Kater-Crafts Bookbinders

Kater-​Crafts Bookbinders, they are skilled craftsmen. Doing business with this boutique, book binding business is a privilege. The quality of their work is off the charts, fantastic. Service is excellent, as well. They bind and rebind hard cover books, and they have a really neat process for taking a paperback book and converting it into a hard cover book, using the original cover of the paperback book. Kater-​Crafts Bookbinders is the greatest! I would highly recommend them.

I had no idea places like this existed. Rented a college textbook and the hardcover got unattached. The owner wanted over $ 200 for replacement fee. Brought it here and got it repaired for $ 80 and it was returned to me within 3 weeks. I thought it was a little pricey but then again I don’t know how much work goes into repairing books and it was still less than half of the replacement fee. Overall very satisfied.

Stay away from this place.
I was just going through some old things and found the horribly messed up copy of a book I had bound at Kater-​Craft.
It’s seriously been 10 years and I still felt compelled to write a review about my experience at this rather creepy place.
I was hired as a project manager for a professional photographer to do the printing for his hardcover books he was going to be using for promotion. He had to leave the country unexpectedly for a photo shoot and asked me if I could find a binder. I called around to a few places and unfortunately wound up at Kater-​Craft. I took the prints, all perfect by the way, and had them estimate the binding.
They quoted a high, but I felt mostly reasonable price which was approved by the photographer. First of all, the books weren’t ready when they were supposed to be. Upsetting at the time since it was a tight deadline but ended up irrelevant since the books were a total loss anyway.
They had destroyed every one of them. The bearded guy’s excuse was that the paper was too thick.
There were shelves and shelves of books from L. Ron. Hubbard and various Church of Scientology pieces all over the main office.
He grabbed a couple L. Ron Hubbard books to demonstrate that only thin paper works well for binding. However, he examined the collection of prints *before* agreeing to bind them and said they would be great. He even flipped through my mock up and saw that the pages moved just fine. Even if the paper was too thick, (it wasn’t) then as a professional he should have known and advised another process besides hard cover binding. There were plenty of other options for these portfolios of fine prints before he destroyed them.
Then he had the audacity to ask for double the quoted price. I took and paid for one just to show the photographer. I figured someday we could laugh about it. We had to start all over again. I mean for me, it was good because at the time I needed the work. But it significantly delayed the photographer’s campaign and was huge waste of money for him.
Also notice how most of the positive reviews here are from «people» who seem to only have a few reviews, no pics, almost no friends, etc. Keep in mind that it’s pretty easy to get a few friends to write a «review» for your business. No way to keep that from happening. My review is clearly a real one. You can tell by my profile and history on Unilocal.If you look at the several of the reviews that are filtered out for Kater-​Craft, the positive ones there are obviously fake as well.
It looks to me that there are 3 real reviews for this place. Two are one star, one is four stars. The others are fake.
If you care about your books, stay away from this place.

This review is about what happened almost 2 years ago. Better late than never I guess. Im writing because even after all this time, whenever I think about what happened to me, the anger still returns.
So I heard from a coworker that they do great binding work here. I had been collecting comic books for many years and was looking for a great place to get them volume bound. I called them to make sure that they could do the job and they said «yes, we have done it before». Great! I asked them about insurance on my comics, you know, in case something were to go wrong. The guy on the phone replied «We have worked with Smithsonian. I dont know why you would need to take out any insurance on comic books». Well, he made me feel a little silly for asking (this was a collection I had been working on for years, though maybe not Smithsonian caliber, but worth quite a few bucks on todays market and dear to my heart) but he also made me feel sure of their abilities.
So I drop off hundreds of comic books one day, pay the acceptable fees for certain stitching processes, cover material, spine lettering etc. and pray that it all goes well. And it did! When I went back 2 weeks later to pick up my volumes I was very pleased. So pleased in fact that I dropped off more comics to be bound. When I return to pick up the second batch of my collected volumes, I noticed that the front cover of EVERY comic in the newly bound volumse had a hard crease by the spine. So hard that after turning a page a couple of times, the page fell out! As I looked through more i notice more loose and falling out pages. I took them back in and placed them on the counter and asked why this happened. The bearded man in front said something about not knowing why they used a certain binding process and he wished he could tell me why this happened. But he couldnt of course. I explained to him about my concerns prior to getting this done and the insurance question. No answer there. I asked him «do you know how much these comics are worth?» To this he did have a response «Im sure they are worth something to you. What do you think we should do?» he asked. I told him that I am not going to pay for this and that I would like some kind of conpensation for their carless handling of my collection. They gave me a refund, but nothing more. Not even an apology.
I get angered thinking about their blatant disregard of my personal items and their failure to accept responsibility for what happened.
I would never EVER go back to them nor refer them to anyone. Almost 2 years later and I still get heated just writing about it. I have gotten over it for the most part. These things get better with time I guess. I wish I could say the same about my butchered comic books :(

