Mon 22 Dec, 2008
Well, I really like the deckled edges you get on mould-made paper. Unfortunately, you lose it, of course, when you cut the sheets down for binding (or whatever other purpose you have for it!). I have previously just used ‘torn’ edges, but they’re not nearly as nice. I saw advertised recently a ‘decal edge tearer’, which
I considered buying one of these things in Australia, but I figure ~AU$80 is a bit steep for a bit of plastic with a crooked edge! There’s also a few other places that sell them, and a Google search will find even more, but the same thing there seems to cost around ~US$25 without postage.
Being a bit of a cheapskate somtimes, I figured I could make my own for next-to-nix. I had a go, half expecting that I’d just throw my attempt in the bin and fork out for one of the above mentioned products… but it worked pretty well actually!
My DIY 'deckled edge' tearer (the ruler) and the leather-working tool I used to make it.
I just took a standard 40cm plastic ruler and cut chunks out of it randomly with a leather tool that I have (an adjustable leather gouge/groover – it’s probably very blunt now). It works best if you cut grooves at quite a shallow angle so you get grooves across the face of the ruler, rather than just cuts into the edge of the ruler. I guess it gives some space so that the paper that’s being torn can delaminate and leave a partial-thickness behind in the groove. The ungrooved parts help maintain a straight line.