The Origami Forum

hey guys i had an idea for this topic. if you have an origami book that is ripped or screwed up in someway take a picture so we can see how well used your books are
my licensed to fold book has the spine hanging off it lol ill have to take a picture soon XD

My Origami Insects II book also has a couple of pages that got unbound. (More likely due to poor manufacturing than overuse...)

I have Robert Harbin's Origami 4, which my mom got for me back in the 80's.
It's now entombed in a crystal coffin (actually a used Ferrero container) for protection.
It's almost in the same (or worse) condition as the dead sea scrolls.

I dunno about you guys, but I tend to take care of my books fairly well...

Razzmatazz wrote:I dunno about you guys, but I tend to take care of my books fairly well...

Yep agree

Well...books that I have acquired after I turned 20 were pretty much in good shape. It's only those books that I owned when I was younger that was subjected to abuse.

Except of course of Origami Insects II. I'm now afraid to use that book. The book binding quality of that book is so bad that I'm afraid to open it up at an angle bigger than 90 degrees. Oddly enough, my Works of Kamiya book, which was made by the same publishing house, is more durable.

eric_son wrote: Except of course of Origami Insects II. I'm now afraid to use that book. The book binding quality of that book is so bad that I'm afraid to open it up at an angle bigger than 90 degrees.

I had a book like that (not about origami, warhammer), I took a hole-puncher, a needle and some thread and stitched it toghether. It worked pretty good.

I got my copy of Peter Engel's Folding the Universe when I was in elementary school, and I used to carry it around in my backpack so I could fold during lunch. That was over 20 years ago. Needless to say, the book's in pretty bad shape now, with pages torn and falling out. If I flip through it I find some half-completed bases made out of kami paper that are too old and brittle to fold anymore stuck between the pages. I brought the book down with me to the OUSA convention this year, and when I took Mr. Engel's class he was kind enough to sign my book for me - I think he was impressed by how much use it had gotten.

I have hardbound books by Harbin and Randlett that have definitely seen better days. They're considerably older than most of you.

Amazingly, none of my origami books are in poor shape.
I use the books primarily as reference sources .
Which means, that I carefully and gently print out a copy of the desired model, and use the print out as the main tool for folding .
Oftentimes, I will take a roll of medium grade durable clear plastic, obtained from art stores, and cut out a book cover to protect the book.
Each roll will allow approx. 25 covers.
Also, I will oftentimes keep the print-out diagram in it's own plastic sheet protector .
A file cabinet allows the diagrams to be organized and labeled , for quick and easy access.
I'm sure that others may have a much better method, but this works for me.

Wow. I wish I could be half this organized!

my licensed to fold is just used so much the spine ripped open lol im not abusing it XD

When visiting some relatives, I found that I did not have room for Passion Origami, they promised to mail it to me. Well they did but they included some candy... which ended up stuck on some of the pages.

Origami Insects II: just like the rest of you I have pages that came out.

I also had that problem with Origami Insects and their Kin, but I simply replaced that one since it's so cheap.

The Complete Book of Origami is the most worn because it was my first book.

gordigami wrote: Oftentimes, I will take a roll of medium grade durable clear plastic, obtained from art stores, and cut out a book cover to protect the book.

I only use that kind of plastic to cover hardbound books. Those things tend to shrink as they age.
If you use them on softbound books, you'll need to give a little slack. Otherwise they'll warp the front cover of the book as they shrink.
Well, maybe it has something to do with the climate in my country (Philippines) affecting the plastic. Not really sure about this.

What I prefer to use is the Duraseal self adhesive plastic cover.

For books whose bindings have come apart so that pages have come loose: most copy places (in the U.S., places like FedEx/Kinko's) can comb bind the book back together for something like $6-7. They'll have to cut off and discard the spine, so that little strip with the title and author on it will be lost, but as long as the text and diagrams in the book don't go most of the way to the medial margins on each page, nothing else will be lost. And you'll gain the ability to open the book completely flat. I've had to do this with my copy of Kasahara's Origami Omnibus, and I've been meaning to do it with Origami Insects II which, like many of yours, has unbound and has loose pages. I'm not sure if these places have the ability to cut the spines off of hard-cover books, though.

That is great to know, I'll have to call around and find a copy shop in town that will do that for my Origami Insects II!