More Black ESV1 Photos

The arrival of the new Allan's ESV1 has brought out the lensmen! Next at bat is reader Will Cornell, who recently set up a light box and decided to snap some pictures of his black ESV1 along with a few other editions (like the TruTone ESV Study Bible). He's uploaded an entire library of shots to Picasa, and here's the link:

Will Cornell's ESV1 Photo Album

Thanks for sharing, Will!

Comments

[Alan]

Nice pics! The black looks great, too, but with my Crossway SCR in black I'll embrace the variety of the tan.

[Anthony Miller]

Yep, still thinking black would have been a better fit for me. I like tan but the ESV shade is just not my thing..............anyone with a black that wished they had bought a tan?

[Janis]

I'm still waiting for my black Allans (and ESVSB) from evangelicalbible.com. Looks like it might have been faster to order from Allans!

Thanks for the great pictures, Will!

[Will Cornell]

Thanks for all your kind words.

I ordered my Allan's directly from their site on 8 OCT and received it yesterday, 21 OCT. I live in Wyoming, so a ways from any "hubs". Pretty quick delivery! I was pleasantly surprised. I know this probably doesn't help now (Janis), but maybe it will help someone who is considering buying direct.

JMB, thanks for keeping us all informed on the latest. I don't think I would have known about the ESV Allan's apart from your great blog!

[Mike]

I ordered my Allan's from evangelicalbible.com on Sep 29th and still have not received it. As a matter of fact, I can't even tell if it has shipped yet. I am pretty disappointed with how slow they are.

[Anthony Miller]

I think the black ESVs from EvanBible were delayed in shipment to them. The latest website update, Oct. 18 implies they just shipped out back orders.

Tony

[Edward Lyons]

Will, those pics are amongst the best i have ever seen! the detail is verging on perfection. I bought both a black and a tan but man.. those pics..... thanks for posting these.

[PDS]

@ Anthony - I'm surprised because the tan, in my opinion, is unbelievably nice. With black Bibles everywhere, it's nice something different. I've got a black NIV goatskin ;)

[PDS]

By the way, EvangelicalBible is very quick with shipments (if the product is in stock). I've bought two Bibles from them -- one arrived in 3 days, the other 4.

[Anthony Miller]

@PDS- It's not as much the color as the shine. I tend to like muted finishes and this is quite shiney. I do like it very much but just think a duller finish would have appealed more. Overall though text size and spacing makes for a wonderful read just before bedtime.

Tony

[David Dewey]

As the owner of an earlier Allan's ESV in tan, I'm passing this time round on buying another, but if they decide to go for a darker brown edition, I am first in the queue. (Mr Gray, if you are reading, please ...)

[Matt Jensen]

Does anyone have any idea how the ESV1's will age over time, if they're used every day?

[Willem Bronkhorst]

I received my Allan ESV1 (black) in South Africa on Tuesday. It took 12 days to get from Scotland to South Africa. How shall I describe it? It is beautiful to look at, but its beauty is austere, in the sense that it is not flashy. It's a Scott! In this Bible form follows function. It stands to leather-bound Bibles as a Mont Blanc Meisterstuck stands to fountain pens (for those who know). The size is, to my taste, perfect. I was expecting the goatskin to be more lush. It seems somewhat thin compared to the calfskin on my Crossway Heirloom and the Morrocan on my old Scofield. But the goatskin's limpness and grain more than makes up for whatever it may seem to lack in lushness. The print jumps off the page and the perfect allignment of the columns stuns me every time I open the Bible. Without a single exception, each person in my family and friendship circle who picked up my Allan ESV1 for the first time remarked on its ligthness. This is not to say that it feels "paperbacky"- not at all. It has an immediate presence in the hand as one picks it up, yet not an overbearing one. I can see that this Bible will grow on and in me.

Will's pictures do not say it all, but they say a whole lot!

[Janis]

My black ESV1 finally arrived yesterday. It is quite beautiful. The only problem is that there is a small area where the leather is loose against the lining. I think someone else mentioned this. I really don't want to go to the trouble of sending it back. I wonder if I could just put some glue under there and fix it myself?

[Kyle]

@ Janis,

I was the one who mentioned that mine was doing that. I glued mine back and have had no problems since. You will need to make sure you use glue for leather. Others glues will dry too hard and brittle. There is probably better glue for this, but I used "Hard as Nails #1" for leather, vinyl, and other pliable materials. Anyone have a better recommendation? Please let me know.

[Janis]

Kyle, thanks so much! I had no idea what kind of glue to use. I'll be sure to look for the kind you used or another that says it is for leather.

[Ben]

I ordered my black ESV1 through my seminary bookshop in June and I just got it yesterday.

It's the most beautifully bound book I've ever seen. I returned it.

Some little things first. The ribbons are dark blue, as is the card which makes up the first 'page' at each end of the Bible. The colour doesn't match the black, and it makes it look like they ran out of black ribbon and card. These aren't in any way significant reasons to return a Bible, particularly one as suberbly bound as this one.

The reason I returned it was the bleed-through. It's not so bad in the narrative sections of the Bible, where the text is printed as a block, but in the (text that's laid out as) poetry, it's actually quite hard to read, at least for me.

I know from experience that my comprehension drops when this happens, and I just don't enjoy reading it as much, because of the added difficulty in reading. It killed me to return it, but I'm not going to spend a large amount of money on a Bible that I find hard to read.

This is the big problem, the only problem really, with the Allan's ESV1 - the text block doesn't match the quality of the binding. And now that I've held (and owned, and read part of) an Allan's Bible, I can see what the fuss is about, but I'm severely disappointed.

For me, owning this Bible would be like going to a very expensive restaurant, and receiving a meal that looks better than any I've ever seen, but tastes like cardboard.

It pains me to feel like I'm spoiling the party, but if you've had problems with readability in Bibles before, because of bleed-through, then I can only recommend you steer clear of the ESV1.

If anyone can recommend another ESV for me, from another binder, I'd appreciate it.

[Janis]

I contacted Evangelical Bible about my loose binding edge and they forwarded my question to Allan's. Nicholas Gray kindly answered my question and suggested that I just use a drop of super glue. Hopefully that will fix it!

As to the bleed-through issue, I have a hard time reading some of the Crossway ESV's because the type is almost gray rather than black. So my preference is to have type that is black and bold, because otherwise light type will cause fatigue. So I guess it's hard to get both bold type and zero bleed-through! But I really like the ESV1 for readability, personally.

[Matt Jensen]

With the more I use this bible, the more I notice how the length of the three ribbon markers is starting to bother me.
Has anyone else been bothered by the length of the markers/ has anyone cut them down to a normal size?

[Stuart]

The longer the better! :)

[Matt Jensen]

They just get in the way. I cut mine down by an inch, and put a drop of frey-check at the end of each ribbon.

[Stuart]

I think it's great they're (too) long - gives us both the opportunity to be satisfied, I keep them the way they are & you can cut them to the desired length, thanks Allan's!

[Ben]

Has anyone gotten out a ruler and actually measured the ribbon length? Just curious.

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