A Bible Rebind from ICA Rebinding

I love featuring Bible rebinders! Bible rebinds can extend the usefulness of a really worn out Bible, preserve a family heirloom, allow you to customize a Bible to your exact specifications, and they’re just plain cool! You truly don’t know the artistry and incredibly work of a Bible rebinder until you’ve held one of their Bibles in your hands.

Today I’m excited to feature ICA Rebinding. ICA stands for In Christ Alone. He’s a bit newer to the rebinding world, but you wouldn’t know it by his work. I reached out and asked him about doing a rebind for me and he was such a joy to work with! He’s personable, creative, and very passionate about his craft. I’ve been impressed with a lot of the rebinds I’ve seen him putting out and I think he’s truly pushing the envelope in rebinding artistry.

He and I discussed quite a bit on what I wanted done and I think I pushed the envelope for him a little bit and he tried some new things. I’m super pleased with the results and I’m really grateful he was willing to take some chances for me.

I sent ICA a black, TruTone ESV Creeds and Confessions. I was pretty specific in what I wanted him to do. Let’s take a closer look at it feature by feature.

For this Bible, I wanted the Bordeaux baladassi cowhide leather that I’d been seeing. It’s kind of like an ox blood color and let me tell you—it looks amazing! It’s a reddish black that just stands out and speaks for itself. It also feels amazing. It’s super smooth to the touch and is so flexible. It’s also one of those leathers that’s going to change its looks with use and I love leather like that.

I also told him I wanted black perimeter stitching and a full yapp. The stitching is great. It’s straight and the thread is thick. I also love how the yapp trains on this Bible. Lots of goatskins lose their shape over time and don’t keep that nice folded over look. This cowhide is awesome and holds its shape really well.

Now let’s talk about stamping. I wanted a lot of stamping on this Bible. I asked for “Sola Scriptura” on the front and I wanted the five solas on the spine. To top it off, I wanted it done in black. To be fair, ICA tried to discourage me on the black. He tried to get me to stamp it with no color, but I pushed him on it and he did the black for me. The black has silver backing and has bled through in some places so there are some spots of silver (but they’re small). That being said, the black looks great overall, but if I had to do it again I’d probably take his advice and not do color. For the record, he told me he’s not sure he’ll offer black again either. The solas on the spine really stand out and the letters “ICA” are stamped at the bottom.

I am super impressed by his spine hubs. There are six hubs on this bible and there is tooling on the perimeter of each one. I love spine hubs personally and I think ICA’s work is the best I’ve seen in this area. I’ve handled several rebinds and the shape and definition of his spine hubs really stand out.

Inside is a black, soft cowhide liner. This liner is buttery smooth. He also put in a gold perimeter gilt line, which I love. This is my first rebind with that feature and really really like the gilt line. His corner work is incredible. He did try a new technique with my rebind where the liner goes right up to the corner instead of fully overlapping. This is barely noticeable in one corner and honestly, I wouldn’t have noticed unless he told me. He also put red end sheets in this Bible, which I didn’t request, but it’s a really nice touch. He could’ve went straight black, but I love the pop of color inside.

I also requested that he dye the page edges black. I think this made him a bit nervous and he even told me he bought a practice Bible so he could make sure he got it just right. How cool is that!? This guy is so passionate about his craft that he’s practicing on Bibles to make sure he gets it just right. The page edges look amazing by the way and they really set this Bible off when it’s lying open.

Finally, I requested four ribbons alternating red and black. These look phenomenal with the Bible. He uses Berisfords and they’re nice and long, which is my preference.

As I stated at the beginning, ICA is doing great work. You would never guess that he’s new to the rebinding business. I highly recommend him because he’s a great guy and clearly is passionate about his craft. If you do decide to hit him up for a Bible, do me a favor and tell him I sent you! Head on over to his Facebook Page to hit him up.