An heraldic pattern for a small pigskin or cowhide purse is shown in Fig. 19, and Figs. 19, 20, and 21 are designs adapted to different kinds of purses, wallets, and bill-books. It is, of course, impossible to lay down any specific sizes for these patterns, as the sizes of leather goods vary.
To improve the appearance of floral patterns, it is desirable to tint or stain flowers, leaves, berries, and stems in their natural colors. This can be done on the unfinished wood, either before or after the outlines and background are burned. Oil or aniline stains may be used for this purpose. If a dead finish is desired, the wood can be left without further treatment, except for a thin coat of beeswax and turpentine. If a glossy finish is preferred, the wood must be treated to several thin coats of white shellac; then a finishing coat of white dammar-varnish is applied and left to dry for several days. The inside of boxes should be “grounded” and shellacked, and at the top and bottom pads made of card-board, cotton-filling, and silk should be glued fast.
Chapter XIII
BOOKBINDING AND EXTRA-ILLUSTRATION
There must be many boys who would like to know the simple methods of binding books, so that they can do it without the aid of machinery or costly tools. They are probably aware that when the material of a book comes from the hand of the printer, it consists of a number of large sheets that are commonly twenty inches long and fifteen broad. Eight pages of the book are printed on each side of a sheet in such a peculiar order that when the sheet is properly folded the pages will be correctly arranged by the numbering. To see how this is, take a sheet of paper that measures fifteen inches by twenty. With a ruler and pencil draw lines across the sheet so as to divide it into eight equal parts. Each of these parts is a page. Number them as shown in Fig. 1. Turn them over and number the pages on the other side as shown in Fig. 2. Now to fold the sheet, lay it on the table with the side up that has on it 2, 15, etc.; bring page 3 over upon page 2, creasing the sheet in the middle. Then the four pages lying upward will be numbered 4, 13, 12, 5. Bring page 5 over on page 4, and crease in the middle again. Pages 8 and 9 will now lie upward. Fold 9 over on 8, and the sheet will be folded as it should be, and is now called a signature. In a book there may be twenty or thirty, or more such signatures, which are numbered so that the binder will know in what order to place them. These numbers are placed at the bottom of the first page in each signature.
The Tools
Before beginning the work of binding, a few preparations must be made, and first of all a press is indispensable. This is very easily made. Take two pieces of board, of some close-grained hard-wood, about one and a quarter inches thick and a little larger than any book you are likely to undertake to bind. Eighteen by twenty inches will be found the most useful size. Lay your boards together, and with an inch auger bore through both three holes at each end of the boards about an inch back from the edge. Now make six pegs of hard-wood—white oak is excellent—about six inches long, and fit them tightly into one of your two boards, on one side of it; that is, the pegs should all stand out at one side. (Fig. 4.) When this is done, carefully work down the size of the pegs until they will pass freely through the holes in the other board, so that the two boards may be separated or brought close together as required. The loose or movable board (Fig. 5) should be fitted with a backstay or two, so that it will stand edgewise on a table, and the two boards together will thus form a sort of upright press or vise.
THE PRACTICE OF BOOKBINDING