About the Binding

Board edge repair

2012-01-25T08:14:00.000-08:00

Books are loved by many, including by some insects and rodents. This book had damage to the front board edge which was most likely caused by a mouse. The book is part of a two volume set in fine condition, so the edge is its one big problem.

Parts of the board, leather and marbled paper needed to be replaced. I began the repair by lifting the marbled papers on the inner paste down and on the front cover, saving any fragment of the marbled paper. I also lifted a section of the leather on the bottom corner.

The board was split apart along the damaged area so I could add a section of new board. I tapered a piece of thin dense book board along one edge and pasted it into the split opening. This provided a ridged base that additional pieces of thin board and paper could added to in order to reform the damaged area. The photo below shows this new dense board before adding and leveling the area with other layers. After the layers dried, the edge was trimmed to size.

I mended the marbled paper on the front of the cover with a piece of paper similar in weight and with the same smooth finish as the marbled paper. I tried several papers but finally had to hand burnish the final paper to get the smooth shiny finish of the original marbled paper.

I also practiced on several pieces of paper trying to match the color of the marble and found that working on a yellow toned base worked better than working on the white of the paper.

The paper was pared along one edge and pasted in place. The additional fragments of the marbled paper were added and I began the inpainting of the marbled pattern. Using the finest brush I had, I began adding the red swirls connecting the patterns with the fragments and then continued with the blue swirls and gray dots. There was also some light fading of the blue and gray colors so I had to adjust the color as I worked toward the edge. The paper was then trimmed to its final size

I added a small leather patch and then repasted the marbled paper in place. The paste down was undamaged so I only needed to repaste it in place.

Friendship in Death

2011-10-25T10:11:00.000-07:00

Friendship in Death in Twenty Letters from the Dead to the Living, translated from the Moral Essays of the Meffieurs du Port Royal. London, 1729, second edition,187mm x 124mm, 122 pgs.

This book was bound in two layers of paper wrapped around the sewn pages and glued to the spine. The paper covers were separating on the original binding and the sewing had broken in several places. On close inspection, I realized the cover papers were not original to the book because they were machine made. The sewing through the folds of the sections was also not original. There were holes showing that the book had been side sewn first.

The cover papers were falling off so they were easily pulled off. The front and back pages were heavily discolored, most likely from the original cover paper which must have been a dark grey.

Here you can see some of the holes from the earlier sewing.

The sewing was broken in several places and the glue on the spine had cracked.

I disbound the book and examined the pages. There were tears and some breaks at the outer folds of some of the sections. The front and back pages felt weak and soft when compared with the rest of the book.

The first and last pages were washed and lightly sized with methylcellulose. After seeing the improvement to the color and feel of these pages, I washed the remaining pages. After drying, they did not seem to need resizing.

On the left before and the right after washing.

Using a thin Japanese tissue, I guarded the folds of all the sections.

The pages were sewn on double tawed goatskin thongs. Here, I taped the thongs in position for sewing so I would not need to set up my sewing frame.

The endbands were sewn on leather thongs.

After the spine was lined with Japanese tissue, I pasted between the thongs.

For the cover, I did a three pieced laced on paper case. The spine was a piece of black walnut dyed handmade flax paper. I used a paste finish over the natural flax handmade paper for cover pieces. These papers were some that I made at the University of Iowa (PC4 case papers). I made several different patterns when I was decorating the paper.

To make the binding, I started with the spine piece. I trimmed the paper to the height plus the turn edges but left the width the size of the piece of paper. This was a little shorter than the width of the pages and the spine. I punched holes along the spine fold for the thongs and laced the spine on.

I trimmed the cover pieces and folded them to the height of the cover. I also folded the spine edge and made the corresponding holes. I then laced the sides on so a measure could be made for the fore edge and yapp edge folds.

I then removed the sides so the fore edge could be trimmed and the slot and tabs cut for joining the corners.

The final assembly begins with lacing the cover papers on.

The top and bottom edge are folded over. Here you can see the slot that is cut into the folded section on the top and bottom.

The tab then is slipped into the slots securing the corners. This binding can be easily removed if necessary. Leather ties were added at the fore edge.

