Javelle water. To one pound of chloride of lime add four and a half pints of water, and put in a jar with tight cover. Dissolve 20 oz. of ordinary washing soda in four and a half pints of boiling water, in a separate vessel, and immediately pour into the first mixture. When cold add enough water to make eleven pints in all. Strain through muslin, settle, and pour off the clear solution. This will remove many stains; but care must be taken to rinse thoroughly the paper with water after using it, as it tends to rot paper.
Joints. The projections formed in backing to admit the boards. Also the leather or cloth, with its lining, where it passes from the book proper to the boards when the volume is covered; that is, the part of the binding that bends when the boards are opened. See also French joint.
Justification. The process of making the pages of a book lie opposite one another to insure a straight and equal margin throughout.
Keratol, the B B B grade, or Buffingette manufactured by the Keratol Company, cor. Clifford and Van Buren Sts., Newark, N. J., at 35 cents per yard. A waterproof cloth made in imitation of leather. It is excellent for the sides of books which receive much wear, as it does not show either finger or water marks, and outlasts the ordinary book cloth. It cannot be recommended for full binding as it is difficult to letter and wears away quickly at the joints. At first it has a disagreeable odor, but this wears off. An objectionable feature is that labels cannot easily be pasted upon it. To overcome this difficulty, put a thin coat of shellac on the place where the label is to go. The objectionable point mentioned is overbalanced by the material’s good qualities.
Kettlestitch. As the sewer draws the thread out through the hole near the end of a signature she passes it between the two preceding signatures and around the thread which connects them, before she passes it into the hole in the signature she next lays on. This is called the kettle-stitch, a word said to be a corruption of either catch-up stitch or chain stitch.
Keys. Little metal instruments used to secure the bands to the sewing bench.
Kip calf. Made from the skin of a heifer; much stronger than ordinary calf.
Knocking-down iron. A heavy iron plate on which are placed the sides of a laced-in book when the lacings of string, tape or vellum, are pounded down with a hammer so they will not show when the book is covered.
Laced in. When the boards are affixed to the volume by passing the bands, strings, or tapes on which it is sewn through holes made in the boards, they are said to be laced in.