "rand", historically have meanings that differ, sometimes dramatically, from those currently in use. And other more commonly used terms in modern historical shoemaking may not appear at all. Saguto has taken the position that rather than develop and endorse new terms that have little if anything to do with historical shoemaking, historians should lean more towards the terms as used in the trade. I tend to agree with this. However, this does mean that readers who are searching for terms such as "edge-flesh stitching", and "rand" as a term for a welt in a turned shoe are going to be a little confused.

The review of the literature, and the history of Garsault's publication in the Descriptions des arts et Métiers was fascinating to me, and is critical to anyone who wants to understand the other materials that Saguto has brought in for expansion of Garsault's text.

I should note that the illustrations, mostly those from Diderot, are used several times: in the text to illustrate specific points, in the other added translated materials, since they are the translations of specific works where those illustrations appear, and in the facsimiles of the original materials as well. This is not a problem, but it was a little jarring.

Taken all in all, I can't encourage people strongly enough to seek out this work if they have even a passing interest in historical footwear. This is an excellent resource for people who are studying historical shoemaking, and should appear on the shelf next to John F. Rees' The Art and Mystery of the Cordwainer (1813) as a detailed description of how footwear was manufactured in the late 18th century. Garsault may be a little complicated for a beginning shoemaker, but can easily add some needed fleshing out to a beginner's education. Moreover, this material will also serve as a useful ancillary for anyone interested in the overall history of shoemaking generally, whether from the Roman period or the early 20th century, since many of the core concepts carry over and interrelate.

You have my permission to forward this review to any list, newsgroup, or person you feel might be interested in it.

- I. Marc Carlson
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#280 Post by johnl »

Has anyone got, or know where I can find a manual for a singer 54W
Thanks
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#281 Post by lancepryor »

I am interested in trying to get a reprint/copy of one of the books from the HCC library -- is there a way to do so? I know Bill N. is listed as the librarian, but Marc Carlson's post above seems to indicate the materials are now in Oklahoma. Can anybody clear this up for me?

Thanks much,
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#282 Post by marc »

If you want to see the actual pieces, they are in Oklahoma (Special Collections, McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa). I do not handle the reprints though.
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#283 Post by lancepryor »

Are reprints/copies available from anyone within the HCC? If not --and not to be argumentative-- what good does the HCC collection do for the vast majority of HCC members who are not located in or near Tulsa, Oklahoma?

Has there been any research into supplying the out-of-copywrite texts to Google, the Internet Archive, or Project Guttenberg for scanning and subsequent on-line access?

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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#284 Post by jask »

I agree! not to take away from the efforts to date; but if the goal is to promote and perpetuate the Cordwainers art this would be a great resource ( to members and the global community at large) to have available electronically. I know it is easier said than done, and I am willing to offer any assistance I can. I have computer server space as well as FTP hosting available that I can offer towards the effort.
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#285 Post by marc »

Digitization is not free.

The last estimates we had for professional scanning/image capture and conversion (OCR work, cleaning up of images, etc.) were a minimum of $1 a page. This does not include the price of housing and maintaining (which requires among other things, perpetual refreshing of the digital files) that digital information on a server in perpetuity. According to best practices in the field, that includes a permanent back up on a separate server not connected to anything else to avoid possible contamination from the Internet.

And this is, of course, not including the international copyright issues (some of which are easy to deal with, many are really not).

I don't mean to make this all sound negative. I'd love to have this material available on-line but the economic realities are there, and grow the longer you look into the situation.

Google manages it by throwing huge amounts of money at it, and keeping lawyers on hand for the copyright issues (not to mention ignoring blatant copyright infringement by hand-waving "Fair Use" at it).

The HCC does not have Google's budget. The few items that have been digitized by members, have been done as a service by those members. If people would like to donate money to an eventual project of digitizing this material, you need to talk to the Board about that.

As an aside, the University here is trying to gear up to digitize our Cherokee language materials, and the start-up costs for in-house digitization and long term storage have long since exceeded the $10 of thousands of dollars point - and that's just the planning stage. We haven't even begun real image capture or metadata planning (I only turned in the standards for image capture a couple of weeks ago).

As for the question of "what good does the HCC collection do for the vast majority of HCC members who are not located in or near Tulsa, Oklahoma?" That's a valid question. The purpose of a bricks and mortar library is to not only give a place where people can go to see materials not available elsewhere, but also gives conditions under which those materials may be protected and preserved for the future. The library has to be someplace physically. I personally believe that a climate controlled environment under professional supervision and archival quality care and preservation is preferable to being stuffed in someone's closet/garage/attic/what-have-you in acidic boxes.

This is particularly true of the Mary Garbin papers, and other manuscripts collections I'd like to acquire eventually.

Tulsa also has the benefit of being fairly centrally located, so it's equally inconvenient to everyone.

