Buffing. The name given to the thin sheet of cowhide taken off in the operation of buffing or splitting. It is usually of very inferior quality.
Buffingette. See Keratol.
Burnished. The effect produced by the application of a burnisher to edges.
Burnishers. Pieces of agate or bloodstone affixed to handles. With them a gloss is produced on the edges of a book.
Calf or calfskin. Leather made of calves’ skins. It has a smooth and uniform surface. It was formerly much used in binding, and is very beautiful; but that made in recent years lasts only a short time, soon growing hard and brittle and even falling into dust. Even when new the surface is easily broken and torn.
“During the latter part of the eighteenth century it became customary to pare down calf until it was as thin as paper. Since about 1830 little sound calf seems to have been made, as, whether thick or thin, it appears generally to have perished, turning red and crumbling into dust.”
“Sprinkled or marbled calf is in a specially bad state.”
See also Divinity, Kip, Marbled, Sprinkled and Tree calf.
Calf-lined. When the inside of a limp cover is lined with calfskin, this taking the place of that half of the end paper which is usually on the inside of the cover. This calf lining is thin and soft and is usually glued to the leather cover only at the latter’s outer edges, thus leaving the cover pliable.