Church Bible Publishers is working on a new series with the goal to bring their covers in line with Cambridge, RL Allan, and Schuyler. This series, called the Platinum Series, has Water Buffalo for the outer cover and cowhide for the liner. It’s 100% made in the USA and it looks and feels exotic. Initially, the series will include the Note Takers (see the review) and the Turquoise (see the review).
The Water Buffalo has a nice texture and grain that feels elegant to the touch, but it also looks and feels rugged. This is the kind of texture and grain that I prefer. It’s soft, but it doesn’t seem like it would scratch easy or take the impression of something that sat on top of it as a softer leather could.
The grain has a lot of shades of brown, giving it a nice visual texture. This series doesn’t have perimeter stitching.
The spine includes 5 raised ribs and HOLY BIBLE, Authorized King James, and CBP stamped in gold.
The corner work is clean on all four corners.
The liner is edge-lined cowhide. It also has an elegant texture that you can feel with your fingers.
The Platinum Series will have 3/8″ ribbons and gold/brown head/tail bands. The ribbons are probably satin. They’re also more elegant than any ribbons I’ve seen from CBP. The edge-line tab doesn’t feel so stiff that it can’t stay open. It might have to break in to stay open on the first page, but I don’t think it would take long.
It has a 5/16″ yapp (overhang). The website shows that the series will have 3 ribbons, art-gilt edges, and a gift box.
Comparisons
Here’s how the Water Buffalo compares with some popular goatskin and calfskin editions.
From top to bottom: goatskin Concord, ironed calfskin CBP 120, antique mahogany goatskin Schuyler, goatskin Thomas Nelson, goatskin Turquoise, Highland goatskin Longprimer, CBP water buffalo
From top to bottom: CBP ironed calfskin Note Takers, CBP water buffalo, RL Allan wide margin in Highland Goatskin, Schuyler Canterbury in calfskin, large print Westminster in Meriva calfskin.
The second from the top is the goatskin Hendrickson Hallmark Reference edition.
CBP Water Buffalo with RL Allan Wide Margin Brevier Clarendon in Highland Goatskin
CBP Water Buffalo with the RL Allan 53br Longprimer in brown Highland Goatskin
CBP Water Buffalo with the Schuyler Classic Reference (Westminster) in Antique Mahagony goatskin
CBP Water Buffalo with the Cambridge Concord in black goatskin
CBP Water Buffalo with the Large Print Westminster in black Mariva calfskin
CBP Water Buffalo with the Schuyler Canterbury in black calfskin
CBP Water Buffalo with the Thomas Nelson Premier Collection Giant Print KJV in black goatskin
CBP Water Buffalo with the Cambridge Turquoise in blue goatskin
CBP Water Buffalo with the CBP Note Takers in 3-piece black and tan ironed calfskin
CBP Water Buffalo with the CBP 120 in black ironed calfskin
Ending Thoughts
The Water Buffalo leather with cowhide liner is an amazing cover. I like it far better than anything else I’ve seen from CBP. It looks and feels like a high-quality cover. This is the kind of leather I’d expect from RL Allan, Cambridge, or Schuyler. In my opinion, CBP met their goal of producing a leather cover on par with Cambridge, RL Allan, and Schuyler’s goatskin editions.
The Platinum Series available from the Church Bible Publisher’s website, and it’s available in the red-letter editions of the Note Takers and the Turquoise for $125. I think CBP has a winner on their hands. I’m still holding onto the hope that they will update their paper (it’s good enough for general use, it just isn’t premium quality), but these small steps of higher quality leather and ribbons are bringing them closer to the full premium range.
The series is still in production, so there currently aren’t many copies available. CBP loaned me this one, so I won’t be able to do any comparisons after this round and I can only answer questions from memory.
Randy, I agree about the paper. I have had numerous problems with ink smudging on their bibles. I personally would rather them upgrade paper/ink – I could always rebind. To me, the text block is the most important aspect. That is why I generally stick to Jongbloed products. Top notch paper/print.
