The Small Business Spotlight: Waco Book Binding
In this "Small Business Spotlight," presented by American Bank, Austin Meek of Waco Business News highlights Joseph Tofanel of Waco Book Binding.
Joseph Tofanel trims the edges of a manuscript at his Franklin Avenue store, Waco Book Binding.
[Speaking in Romanian}
On the 1400 block of Franklin Avenue, Joseph Tofanel keeps tradition alive. Not just through his Romanian language, which he utilizes in phone calls with old friends nearly every day, but though his chosen profession of book binding.
"This one is 200 years. It’s in the Germany language. It has a wood cover. Now I am going to fix it page by page, after that make a new cover."
The cover page of a 200 year old German Bible that Joseph Tofanel is currently restoring at Waco Book Binding.
The German bible he's referencing looks like it had been recovered from the rubble after Dresden. It's incredible to me that someone could, much less would, provide the care and attention to bring this great text back to life.
"Anything old books, I rebind."
Whether a piece is two or two hundred, at Waco Book Binding, the process stays the same.
"First time, I need to recondition old pages. When it’s working I put on masking tape or put on clear tape. After that maybe sewing, then I put on glue, spine, cutting, make the cover, put on press."
Joseph first learned book binding as a trade back in Romania at age 14. He spent a decade in the business before moving into accounting and construction, and he worked as a cabinet maker in Waco when he immigrated here in 1986. But after he retired, Joseph felt a pull to the profession of his youth and opened Waco Book Binding in 2013. According to his son, Sergio, the process keeps Joseph's OCD tendencies at bay and gives him a reason to get out of bed each morning.
“I mean, when you see these books and the kind of restoration that they need. You need to be able to spend hours going page by page and trying to restore them, trying to figure out what do you want to do? What don’t you want to do? Kind of like a museum piece sometimes.”
Sergio says his dad is a one man show.
Joseph Tofanel, owner of Waco Book Binding at 1415 Franklin Avenue.
"I just give technical support, computers, printers."
Sergio handles the new-fangled technology so Joseph can work exclusively with his machines, some of which outstrip his own 75 years of life.
"I like the old machines because I am old, too. Haha."
Books, like clothing styles and musical tastes, cycle in and out of fashion. Thankfully, today's technologically driven world is causing some people to long for the hard labor of handicraft exemplified by Joseph's work at Waco Book Binding.
“You definitely have the “Old Waco.” It’s alive and well right now. Most of our customers are grey haired just like him. They have their old cookbooks. They have their old Bibles. Sentimental items."
This "Small Business Spotlight,” co-produced by Waco Business News and KWBU, first aired on Friday, February 7, 2020, in Episode 78 of Downtown Depot on 103.3 KWBU-FM Waco.