Raptor Gifts: Make a Personalised Falconry Journal

A hawk's first season deserves better than a phone full of half-finished notes. A handmade journal gives you somewhere proper to record weights, flights, weather and moult — and it costs less than a decent pair of gloves. This is a bookbinding project you can finish over a weekend, built around a bird you know well. Sew it blank and fill it as the season unfolds, or print your own record pages first and bind those in. Either way you end up with something worth handing on to the next falconer in the family.

Start with the paper, not the leather

Beginners usually fixate on the cover. The part you actually touch every day is the paper, so choose it first. Look for acid-free or pH-neutral stock between 100 and 120gsm. Anything lighter feels flimsy and lets ink ghost through; anything much heavier will crack along the fold after a few dozen creases.

An A5 page suits a falconry bag far better than A4, and it gives you roughly 15cm of writing width once the spine and trim are taken off. Cut your sheets a little oversized — say 15cm by 21.5cm — so you can trim the finished block square at the end.

Check the grain before you cut

Paper has a direction, and folding against it produces a lumpy spine that never sits flat. Fold a sheet one way, then the other. The fold that feels smoother and springs back more cleanly is with the grain. Cut your sheets so that fold runs parallel to the spine. If you buy A4 reams, the grain usually runs along the long edge, which is why cutting down to A5 works neatly.

Test your pen on an offcut. Fountain pen with a pigment ink behaves beautifully on uncoated stock and stays legible if the page gets damp in a field bag. Iron gall inks are water-resistant but best avoided on anything you want to keep for decades.

Sewing the text block

Work in sections — four folded sheets nested together gives you sixteen pages. Six sections makes a solid ninety-six page journal, which is about right for a season. Press the folded sections under a heavy board overnight before you sew.

1. Make a punching cradle from two pieces of card taped into a V, then mark five stations along the spine fold: one at each end about 15mm in, and three evenly spaced between. A sixth mark at each end, 8mm further in, is where the kettle stitch will sit.
2. Punch every section through the fold with an awl, keeping the needle vertical. Consistency here matters more than neatness.
3. Thread a needle with linen thread — 18/3 weight is a good all-rounder — and sew the first section from the inside centre out, then back in at the next station, working your way along.
4. Add each new section the same way, but link it to the one below by passing the needle behind the previous section's stitch at both ends. That is the kettle stitch, and it is what stops the block pulling apart.
5. Tie off with a double knot inside the final section, then coat the spine with PVA and press on a strip of mull or fine muslin while it is still tacky.
6. Leave it under boards, weighted, overnight. Add headbands if you want the spine to look finished.

Covers, spine and raptor motifs

Two millimetre greyboard cut 3mm larger than the block on all three open edges gives a cover with a proper turn-in. Cover it in book cloth, linen or a mid-weight leather. Keep the decoration to one strong element rather than five weak ones.

Motif ideas that work

• A lino-cut peregrine silhouette stamped in a single colour on the front board.
• Pyrography on a plain leather cover — a feather outline, or a bird's name in your own handwriting.
• A brass stencil of a hawk's foot, tapped through with a stippling brush and acrylic.
• Block-printed feather shapes in a diagonal repeat along the spine.
• A small inlaid feather, sealed under a protective coat of wax.

For endpapers, marbled paper in slate and rust tones echoes a hawk's plumage without ever showing the bird itself. Tip them in with a thin bead of PVA along the fold, and always let them dry before closing the book.

Pages that earn their keep

Printed headers save you redrawing columns all season. Set them up on the computer, print onto your chosen stock, then fold and collate as usual. A practical set might include:

• Weight log: date, time of day, weight, food given, appetite.
• Flight record: location, wind direction and strength, temperature, duration, behaviour, quarry seen.
• Moult chart: a simple diagram of the wing with dates marked as each feather drops and regrows.
• Training notes: recall, lure work, manning, anything you want to remember for next week.
• Kit maintenance: jesses, swivel, telemetry battery, glove condition.
• Contacts: your vet, the telemetry frequency, insurance details, the farmer whose land you fly over.

Weights and feeding sit close to welfare. Use the journal to record what you observe accurately, and take anything that worries you to a vet experienced with birds of prey rather than adjusting a diet on your own.

Small touches that make it personal

Write the bird's name and the date of its first flight inside the front cover. Add a tipped-in photograph, a feather found on a memorable day, or a ribbon marker in your own colours. An elastic closure keeps loose quarry feathers and slips of paper from escaping in a bag. Emboss initials on the front board with a heated handle and a letter set, practising on scrap board first — there is no undoing a burn.

Tools, time and your first attempt

You need an awl, a bone folder, a craft knife, a steel rule, a cutting mat, a needle, linen thread, PVA, mull, greyboard, cover material and something heavy to press with. That is an afternoon's shopping and a weekend's work.

Bind one rough journal first. Use cheap paper, a plain cover and no decoration. Sew it, press it, and see how the spine behaves when you open it flat. Your second attempt will be better, and by the third you will be making them as gifts for the falconers who have helped you along the way.

Photo: Polina ⠀ / Pexels