Bookbinding, and the Care of Books / A Handbook for Amateurs, Bookbinders & Librarians

by Douglas Cockerell

It has become the custom to saw in the backs of books, and to sink the bands into the saw cuts, using “hollow backs,” and putting false bands to appear when bound. This is a degenerate form, to which is due much of the want of durability of modern bindings. If the bands are not to show on the back, it is better to sew on tapes or strips of vellum than to use sawn-in string bands.

SEWING

The sewing-frame need by bookbinders is practically the same now as is shown in prints of the early sixteenth century, and probably dates from still earlier times. It consists of a bed with two uprights and a crossbar, which can be heightened or lowered by the turning of wooden nuts working on a screw thread cut in the uprights (see [fig. 29]).

To set up for sewing, as many loops of cord, called “lay cords,” as there are to be bands, are threaded on to the cross piece, and to these, by a simple knot, shown at [fig. 28], cords are fastened to form the bands. The “lay cords” can be used again and again until worn out.

Fig. 28.

To fasten the cord below, a key is taken (see [fig. 28]) and held below the press by the right hand; the cord is then pulled up round it by the left, and held in position on the key by the first finger of the right hand. The key is then turned over, winding up a little of the string, and the prongs slipped over the main cord. It is then put through the slit in the bed of the sewing-press, with the prongs away from the front. The cord is then cut off, and the same operation repeated for each band. When all the bands have been set up, the book is laid against them, and they are moved to correspond with the marks previously made on the back of the book, care being taken that they are quite perpendicular. If they are of the same length and evenly set up, on screwing up the crossbar they should all tighten equally.

It will be found to be convenient to set up the cords as far to the right hand of the press as possible, as then there will be room for the sewer’s left arm on the inner side of the left hand upright.

A roll of paper that will exactly fill the slot in the sewing-frame is pushed in in front of the upright cords to steady them and ensure that they are all in the same plane.