I found a cool old 1823 copy of a short story collection that included Rip Van Winkle — the small size book had the spine with the original label but the boards were unattached. I wanted the boards re-​attached, plus new endpapers to match the old paper’s color and quality. In a few weeks time I was summoned to pick up the repair. My only surprise was that the job was perfect. The new end papers matched, the covers were expertly re-​attached, and the book opened well for reading (many binders bind so tightly that a book only looks good on a shelf but can’t actually be comfortably read). Well done!

These folks did an amazing restoration of a textbook in which my 92-​year old aunt had written a chapter. This book was important to her — and it was pretty beat-​up. The Kater-​Crafts people made this book look like it was new! Really well done!
The people were helpful and the place has a «hushed reverence» for books and the printed word. If I ever need anything like this done again, this is the place to which I will return. It’s not cheap — but it is definitely worth it.

I had quite a bit of work professional done by K-​C after a library disaster and found their work to be spectacular. The work ranged from routine library binding to fine-​leather and gold. Their prices are reasonable and their staff efficient and courteous.
This type of business is a dying breed. We’re very fortunate to have craftspeople of this quality in L.A. If you love «real» books you’ll love this place.

This was my first experience with a bookbinder. I wanted to re-​bind an old Webster’s Dictionary for a family member, so I searched online for binderies. Kater-​Crafts was one of several, and since they have «over 35 year experience in the restoration of books» I decided to go with them. When I went to the bindery and showed them the dictionary, they said it would cost at least $ 250 to rebind and re-​create the spine which was missing. They said it would be less expensive to buy a used one on e-​Bay. The dictionary has sentimental value, so I really did want it re-​bound.
The gentleman who helped me chose some material for re-​creating the spine that matched the pattern of the cover but not the color — they didn’t have it in blue. I looked through the colors and found the exact blue, (except it was plain and not patterened) and I went with that. Then I had to choose the typeface from different fonts that were printed on 3×5 cards. The exact one wasn’t there, and he said the font size could not be altered. He said that the person who makes the spine would be able to choose the best fit, so I left it at that. They told me the dictionary would be ready in 2 months, and I gave them a $ 100 deposit.
I returned to the bindery the next day because I had wanted to give them a more precise idea of what the original spine looked like. I went on e-​Bay and drew a spine from their photo of a similar dictionary and then gave my drawing to the bindery.
I was a little surprised by the casual and desultory manner of the gentleman who originally helped me at the bindery. Considering the expense, and durable results of their end-​product I expected a more attentive or serious attitude when dealing with a customer. Rebinding the dictionary ended up costing $ 357.52. When I asked, one of the office workers told me it took 2 hours.
The re-​bound dictionary looks solid — no mistakes that I can see were made by the bindery. The spine looks OK too. Overall, an A-​OK job.

I really wish I could give it 4.75 stars.
I needed a place to bind my thesis for personal copies and called various binders who charged outrageous prices or didn’t bind theses. Then I found Kater-​Crafts who not only charge the cheapest prices I found but also do library quality work. They were very professional when I dropped off my work, making sure that every detail was correct before production. After 6 – 8 weeks of waiting, they called me on time to pick up my theses.
Every copy was perfect, except for one which needed a correction on the cover (the ONLY reason why I couldn’t give them 5 stars). Being the professionals they are, they took back the incorrect thesis and corrected the cover at no charge AND they shipped it out to me for free so I wouldn’t have to come out to them again.
Kater-​Crafts embodies the true meaning of professionalism and pride in one’s work. On top of that, they charge the most reasonable prices around. I will always recommend this company in the future.