They should offer bibles in nab, esv, and hcsb.
This kjv onlyist nonsense is ignorant and harmful to the body of Christ.
Sorry john but your wrong about your comment you made, Genesis chapter 3 first introduces us to Satan and the first thing he does is attack Gods Word. We all know how that story ended. Are you so foolish to believe this attack is not still going on? Funny how every month or two we have a new version ” more closely translated to the originals” now we have hundreds to thousands of “translations” and they’re all the best. Funny how publishers are getting rich on every translation besides the King James Version since it’s not copy righted but free to all people. If we’ve got so much better ” versions” then why is the world going to hell? Why is drug addiction at an all time high, child pornography and sex trafficking, an absolute complete lapse in morality, violence and immorality so severe that sodom and Gomorrah would blush? A new convert walks into a Christian bookstore and is greeted by hundreds of “versions” of the Bible, which one do they choose? Really confusing but wait the King James Version says Gods not the author of confusion. Funny how when we lived by the King James Version morality was at an all time high, national revivals breaking out, lives being changed no school shootings, no sodomite marriages, our country wasn’t full of drunks and dope heads. The main reason I read only the King James Version john is because 10 years ago in a jail cell in Ga, my life was broken in a million pieces, I was addicted to every drug there was, spent 4 years in prison for drugs, society had no answer, the judge had no answer, the probation officer had no answer, but I picked up a King James Version Bible in that cell and began to read, gave my life to Christ and 10 years later I’m clean through the Word of God and now I preach from that wonderful book. The King James Bible isn’t the best ” translation” john it’s the WORD OF GOD PERIOD. I’m not being a smart alleck but just wanted to correct a foolish statement you made sir. The King James Bible didn’t need to be rewritten it needs to be reread!
Yet you leave no example why. Because that statement is nonsense kjv keeps the body alive.
Great leather binding, but CBP needs to stop worry about the cover and improve the paper and print. Paper and print are the heart of the Bible, I would take a a soild hardback binding with the best paper and print if that meant I had to give up the leather. I love the CBP ministry and read the KJV as my choice in translation, but if they can get the paper and print quality of a ministry like tbs or high end bibles printed by jongeblood(not sure if I spelled that right)I doubt anyone would look any further then CBP. I hate to say it, but CBP is the only bible when I purchase that I check all the pages before I use to make sure that all the ink is legible and that nothing is missing. That being said, for what you get for the money is hard to beat if everything is on point. You buy a $40 Holman bible that will last you a year, but Holman will give you a life time guarantee. Not a fan of the logo, but I believe Schuyler is at the top as far as overall product. Now only if TBS could wrap a Westminster/Windsor bible in that beautiful water buffalo calfskin, I’d be all over it.
I am very impressed with the covers of CBP and have been for a while, I however would like to see them use more modern fonts typography and othography, I long to see bibles of high quality come with full color and more modern looking layouts like what you see in Nelson and Holman’s full color KJV study bibles.
In my opinion I am so sick of the classic old school boring and bland Scofield/Oxford look to KJV Bibles.
When will this Bible be available?
They haven’t said yet. I’ll see if I can get an update.
Thanks for bringing the issues with the CBP text block to my attention. I have 2 CBP Bibles, a Thompson Chain Reference (from back before they split from LCBP) and the Common Man’s Reference Bible. Both are excellent and I was thinking of ordering a Note Takers but now I’m not so sure.
Is the paper in the Platinum Turquoise the same as what is in their most recent turquoise editions (which is the same as in their wide margin cameo)? That paper has less glare, but more ghosting (because it is not lined-matched, some pages are worse than others). Thank you.
Hi David. It is the same as the current series. I think it’s the 22# Domtar TitaniumJET used in the Hand Sized edition. It’s in the mid 30’s in gsm. My edition seems more opaque than the paper they use in their 120 wide margin Cameo, but the texture feels the same.