Fig. 72—Treatment of tear-off.
A paper having a design must, of course, be laid in the same direction as the book. Where paste-down and fly leaf are to be pasted on separately, it must be so arranged that, after the pasting, one leaf forms the counterpart of the other, that is to say, the design must run through and be broken only by the joint. To effect this it is necessary that the paste-down should be first pasted on; when pasting on the fly leaf the work can be made right.
Silk paste-down and fly leaves are frequently used for extra work, the silk here being stretched over a piece of stout paper and pasted narrowly at the edges.
CHAPTER IX.
Hand Finishing.
When the books have been bound they are generally ornamented in gold or in some other way. Although the more elaborate finishing in gold is not done in the ordinary bindery, but is confined to the art binderies, sufficient instruction will be given here for the simpler finishing on back and side.
Gold finishing is only learned at the cost of much patience and long, painstaking practice. Although the technical schools teach finishing in a comparatively short time—usually in a few months—only the ground-work can thus be acquired, for it takes years of practice to teach all the technicalities and to make an expert finisher, equal to any calls made upon him.
It may also be mentioned here that in most technical schools the work is executed with the very best and most suitable tools and, furthermore, the whole interior arrangement of the workshop is as favourable to the work as can be conceived, and thus all conditions for good work prevail. When young workers come from such an institution to work under strange conditions, where they have to struggle along with unfamiliar and perhaps unsuitable and antiquated tools, bad light, and other drawbacks, it is not to be wondered at if they—at the outset, at least—do not answer all expectations. Similar inconveniences have less effect upon old and experienced workers, as they have the steadiness and assurance which come to them as the result of long years of work, and they, therefore, never become nervous and fidgety. A cool head and a steady hand are the first essentials in a finisher, and after these the feeling for neatness and exactness.