Put the book in the press as for gilding, and sponge it with black ink; then take ivory-black, lamp-black, or antimony, mixed well with a little paste, and rub it on the edge with the finger or ball of the hand till it is perfectly black and a good polish produced, when it must be cleared with a brush, burnished, and cased with paper.
Coloured edges, to look well, require to be scraped in the same manner as for gilt. To lay the colour on evenly, and produce a high burnish, requires more labour than gilding. They are therefore quite as expensive. After the colouring or gilding of the edges, the next process is to attach the
REGISTER,
To do which the back, near the head, is lightly touched with glue, and one end of a piece of ribbon proportioned to the volume is affixed. The leaves are opened, and the other portion of the ribbon placed between the leaves; the portion intended to hang out at the bottom being turned back until the book is completed, to prevent its being soiled.
HEADBANDS.
The headband is an ornament in thread or silk, of different colours, placed at the head and tail of a book on the edge of the back, and serves to support that part of the cover projecting above in consequence of the squares of the boards, giving to the volume a more finished appearance. Thus it will be seen that the headband must equal the square allowed for the boards. For common work, the headband is made of muslin pasted upon twine; but for extra work, and volumes requiring greater durability, it is made of thin board and parchment pasted together and cut into strips of the breadth required. These flat headbands produce a much better effect than the round ones.
There are two kinds of headbands,—viz.: single and double. For ordinary work, cloth pasted round the band, or common thread, is used; for extra, silk and sometimes gold and silver thread. If the volume is small, it is placed, with the boards closed and drawn down even with the edge, between the knees; or, if larger, placed at the end of the laying-press, with the fore-edge projecting towards the body of the workwoman. (The headbands are usually worked by females.)
SINGLE HEADBAND.
Take two lengths of thread or silk, of different colours, threading one in a long needle, and tying the ends of the two together. Supposing red and white to have been taken, the white attached to the needle, it is placed in the volume five or six leaves from the left side, and forced out on the back immediately under the chain-stitch of the sewing, and the thread drawn until it is stopped by the knot, which will be hid in the sheet; the needle is then passed a second time in or near the same place, and, after placing the prepared band under the curl thus made, the thread is drawn tight, so as to hold it firm. Before placing the band, it must be bent with the fingers to the curve of the back of the book. The red thread is now taken with the right hand, and, bringing it from the left to the right, crossed above the white thread, passed under the band, and brought round to the front again and fastened by passing over it, in the same way, the white thread, taking care that the bead formed by these crossings touches the edge of the volume. In repeating thus alternately the operation, crossing the two threads and passing each time under the band, which is thereby covered, it must be occasionally fastened to the book by inserting the needle, as before directed, once in as many places as the thickness of the book may require, and giving it a double tack on the right side on completing the band, fastening it on the back with a knot. These fastenings give firmness to the headband and the exact curve of the back. The two projecting sides of the band must be cut off near the silk, giving the band a slight inclination upwards, to prevent the work slipping off before covering.
DOUBLE HEADBAND.