Because no formal agreement has been made between the HCC and The University of Tulsa, we don't have the options of doing anything involving Interlibrary Loan (although if we were to do that, the material would be available to non-HCC members as well).

The question was originally raised about the reprint service -- my point was that this is separate from the actual library. For that you need to contact William Niemczyk.
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#286 Post by dw »

Marc, all,

This is an interesting subject...and perhaps timely. Some of the points Marc has covered go to the fundamental organizing principle of the HCC--to" preserve and protect."

Bearing that in mind, I would add the following comments/observations. The Guild is a 501 C-3 tax-exempt, non-profit organization. The 501 C-3 status is extremely hard to get and, as I understand it, once lost even harder to regain. We cannot be seen to be violating copyright laws anymore than we can be seen to violate non-profit restrictions. If only because we cannot afford to employ copyright lawyers to make sure that we are in compliance. If a book or treatise is still covered by copyright we cannot make it available through reprint or even photocopies.

The reprint library consists primarily of material that is out of copyright. And as far as possible most if not all that material is available to members and even non-members. Even portions of Rees...although I am not sure how that is possible...does the Guild even own a copy?

Marc quotes $1.00 per page to digitize and convert material. From personal experience I suspect that for anyone short of a foundation or organization dedicated to specifically that task, $1.00 per page falls woefully short of what it takes.

I have digitalized three of Golding's volumes (out of copyright) and, so far, half of another book. I have a a fairly powerful computer, a scanner, a professional grade desktop publishing application that retails for several hundreds of dollars, professional grade photo processing software and professional grade illustration software--the pair of programs costing $400.00-$800.00, depending on the source. I also have a professional grade pdf editor, again retailing in the neighborhood of several hundreds of dollars. Occasionally I have to upgrade these programs (more money) and, because the learning curve is steep on any professional grade application, I have spent considerable time learning to use them to best effect and then hassling with them to get maximum compatibility between them and the operating system.

I spend 4-6 hours a week actually scanning and converting pages. That may not seem like much but it is spare time and my time--time I could be sleeping in or drinking whisky. I've been involved in these projects for better than five years now and that's a long time to be so singularly focused.

Anyone can do what I've been doing. No one contacted me with heartfelt pleas to do this. No one is barring anyone else from taking up the gauntlet. There's still five more volumes of Golding to be done, four of Bordoli, four of the Gresham series, and, I am not sure but I believe Pucknett and Swaysland would be in the public domain, as well as Leno and Korn and perhaps a few others.

At some point...and sincerely, earnestly, this is meant kindly...if we want access to this material we can't rely on anyone else to do it. We have to do it ourselves.

Finally, one last point to consider. I would rather that the HCC has a copy of some of this material than that it didn't. And I would rather that those copies be "preserved and protected" than that they be abused or lost. This literature is too rare, too valuable, to be lent out as originals. Try buying a copy of Rees just as an exercise in determining how easy or inexpensively a copy could be replaced. And if you find a copy for sale...let me know, I want to buy it!


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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#287 Post by romango »

I'd rather have access to a "bad" copy than no copy. When I say a "bad" copy, I mean that I have several books that I held open with one hand and snapped a photo with my 4 megapixel camera with the other hand. Takes about 15 minutes for a 200 page book.

Not only are the pages readable but the images are of such high resolution that I can zoom in on defects in in the typography!

With a little manipulation, I can easily make a PDF out of these pages. With s tripod, some reliable lighting and maybe a second person to hold the pages flatter, the quality would be even better.

I'm not trying to denigrate the value of high quality digital copies but, if we are at an impasse in this respect, why not just cut to the chase?

I'm sure this position won't be popular with the purists but I think it is a valid approach to consider.

Are there not a subset of the books, that are clearly in the public domain, to which this could be applied?
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#288 Post by lancepryor »

DW and Marc:

I don't think anyone here would advocate or encourage the violation of copyright laws, regardless of the 501 C-3 issue, and I know no one would want to jeopardize the HCC status. However, there are a number of items in the Library which are clearly well outside of copyright (e.g. Devlin). If those are available as reprints via Bill Niemczyk, then that is wonderful. It is the question of availability that I was hoping to get better insight into, since the HCC site is not clear on what is available via reprint. I don't want to go and bother Bill if he does not have the materials I am hoping to get, and he doesn't seem to post here almost ever, nevermind regularly.

As regards scanning and its associated cost, etc, I guess that is partly a function of standards. DW, I certainly both respect and appreciate the effort you have made in digitizing Golding, and you clearly have a good sense of what it takes to attain the level of quality you pursued in the doing so. That being said, I don't know that a word-searchable, OCR type scan is necessary. Speaking personally, a 300 or 600 DPI scan into a PDF would suffice for me, I should think, for many of these (out-of-copyright) texts. I have done these (of texts I own, so I can have them on my computer as well as in hard copy), and with my scanner it takes perhaps 2 minutes per page. Are they perfect? No. But they are perfectly serviceble, including the line drawings of patterns.

