What kind of book binding is best if pages are to be added or removed later?

Question

What is the best type of book binding to adopt if one needs to add or change pages later?

Here is the reason. My design is a song book with 224 pages (112 two-sided sheets).

The requirements are:

• The sheets have to be held strongly because the book will be used frequently (several services a week).
• As very good new songs always emerge, it would be interesting to be able to add them inside the song book (for e.g. once a year), until reaching the maximum capacity or until the books are worn out.

I found this old book (printed in 1980), held with metallic paper clips on the spine and I find it very interesting. What is the name of this kind of book binding? Would it meet those requirements? Or do you have better recommendations?

Answer 1

So those look to be sheet metal "spring clamps" and are probably not "book binding clamps" in the sense of being designed for that purpose. (They could have been part of a kit with the covers.)

The book depicted has two basic features: 1) temporary binding; 2) a very large gutter and binding area.

A common technique for re-doable binding is to use a stiff material (wood, card, etc) to delineate the binding area, drill holes, and then use some sort of nut-and-bolt design: either actual nuts and bolts (and washers perhaps) or something like:

(randomly clipped from google; source )

If you are doing 30 of these, making a jig for drilling is a time saver

Answer 2

The typical go-to for removeable pages is the 3-ring, or multi-ring, vinyl binder. The drawback, if you consider it so, is drilling the pages or using a 3-hole punch. Some years ago, trying to come up with an alternative for a client that didn't want a 3-ring was the Unikeep Binder case. The rings can be popped in and out by hand and the sheets are sealed all sides into the case for maximum protection. The cases come in colors including clear with vinyl overlays so you can insert a cover. Here's a link to the product:

https://www.unikeep.com/product-category/3-ring-binders/

If you have 100 sheets of plain text paper, your bulk will be somewhere between .5 to .75 inches (12.7mm to 19.05mm) They have cases with capacities that will hold them. You might be able to get a sample so you can look/touch/feel what it is.