The easiest and most effective method of side-binding, or where leaves are held together by passing the tie through from side to side, is as follows:—Have by you strips of metal, say sheet-tin, one-fourth or one-third of an inch in breadth; also small rivets or tacks. Take two strips of the same length as the pamphlet or papers to be bound, and strike holes in them with a brad-awl and hammer, on a solid piece of wood, at regular distances. Then place these strips on the book, and drive the rivets through the holes. Turn the whole round, and laying the other side on an anvil or a reversed flat-iron, flatten the points of the rivets so that they will hold. Any old tins, such as are thrown away in such numbers, can be made to supply strips. A strip of parchment or strong paper bent over to form a back can then be pasted over the strips to improve the appearance of the volume. Any tinman will, for a trifle, supply these strips and punch the holes neatly for use. They should be found in every library, and ought to be in every stationer’s. It may be observed that in inserting the rivets or tacks you should place them alternately, one on one side and one on the other. A lighter form of this binding is to take a flat-headed drawing-pin, similar to those used by artists, and have a round, flat tin or brass disc, like a thin sixpence or threepenny-bit, corresponding to it. In the latter punch a small hole, and rivet as before. Tinmen will also punch these discs; in fact, they often throw away a great many cut from certain kinds of work.
Where the leader may have a great number of books to bind, he will find it an economy or a means to secure good work to hire a girl who is an experienced book-stitcher to come and work for him. He can thus be sure of having his works well sewed from top to bottom with strongest linen-thread in ancient style, instead of their being shabbily wired (and all wiring is shabby, since the thin does not hold, and the thick bursts the binding), or still more shabbily looped together with weak cotton-thread. This effected, he can easily do his own binding. He may not rival a Grolier, or turn out such exquisite “gems” as require to be kept in caskets, and are utterly unsuitable for use or reading, and, like most “elegant and unrivalled” modern binding, marvels of tooling and gilding. But he can most assuredly hope to bind strongly in parchment as books were bound in the olden time, and if he chooses to also ornament them with richly stamped leather covers, he can in a short time learn to do the latter, as may be seen in the Manual of Leather-Work.
The great test of excellence in a book is, Can it be freely handled and read without injury? The most careless examination of most books will convince the reader that this test is almost unknown. The exquisitely whitened vellum bindings of Florence and Venice, which are stained almost with the pressure of a lady’s clean finger; the photograph album, so beautifully stamped in leather as thin as blotting-paper, which scratches and wears into shabbiness in a week, if often opened—all the show-pieces of exhibitions will not endure use. And it seems as if, after all the binding of this decade shall have perished, that of the common, cheap books of the seventeenth century will be as good as ever.
A great number of the adhesives and cements mentioned in this book are quite applicable to mending bindings or making paper stick to paper, &c. The following is, however, not only a paste, but also a glaze, and is extensively used as such on labels, boxes, and cards:—
Boil borax with water, and work it thoroughly into caseine till it forms a clear, thick, and extremely adhesive cement, which is also much used to varnish leather or muslins.
It is often desirable to have a varnish or glaze for the covers of books, and still more frequently a paste, which will hold very firmly and yet not penetrate, as glue and paste very often do.
To make such a cement, mix heavy solution of warm glue with freshly made starch or flour-paste. Add to this one-fourth part of turpentine and one-fourth of spirits of wine. This excellent cement is applicable to many purposes.
To paper walls well we make flour-paste, and to every quart add ten grammes of alum dissolved in hot water. Then wash the wall with glue-water, and cover the paper with the paste. The alum and glue form a combination which is leathery and insoluble, and not only arrests decay, but clings with great force. Most wall-paper put on with common paste decays more or less in time, and becomes simply poisonous.
A strong gum or adhesive for paper, cardboard work, or binding:—
I.