Does the HCC have to offer on-line access? To me, that is a separate question; if we can do so at reasonable expense, that would be great. Alternatively, we could make available (through Bill or otherwise) copies of the PDF to be sent via e-mail or on a CD-Rom through the mail.

So, here's an offer: I would be happy to scan any text that is out of copyright into a PDF file, and make these available to the HCC or its individual members. Anyone who wants to send me a text, or a photocopy thereof, should let me know and we can try to work something out. Furthermore, assuming I can order reprints from Bill, I will scan any of the reprints I order (which, per DW's comments are out of copyright) and make these available. Finally, I have the Bordoli set as published by Gresham (1935). I will, when I get a chance, scan this and make it available as well, assuming I can be confident of its copyright status.

Indisputably, the HCC has an interest, even an obligation, to preserve in a responsible manner the original texts, but if we can also make copies available to members, that would be the best of both worlds.

Lance

(Composed while Rick Roman was posting his foregoing comments.)

(Message edited by lancepryor on May 06, 2010)
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#289 Post by dw »

Rick and Lance,

Good points...all. But on the other side of the equation are several issues...

Functionally, a scan to pdf is essentially one big image file. It will be huge. It may even be too big for members to download in any reasonable amount of time, even at broadband speeds (and how many members have broadband?). I don't know that for sure but some of the Golding books exceeded 20mb before I learned to embed the photos in the text...and they are mostly text.

Also functionally, in some of these books (one wants to assume all of them) the patterns and illustrations are to scale and accurate. They aren't just rough sketches. Even if they aren't 100% accurate, in every case I've had to deal with, the proportions and "feel" are true to later recreations. A scanner can distort such drawings. And in essence a scanner is nothing but a camera with a close, and hopefully more direct, line of sight to the material.

I've scanned in text at 400 dpi, rotated the scan to true up the first line of text to a horizontal line and had the next paragraph be askew all over again. This isn't a matter if being a "purist," it's a matter of presenting information as accurately as possible. I believe it is necessary to clean up patterns, in particular.

And finally for the purists among you...or maybe I'm the only one who sees this...there's an ethical question as far as I'm concerned--if you're going to "transcribe" another man's work, you have an obligation to be as true to his intent and the energy and "blood" he invested as is humanly possible. It's quite simply a matter of respect...at least for me.

Sure, if you just want a copy for yourself, it probably doesn't matter. But if you're asking someone else to do it for you...and presumably for a larger audience than one...there's another order of expectation, perhaps even another standard, involved.

I wouldn't mind having access to Devlin and Rees and so forth too. But if all I want is "quick and dirty" I suspect I need to look for a solution that is universally quick and dirty--for everyone involved, in other words. Does that make sense?

Maybe someone could make a trip to Tulsa and do the spy camera bit on as many books as a midnight skulk would allow and then make the resulting pdf's available to the rest of us...on the QT mind you.

BTW, Devlin is available as a reprint from Bill Niemczyk...according to the library list, at least (viewable on the HCC homepage.)

PS...on edit...one thing I forgot to mention in my first set of comments is that these books are often old and fragile (I can sympathize). I bought a pristine set of Golding. By the time I got done scanning I had one page entirely loose and others problematic. And I wasn't weighting down the book. Even with a camera...and perhaps especially at 14 pages per minute...I'm not sure the results would be all than much more tender. A person has to be willing to sacrifice, or at least put in jeopardy, a rare and valuable book...maybe irreplaceable..even to scan to pdf.


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(Message edited by dw on May 06, 2010)

(Message edited by dw on May 06, 2010)
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#290 Post by romango »

DW,

The PDFs would not need to be huge. The software I have scales them nicely and automatically.

My concern is for the shoemakers and would-be shoemakers. Will we stand on principles of moral obligation to the authors as the craft fade into obscurity?

At bit melodramatic, perhaps, but info on the craft is hard to come by. How many have thrown in the towel due to lack of information?
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#291 Post by marc »

Tell you what, I have a couple of books in the Garbin materials that are actually already photocopies of out of copyright material. I can zip those through the scanner this afternoon, post them to DW, and you all can compare for yourselves with the stuff he's done,or my copy of Rees on my web site.

If this quality is acceptable, then anyone who wants to volunteer to come and scan/photocopy, I'll be happy to give them some desk space to work with.

Marc
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#292 Post by dw »

Rick,

I agree with you...I think you know that and I think the evidence is before you--just to underscore my credibility and make clear that I'm not just arguing for the sake of argument.

