Video Tutorial: How I Debind Books With A Hairdryer
Some people have been a bit curious as to how I debind books for scanning purposes. Well, not really. Most people gasp in horror at the concept of destroying precious artbooks and frankly, so do I. For example, if I saw a little boy chewing on a doujinshi and then peeing all over it, I'd go over and take him down. Even if he was a little girl. Or a hot lady. Anyhow, I never debind books if I don't have two copies of it. So now you know why I don't do too many releases. It's a pain if you have to bend the spine to get the book scanning right (single sheets flat on the scanner bed are so much easier), so I almost never scan books I only have a single copy of.
So what this post is (to get back on topic), is a video of me debinding a doujinshi using the hairdryer. I actually formulated this method myself two years (or so) ago, so if you see tutorials elsewhere on the web advocating this method, it's purely coincidence. Back when I was looking up scanning techniques, all they had was the iron technique or the oven technique, which are fairly dangerous and messy. The iron technique especially sometimes left me with a bunch of pages with a glob of glue sticking them together.
It's the first video I've made which actually has my voice, so I was pretty nervous ^^; Sorry if you can't hear anything because of my weird accent. Also, apologies if the video really sucks, because the miniDV camera I was using couldn't seem to cope with my lights and it kept trying to auto-focus. It's a pretty crap camera, but since I don't do videos that often, I am not getting a new one.
(Link to YouTube page)
Below is a partial transcript of what I was trying to say in the video:
16 commentsHi guys. This is icie here and today I'll be showing you how I debind books as the first step to the scanning process. We'll be debinding ECO, which is Hato Rami's release from Comiket 72. It is a fairly thin book with around 4 colour pages, and I have two copies of it. Remember that debinding is an irreversible destructive process, so if you have an artbook you bought for a hundred bucks, you probably won't want to debind it.
Here we have a hairdryer with a nozzle which directs the stream of heated air in a limited vertical space. I'll be using the highest settings for debinding, though you should feel free to play around and see what works best for you.
We start by using the hair dryer to soften the glue by directing the hot air along the spine in an even manner. Heat not only the middle of the spine but also along the edges of each side, as there is glue present between the pages and the cover itself. We then flip the book open and spread it out as much as possible whilst directing the hot air at the space between the spine and the page, and now we see the first page lifting out fairly easily. Repeat the process for each page, heating the spine area between the pages to soften any glue that is present there. It is possible to debind more than one page at once, but patience is the key here, because you don't want to be forcing the pages out before they're ready, or you risk ripping the paper. Try to pay attention to the glue at the edges of the page, because depending on the amount of glue at the spine, it can smear back onto the cover and then onto other pages if you're not careful. Lifting the pages out directly at a perpendicular angle could help prevent such problems. Remember when debinding to use gloves as your hands can get pretty sweaty from the heat: you don't want fingerprints on the pages, especially on glossy print.
It might be a good idea to start off practicing your debinding technique on unwanted magazines, whose thin pages and binding glue present a lot of challenges. Thin doujins like this one are fairly easy to debind as well. There are of course other techniques out there, some using an iron, and others the microwave, but I feel that the hairdryer method is the most precise and you don't risk burning the pages or melting anything.
The last page is almost always the most difficult to debind, as there is glue between the page and the cover as well. Take your time and exert an even pulling pressure and eventually it will detach itself.
When you've finished debinding, leave the pages to cool, as you don't want binding glue smeared all over your scanner.
That brings us to the end of this tutorial.
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Nice accent indeed; it sounded like a mix of Chinese, Australian, and British for some reason or another.
Very clever! I actually use cosmetic utensils to debind some works. However, I can only regret the time and quality that I have lost with my method after watching in awe how effective yours is.
With your method in current circulation, do you think artists will eventually create more difficult ways to prevent debinding and scanning? In what ways do you think it would be possible?
By the way, I must comment that you got a nice accent to accompany your flawless English. Perhaps when I get children, I will move to your home country so that they can speak similarly. (Better than them having the usual “Janglish” accent in my opinion.)
Well hopefully the artists won’t. Actually, my method probably doesn’t work that well with stitched books like hard cover art books (I haven’t even contemplated debinding one of those). Also, artists usually just outsource the printing and publishing of their books to publishing companies, so it’ll have to be the publishing companies who will have to innovate to prevent debinding.
I know for example, that one or two of the magazines which I have debound in the past were bound together in bundles of sheets which complicates debinding using my method. There are also ways to interweave the binding edge of pages so that an attempt to debind results in the pages ripping.
thank you for explaining how it’s done :3 never thought you would do a tutorial for it!
Man, you sound SO different in this video than in real life, lol. Still, awesome technique and it’s done you well with all your scans. Still, I could never spend the money on getting two copies just for the purpose of scanning.
To be honest, I always thought you had more of an Aussie accent than what’s heard here =P.
Nice tutorial, I was thinking about debinding and doing some scans too. This will help nicely. Thanks :)
I’m planning to scan two artbooks,but all of them with hard cover…..
[...] knew this post was coming, and so here it is. The resulting scans from the debinding tutorial. Not a very special release in and of itself, because most of it is monochrome and it’s just [...]
Just want to say, thanks for this tutorial. I tried it, and it worked like a charm on all the magazines I wanted to de-bind. I had seen the oven method and the iron method before, but they always seemed so risky. But this really was perfect, so thanks again! And you have a lovely accent ^^
[...] Video Tutorial: How I Debind Books With A Hairdryer [...]
[...] Debinding: I have not had to change this method since it was [...]
Love the accent ;o), but that aside what a great tutorial, I was interested to discover what debinding involves and I was amazed to find such an informative video, such is the wonder of the internet.
I understand the preference to only debind a book that you have two copies of, trading off cost in comparison to the scan quality. It is also interesting to read the comments which include a little bit of discussion in regards to the different types of binding that can be found out there, some of which cause debinding to become impossible.
It is also interesting to consider the future, i am guessing that the glue method at present is the most cost effective, but of course things do change and if they do i would love to see any new video you make.
Indeed, one surefire way for publishers to take down the hairdryer method would be to use glue which is not softened by heat. The recent Closet Child scans, for example, had glue between some of the pages which I could not remove by the hairdryer method. In those cases, I’d probably leave it as opposed to taking a knife to it.
[...] To those who have never heard of this mook before, there are several full sized patterns of clothing featured in the book, which the reader can use and adjust to make their own garments (size conversion was covered in an earlier volume, although I still believe that a good background in pattern drafting is still needed). If you want to remove it, then one can simply use a hairdryer, blow on the inside seam, and gently tug out the pattern sheet when the glue is melted. A video tutorial can be found here. [...]
[...] I like to have digital copies for my own use, not to plaster them across the internet. In fact, my main reason was to try out the debinding technique I read about on Hunting the Elusive. [...]