bookbinding; need some advice

Hello:

I'm looking for a reasonable substitute for bookbinding cloth. I know
there are many places on the internet where I can buy such cloth, but
the [overseas] shipping charges are going to be prohibitive. I don't
know of any bookbinding supply store in my area.

- Can anyone come up with a reasonable substitute for bookbinding
cloth?

- What other options are available for me if I want to experiment with
making my own hardcovers? I need something to place over the
[otherwise quite ugly] boards.

Thanks,

Mayer

I found the greatest book on book binding in the local library. I
can't remember the exact name but it was something like. Book
Building, or Custom books. I'll have to see if I can find it again,
but it showed how to build hard cover books from scratch. High
quality looking stuff too. Leather covered books.

It also explained the science of binding. Things like how many sets
of folded pages to use for a certain number of pages in the book.

John Patrick,
www.birdoasis.com