The Guild exists, the Homepage exists, the CC exists, the library exists, the AGM videos exist...all as testament to the many who contribute their free moments and who share your concerns. who are trying their best to defeat the forces of entropy.

And truth to tell, I don't think there is a real dearth of information...or if there is that there need be. For all its flaws the Forum itself is here to fill in the gaps. Of course it requires that people give in order to get but, false modesty aside, there has never in history been a better or more accessible resource for those who want to learn. Or one with more depth, if some sort of tally could be taken. There's never been more information available.

So yes, I do think we have to stand on our moral obligations to the authors. I suspect that anyone who has written a book...or tried to write a book, or even just a monograph...would gratefully recognize the principle.

Given that, at least for those people like myself...purist though I might be...the principle of doing right by the author is nearly paramount. There's too much false information and skewed information and ignorance running rampant on the Internet and in the world to do otherwise.

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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#293 Post by romango »

DW,

I take your point that there is plenty of good info available. A newbee would be better off with Tim's book rather than Golding anyway.

I think it's a bit of a stretch to call 'less than state of the art digital copies' (LTSOTADC?) false and skewed. Granted, there may be some to-scale diagrams that don't come off well. I cannot think of an example, however. And if I did run across one, I would understand that I couldn't use it directly.

I'll admit a bit of selfishness here. Now that I have been making shoes for a few years, I relish tidbits of technique and history that I might find in older texts.

Hey, it's the digital age...

What do we want? EVERYTHING!

When do we want it? NOW!

Image
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#294 Post by dw »

Rick, Lance, Jask, all,

Marc sent me a scan-to-pdf of a work from the Tulsa HCC Library entitled "A Short History of American Shoemaking" by Fred Gannon. It is 37 pages long...as compared to what? 300+ for the Golding books...and in 8"x 5" (?)format (comparable to Golding). It is over 7mb in size...again comparable to a 300 page Golding.

You can download it here if you wish to see an example of what is in the Guild Library and determine for yourself if it is acceptable enough to make previous and ongoing efforts moot.Image

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(Message edited by dw on May 07, 2010)
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#295 Post by johnl »

DW, some of my thoughts. I could live with the pdf. The only problem would be the illustrations might not be detailed enough without some work, but that in itself would save a lot of effort. A crazy thought-- look how Linux- ie. "Red Hat" is evolving as an open source product that anyone that wants to can improve/modify it. What if the raw files were put out there, and whoever had the software, skills, and desire could work on a page here and there????? Just a thought.
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#296 Post by romango »

OK, that was not an impressive example. I'll put together another one when I get a chance.
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#297 Post by romango »

I did a little PDF experiment. I took the book "Shoe Repairing" by Henry Karg and photographed it.
Then I created a PDF from the pictures.

It's a 170 page book. It took 7 minutes to photograph and 5 minutes to wrap up the images in a PDF.

The PDF is 77 MB and takes 1.5 minutes to load off the internet (Comcast broadband). You can look at it here: http://www.romangoshoes.com/Karg_Shoe_Repairing.pdf

Photography could easily have been better and file size could be made much smaller with a little fooling around with settings.

I doubt this book is still under copyright but I'm not sure. So I'll only leave it up for a few days as an example of a quick copy.
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#298 Post by the_joat »

There are a number of projects at Instructables.com on making a jig to scan books with cameras. The cheapest and easiest is probably this one: <http://www.instructables.com/id/bargain-price-book-scanner-from-a-cardboard-box/> They also have suggestions for software to clean up the images.

The best project outgrew Instructables and is now at <http://diybookscanner.org/>
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#299 Post by frank_jones »

Matthew Takeda

First welcome to the Colloquy.

Wow, that is some reference you provided. We are very lucky indeed to have somebody here who has done so much to make older books available to boot and shoemakers worldwide.
I was going to say that we have our own excellent DIY scanner but DW might take that as a compliment (great big smile). His efforts have been fantastic and he still has a project “in the workshop” right now, which I am to blame for!

Perhaps I should stop there before I put my foot in too deep.

Frank Jones
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Re: Books, Manuals, Publications

#300 Post by lancepryor »

I have a file with an excerpt from a book on Pattern Making I scanned, and it is a 2.5MB file for 51 pages representing a combination of text and line drawings. The drawings are virtually 100% legible, even the fine notations as to distances between lines, etc.

I scanned it, IIRC, at something like 400 DPI in either grayscale or black and white.

It seemed to work well for my purposes.

Frank:

I recall DW's post on that subject, and I for one am looking forward to the project's completion, whenever that will be. Thanks to you and, particularly, DW for the effort.

On the topic of reprints, I have traded e-mails with Bill N, and he indicated that the reprints are made and bound by a local printer; sounds likely to be a pretty high-quality job. Cost is around a dime per page.

Lance
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