Practical Bookbinding

by Paul Adam

Plainer bindings, especially school books and publishers' cheap cases, are often pasted down with only the outer leaf or white end paper and without a cloth joint, whilst here the coloured end paper has still to be pasted down; in the former case proceed as follows:—

The back—without packing—is simply glued over, the packing rounded. The book is properly placed in the cover, and the outside fly leaf—afterwards an end paper—and bands are pasted, the latter at the same time being smoothed out with a knife or folder; the boards are then closed, pressing them over very sharply. The book is turned and the other side done in the same way, and at once pressed.

Where a cloth joint has to be pasted on, a paste-down must be pasted on to the board.

The practice of doing the coloured end papers at the same time as the book is not so good as subsequent pasting down, as they are then less likely to be injured during trimming and colouring the edges, &c.

The paste-down is first cut to size a little less than the book itself and fastened in with thin glue so that the paper is close to the joint but not so close as to cause it to swell. The counterpart of the fly leaf is pasted on to it, both leaves are cut with a knife close along the joint, for back and front, about 1/2 cm. wide, are pushed up, thinly pasted, and pasted into the book up to the pressed joint. The leaves so hinged in are now raised, the under leaf thinly coated with thin glue, the leaf closed and rubbed down under paper with a folder. Immediate pressing is to be avoided, as the thin glue is very easily squeezed out. After a while the pressing is done, of course, when zinc plates—if necessary, polished boards—should be inserted between the end papers, and not too great pressure applied.

If the boards have been fastened on with paste and without a back, zinc plates are also used, but between the first and last sheets of the book, so as to press these very smooth and to prevent the plates from sticking to the damp end papers.

Half or whole cloth, half leather, or, generally speaking, all bindings which are not pasted down open, are laid upon a board, pasting thinly with thin paste first one side, then turning the book and pasting the other, and then pressing. In doing quantities, ten may be done before pressing.

Cheap work is often pressed by laying the volumes crosswise upon each other and pressing in batches between boards. Books with a deep joint where the bands are either laid on the board or laced in are always pasted down open. Where cloth or leather jointed, this is done in a similar way to boarding in covers, except that the bands need not be considered here, as they have already been seen to. Working the leather well in the joint and firmly pressing back the board after turning in the head lighten this work and improve the appearance of the joint. Leather joints are always pasted down open with paste, but must, of course, be left lying longer.

The so-called double end papers, that is, without cloth or leather joint, are very effective. Only the best and strongest paper can be used for these. The double sheet, folded in the middle, is narrowly pasted at the back and fixed in the joint of the book—not in the fold of the joint but in the joint made by pressing. This prevents the bend coming on the place where the paper has already become weakened by sharp creasing, but near it. The half for the fly leaf is at once pasted down; that to be pasted on the board must first be cut to size. The end paper is cut off at head and tail of the book, the book opened, the end paper laid over the board, and with the dividers is marked out on the paste-down parallel with the edges, somewhat less than the book. At the fold marked by the edge of the board at the joint, nick in with the scissors up to the mark made, slip under this a zinc plate, and on this cut the end paper by the mark up to the nicks. It is understood that the end papers should not be cut off right round the book, otherwise they would become too scant at the fore-edge.

A piece of waste paper is now laid under the paste down, thinly coated with glue, the leaf drawn tightly over the board and rubbed down; at the same time a piece of paper is laid over the joint as above. When pasting in the cover, the book is placed square and the joint strongly and briskly rubbed down with finger and thumb of both hands.