A pad is made by inserting a comb through a row of holes along the spine of the pad, which has been assembled with a relatively stiff backing leaf overlying a cover leaf and curving the comb teeth over to form a closure joint between the ends of the teeth and the back of the comb. The binding apparatus includes a turn-over device for turning over the stiff backing leaf so that the latter now underlies the pad with the closure joint lying between the penultimate (or last normal) leaf of the pad and the now underlying backing leaf.