Update: July 2017

OK, so apparently Photobucket killed all the pics in my blog posts unless I pay them to enable third party hosting. I will be revamping this blog soon but in the meantime, you can check out and purchase my items on my Etsy Store here: S'wak Props on Etsy

You can also connect with me on Facebook: S'wak Props on Facebook

S'wak Props Products Available on Custom Order

These are items that I'm currently offering. Click on the individual links to know more.

The Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows from The Ninth Gate

Rorschach's Journal from Watchmen

The Grail Diary from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

The Red Book from Labyrinth

The Complete Silence Dogood Letters from National Treasure

Thorin's Map and Bilbo's Portrait from The Hobbit

These books are made on custom order. If you're interested in acquiring any of these items, please email me at swakprops@gmail.com for more details.

A note to those interested in buying any items from me

Hi,

Thank you for visiting my blog. If you're interested in buying any of the prop replicas that I make, please drop me an email at swakprops@gmail.com. Please note however, before you send me an email, that these items are high-end prop replicas; each and every one of them are custom made to order by me and me alone. I do not have a workshop in which I employ workers to mass produce these replicas, save for the professional binding services I go to to get the books bound. The pages are printed, cut and aged by myself as well as the covers after they have been bound. Not to mention the research that went into conceiving these replicas in the first place. So please consider these before you ask me how much these replicas cost. I'm not Amazon so my books do not cost US$16.95 or US$34.95. The cheapest of which is priced at US$100. As I said, these are high-end replicas and as such, they are priced to reflect that.

Thank you again.

S'wak Props

Binding methods

I've recently been asked about the binding methods employed for my books.

Firstly, all the books I make are professionally bound. I print the pages, weather them, arrange them and then send them to a professional binder who will sew the pages together and bind them with the appropriate cover.

For my Nine Gates, the pages are printed loose, meaning an A4 paper is printed on both sides and then stacked together to form the pages. This printing method is employed due to printer limitations.Once the pages are cut down to size, they will be bound by the binder using the "Oversewn method", where loose sheets of pages are sewn together to form the text block. Small vertical holes are punched through the far left-hand edge of each signature, and then the signatures are sewn together with lock-stitches to form the text block. Oversewing is a very strong method of binding and can be done on books up to five inches thick. However, the margins of oversewn books are reduced and the pages will not lie flat when opened. I should emphasize here that my Nine Gates is a prop replica meant for display. The text is Latin gibberish which has no meaning, so its not meant to be read or studied over and over again. Nevertheless, oversewn binding a very strong method of binding and unless you put the book through really torturous bashing, the pages are not likely to come loose.

For Rorschach's Journal and the Grail Diary, the pages are printed in signatures, so an A4 paper can have 4 separate pages once folded in half. In this case, a method called "Sewing through the fold" (also called Smyth sewn) is employed, where the signatures of the book are folded and stitched through the fold. The signatures are then sewn together at the spine to form a text block. In contrast to oversewing, through-the-fold books have wide margins and can open completely flat. For both oversewn and through-the-fold methods, a headband is used to maintain the vintage/classic look.

Finally, for the Red Book from Labyrinth, a method called "Case Binding" is used. Like Rorschach's Journal and the Grail Diary, the pages are printed in signatures which are sewn. But these pages are then arranged in signatures and glued (not sewn) together into the textblock. The textblock is then attached to the cover or "case" which is made of cardboard covered with buckram. This binding method is similar to that or a paperback.

Customer feedbacks for S'wak Props

I've set up this post so that those who have bought items from me can leave their feedback and review of their purchases. Thanks in advance for your support.

Winter Soldier Red Notebook from Captain America: Civil War

Presenting my newest offering: the Winter Soldier Red Notebook featured in Captain America: Civil War.

Contains 200 blank pages in signatures, professionally bound in red lambskin with the star hot stamp debossed in front in black ink. The centerspread contains the activation key codes in Russian so you can order your Winter Soldier to do your bidding.

Cover and page edges will be aged as per the onscreen prop. The pages will remain unweathered.

Email me at swakprops@gmail.com if interested.

New hot stamping machine and new blocks for the Nine Gates

My binders upgraded their hot stamping machine so I decided it was time to retire the old Nine Gates block, which I've had for 8 long years, and make new ones. The first pulls from the new blocks and the new machine are, for lack of a better word, fantastic. The impressions are sharp and deep, and I would dare say, look as good as hand-tooled. See pics below (there's also one comparing an older cover to the new one).







Old cover on the left, new one on the right.



All new orders for the Nine Gates (both weathered and unweathered) would have this new sharper covers. Email me at swakprops@gmail.com if you're interested in acquiring one.

Fresh from the binders! No... not the Ceniza Brothers...

Some books I recently completed for clients

Here are some books I just completed for some clients. If you're interested in ordering any of these books or my other offerings, just email me at swakprops@gmail.com.

National Treasure: The Complete Silence Dogood Letters V.2 - Now available

The set consists of 42 sheets making up 15 letters. There are originally 14 letters but I've included a variation of the 10th letter to match the prop seen in the movie. The letters are 10" x 16 1/2" with the sides ripped for authenticity. They're printed on ivory paper which are then individually weathered by hand. They are then folded in 2 stacks and tied with weathered twine. Includes an identification tag and a letter from Patrick Gates.

Please contact me at swakprops@gmail.com if you're interested in a set.

The Complete Silence Dogood Letters V2 - Work in Progress

I'm putting the finishing touches on my complete Silence Dogood letters v2. I remade this from scratch, typesetting the actual letters verbatim in a realistic and almost accurate handwriting font.I've tried my best to match them to screenshots of the letters as seen in "National Treasure".

Another change I made is the way "Silence" signed off in each letter. In my previous version, they were all signed as "I am, Sir, Your Humble Servant, Silence Dogood". In actual fact, the sig differs in some of the letters. I've tried my best to include this variation as seen below.


42 sheets make up the complete letters. They are printed on 100 gsm ivory colored A3 paper with the sizes ripped off to make the letters 10" x 16 1/2".

I will be weathering the letters and will post up the pics of the finished item soon. Stay tuned.