=Rebinding for Libraries=
Libraries differ as to bindings in their needs and in their
possibilities. Books differ even more. No library can or should exactly
follow any one style in its rebinding work. I add, however, the
following directions for ordinary, much-used 12mo volumes, in the hope
that they may be found suggestive. They should be read in the light
of all the rest of this book, and not taken as final authority at any
point.
Pull apart with great care. Remove all threads and old paste and glue.
Smooth out the backs by beating. Guard the outer and inner leaves of
all signatures that are broken or weak with paper or jaconet.
Loose pictures, if they are to be kept, put in with guards. Frequently
in rebinding the illustrations may be dropped with no loss either to
the reader's pleasure or the cause of art.
See that the leaves are all in and complete.
No. 1. Books sewed regularly, that is, not whipstitched. Guard
the first and last signatures with jaconet. If the title-page or
frontispiece is an insert, paste the guard along the insert and over
the first signature. This saves the labor of guarding the insert and
first signature separately.
Guard with jaconet the inner side of the inside leaf of every signature
that is at all worn or weak; if badly worn guard also the outer side
of the outside leaf. In some cases every leaf should be guarded. But
remember that guards thicken the back.
Make two sets of four-page end-sheets by folding once with the grain
pieces of lithographed lining paper; and two sets of waste papers by
folding once pieces of good book paper, about 60 lb. Guard the outside
of the folds of all of these with jaconet, and place one of each kind
at the front and back of the book, the lithograph one on the outside in
each case.
Use Hayes's standard linen thread of a weight adapted to the book.
The cotton thread used in book sewing machines wears well, but is
not recommended for hand-work. No. 25 is good for books with light
sections, 16 for those with heavy sections, and 20 for those with
medium. Sew the book on four stout but flexible tapes, each about a
quarter of an inch wide. Sew all along throughout.
Leave about three-fourths of an inch of tape projecting each side when
cutting off.
From here on the process is very similar for this kind of binding sewed
in the ordinary way, and for No. 2, whipstitched, which follows.
No. 2. Books which are whipstitched, being in such condition or of such
character that they have to be trimmed at the back, being then simply
piles of loose sheets.
Cut off as little of the backs as possible. Prepare and place end
sheets and waste papers as above described, except here paste the
jaconet guard only along one side, the outer, of the folds of all of
them. This gives firm hold for first overcast stitches.
Glue the back of the book slightly so that it may be divided into
signatures of a few leaves each which will hold together.
Sew on same tapes as for a regularly sewed book.
In overcasting or whipstitching do not take up more than one-eighth of
an inch for the deepest stitches. Make the signatures small and pass
the needle through two of them with each stitch, taking the stitch
diagonally.
Paste the lining papers to the waste sheets, all over, front and back.
Paste ends of tapes on top of lining papers. Trim the book, cutting it
as little as possible.
Glue the back slightly, and, when it is partly dried, round the
book and then back it. In backing do not break the threads or pull
them through the paper. This is especially to be guarded against on
whipstitched books.
After rounding and backing, glue to the back and over onto the sides,
passing beyond the jaconet guards, a strip of medium weight, soft,
bleached muslin.
Measure and cut the boards, which should be of good quality, adapted to
the wear the book is likely to have.
Cut the leather back, of pigskin. Do not pare it save slightly at the
edges. Put a little paste on the boards to make them stay in place, and
set them in place on the book.
Put on the leather, leaving the boards in place, tucking the leather in
at top and bottom,--head and tail.
When the leather is partly dried, the book having been kept under
slight pressure, cover the boards with keratol or appropriate cloth.
Make the corner fold by first turning the cover material in straight
across the corner and then bringing in the folds from right and left.
Paste the end sheets firmly down on the inside of the covers. This
fastens the book securely into its case. Press until thoroughly dry.
Letter in gold with large, rather heavy, black-face letters. Reduce the
lettering to as few words as possible.
No rule can be given as to the glue to be used. Let your binder be sure
that what he uses is good, whether the price he pays be high or low.
He can tell whether it is good or not by testing it. Glue pots should
be cleaned out frequently. Glue should be treated with judgment as to
heat and degree of thickness at which it is used. It is animal matter
that quickly changes its character and loses its strength under wrong
conditions.
The boards to be used in a book should depend, as to quality and
thickness, on the character of the volume they cover. Expensive boards
on a book which will probably soon be too dirty to be kept, are not
essential.
