Weights, your third hand

My bookbinding classes have dozens of the perfect weights.  They are long, flat, and heavy. They hold down the paper and boards and have a low enough profile so that you are not constantly bumping them around.  They are made of lead and wrapped in bookcloth so as not to expose you to the raw metal.  They are also old and were made for bookbinding. 

You can't really find them anymore.  So after looking online for some time I decided to make my own from Lead Ingots. I'm often encouraged by my tutor, Ian Ross, to learn to make my own tools.

I ordered these lead ingots from ebay.  The shipping cost was pretty high. I cut a "box" for them out of 1mm grey board to help them keep their form and not slip around.

I then used kraft paper to keep the box together

I then wrapped & glued them in Buckram 

Here they all are. These have made bookbinding much easier.  You can also use divers weights as well and not have to make your own.