My $180 brass finishing press sat in a closet for 7 months, so I finally sold it and bought a $40 nipping press

Angela Butler · 2026-10-03T11:30:03.03718+00:00

Everybody in my local guild swore I needed a real finishing press for gold tooling, so I saved up and bought one last March. Turns out I do 90% of my work on flat spine books and that thing just collected dust and took up half my bench. A binder in Akron told me she did gold work for 11 years with a nipping press and a couple of boards, and honestly she was right. Sold the brass one for $200 and put the money into good bone folders and linen thread instead. What tools did you buy early on that you basically never touch now?

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My $180 brass finishing press sat in a closet for 7 months, so I finally sold it and bought a $40 nipping press | Bookbinders - Librear