• Colonial bookbinders used awls similar to this one in the bookbinding process.David Toase/Valueline/Getty Images
  
  Bookbinding was a highly specialized trade in colonial America, requiring ample time and craftsmanship. Bookbinders relied on an assortment of hand-held tools. Most of these were used to imprint or tool decorative emblems, patterns and words on book covers. In the colonial era books, relatively scarce, were treasured possessions built to endure, educate and entertain.
  
  

Hammer

• A bookbinder wielded a hammer to pound together signatures composed of four, six, eight, 12 or 16 pages. A minimum of two pages were printed on each sheet, which was then folded and cut. After pounding the pages together with the hammer, the colonial bookbinder arranged them on a sewing frame.
  
  

Awl

• The colonial bookbinder used an awl to punch holes through the folded signatures in preparation for the task of hand-stitching them together. Long, thin and pointed, awls permitted bookbinders to pierce signatures without making the hole wider than necessary.
  
  

Needle

• Bookbinders' needles were a bit longer than sewing needles and were used to stitch together signatures laid on a sewing frame. According to Colonial Williamsburg, bookbinders used linen thread to stitch grouped pages to a cord at the book cover's back fold. The cords created horizontal ridges across the fold.
  
  

Stamps and Rolls

• Colonial bookbinders used brass stamps and rolls to decorate book covers. Rolls were wheels affixed to a handle. Designs imprinted on the wheel's circumference were transferred to the book cover by application of pressure. The fillet, which made straight lines, was the most frequently used roll in colonial America. Bookbinders heated their brass stamps and rolls to apply decorative pictures, letters, gold leaf, words and patterns to the moistened leather of the cover.