Neither strings nor tapes need to be laced into the boards on ordinary
library work. They hold well if carefully glued down on the inside,
and very well if pasted between two boards or into a split in one.
[Illustration: Plates
The first diagram shows in section a plate pasted on to a leaf of a
book. This method is faulty, because it takes up some of the back
margin of the leaf; if the leaf is pressed back the plate is apt to
split off.
The second diagram shows the method of attaching a plate by means of a
"guard."
From report of the Committee on Leather for Bookbinding. Edited for
Society of Arts. London: Bell & Sons, 1905.]
Some books are best bound with tight backs, some with loose. There
is no invariable rule in regard to this; it depends partly on the
thickness of the book. Very thick volumes should have loose backs,
usually.
It is usually wise to trim books when they are rebound. But this
trimming should of course be as little as possible.
[Illustration: Showing the Method of Lacing in the Slips or Ends of
Bands on a Flexible Bound Book
If depressions are cut in the board as shown, the slips can be left
with an adequate margin of strength without clumsiness.
From report of the Committee on Leather for Bookbinding. Edited for
Society of Arts. London: Bell & Sons, 1905.]
It is possible to whipstitch a book, even one which is printed on
stiff paper, in such a way that it will be almost as flexible and open
almost as easily as if it were sewed on tapes in the regular way. It
is possible, but difficult. Few have done it. Few binderies, if any,
in this country have workers who can and will give to the work of
whipstitching the care and thought necessary to produce a good job.
[Illustration: No. 1]
[Illustration: No. 2
Showing the Advantage of a "French Joint" over an Ordinary Joint
No. 1. A section of an Ordinary Joint with the board open shows that
the creasing of the leather is concentrated on one line.
No. 2. A section of a "French Joint" shows how this creasing is
distributed over a great surface, and so enables sufficient flexibility
to be obtained with much thicker leather than can be used with an
ordinary joint.
From report of the Committee on Leather for Bookbinding. Edited for
Society of Arts. London: Bell & Sons, 1905.]
Some strengthen the top and bottom of the back, the head and tail, by a
piece of cloth or tape passing over the back of the signatures and held
to them by the sewing in a manner difficult to describe.
[Illustration: Anatomy of a Joint
A Board of cover.
B B Bleached muslin, pasted over back after rounding and
backing.
C C Strings or tapes on which the book is sewn.
D D End sheets of lithograph paper. The part at the left
is pasted to the inside of the board and becomes the
lining paper. B and C being pasted over on to D,
when D is pasted to A they are carried with it and lie
under the end sheet or lining paper.
E E Jaconet or thin muslin guard pasted on D before the
book is sewn.
F F Waste papers of good book paper.
G G Jaconet guard of waste papers. Before the book is
trimmed F and D are pasted together and become a
doubled fly leaf.
H H The first signature of the book.
J J Jaconet guard of the first signature.
K K K Paths of threads.
L Leather back.
M Cloth or paper side.]
Music should be sewed regularly or all along and the inside and outside
sheets of all signatures should be guarded with jaconet. This guarding
of the inner sheets makes the binding stronger, as the inner pages of
a section always tend to work loose if much handled. The side and top
squares should be about 1/8 of an inch; but the bottom square about 3/8
inch. This large square at the bottom raises the book on the instrument
to allow the easy turning of leaves, as the pages frequently catch when
the squares are the usual size all around. Newark finds half pig with
Keratol sides very durable.
Large maps, drawings, etc., may be mounted on linen, jaconet, nainsook,
ordinary bleached, or unbleached muslin. The material used should
be five or six inches larger all around than the map to be mounted
for convenience in stretching and working. Tack the cloth on a clean
board, table or floor. Put the tacks very close together and tack the
selvage edge first. The surface may be covered with waste paper before
stretching the cloth on it. Apply a thin coat of thin paste all over.
When dry, paste the map and allow it to stand about ten minutes to give
it time to stretch. Lay the map on the muslin and rub it down under a
stout piece of paper. Thorough rubbing down is absolutely necessary
to make every part adhere. Proceed from the center outward, carefully
rubbing out creases and bubbles. Dry thoroughly before taking up.
One person alone cannot mount a very large sheet.
Very small maps in books which have become somewhat worn and creased
can be mounted on Japanese mending tissue. This paper is quite tough
and thin, and wears well.