The book is part of the Bind-O-Rama exhibition "Artistically Reversible: Where Conservation and Art Meet."This exhibition is a demonstration the ideas of the Tomorrow’s Past movement, which promotes work that demonstrates a high regard for the integrity of the original object, the application of current conservation best practices, and an innovative interpretation of book structure and aesthetics.

Threads That Bind

2011-06-17T07:59:00.000-07:00

I purchased this book, Threads That Bind, unbound, in sheets, from Oak Knoll Books. It is a series of interviews with hand bookbinders by Pamela Leutz. Initially, I thought of a design showing a book being sewn on cords but when searching through the various pieces of book leather in my studio, I uncovered three large buffalo skins and decided it was time to use some of them for this book. This book was intended to be my own personal copy so I felt I could take some chances with a new leather.

I had a light green, a light gray and a pale blue skins, but I was not pleased with their look. I had tried to die them before and was unsuccessful. This time I just wiped the surface lightly with a dark brown spirit dye to catch the high points of the texture. I wanted a quick drying dye that would not bleed down into the the open areas. I tried it on all three colors and chose the gray skin for the binding.

Here you can see where I took a piece of Mylar to daub some of the excess dye off before wiping with a lightly dampened paper towel. The skin is sitting on a piece of plexiglass I use when dying leather and paper.

When I finished dyeing the second skin, I knocked over the bottle of dye. Luckily almost all the dye stayed on the Mylar so it was an easy clean up.

I spent a week working with Karen Hanmer in her studio and we decided to follow the binding techniques in Jen Lindsay"s book Fine Bookbinding: A Technical Guide, also from Oak Knoll. There were steps I have used before plus new variations on others, so it was a good exercise to go through.

The book was sewn on pliester linen tapes with a leather hinged endpaper construction. The book was rounded but not backed with the book boards sanded to fit the shape of the pages at the spine.

The book sat under Karen's gold brick weight while the glue on the spine dries out.

The buffalo skin was a little more spongy in texture than the goat skins I was used to. I had the skin split down to .07 mm but it still seemed too thick so I sanded down the board edges to give the book edges a thinner appearance.

Before covering, I looked for onlay colors but still did not have a final design in mind.

I am very fond of Art Deco bindings so I worked on using a design made of lines. The dark bands are dark brown and dark blue onlays.

For the rest of the lines I used copper foil. The warmer look of the copper worked better than gold on this unusual colored skin.

I use a simple jig to aid me when I tool straight lines. I learned this technique from a poster session at the Guild of Book Workers Standards Meeting. It consists of two pieces of book board taped together with packing tape so the smaller piece can fold up. Then you can see where the edge of the board lines up and you can slip the foil under it. In this photo you can see where I have taped off where to start and stop the line when I tool it.

I use a 1 1/4 inch line pallet for most of the lines with smaller lines done with other shorter pallets. Since you place the jig first you can use a ruler to make sure that it is in place. Then I use a box weight to hold it down.

After tooling if you keep the jig in place, you can check the line and repeat the tooling if there are any gaps and breaks or if the line is too short.

The titling was also done in copper using type and a hand pallet.

The finished book was displayed in the Lone Star Chapter of the Build of Book Workers 2011 shows in Dallas and Houston, Texas. It is also included in the 2011 Bind-O-Rama at http://www.philobiblon.com/bindorama10/index.html

Rounded Drop Spine Boxes

2011-04-20T12:20:00.000-07:00

This post shows a variation on a rounded drop spine box that I make. I try to not have a break along the top and bottom of the tray so it has more of the look of a book. To do this on the outer tray, I extend the top and bottom board piece past the tray base and then cut a round shape to match the built up rounded spine piece.

Before I shape the extended ends I have to make the spine piece. I cut a piece of book board the width of the outer tray plus two board thicknesses to compensate for the cover boards. The height is the same as the height of the smaller tray. This rounded spine piece fits inside the extended sides of the larger tray which supports the ends of the spine when the box is closed.

I cut a series of blotter strips that are cut to the same length as the spine board and are cut narrower than the piece before. They are glued up to make a rough rounded shape.

When I am going to do a lot of tooling down the spine I use book board instead of blotters so the spine is more dense.
I sand down the edges of the blotter to create a smoother rounded shape. If there are spots that don't round over well I use wood putty to fill in the voids and sand it down. After I have the shape of the spine piece, I cut the extended ends of the larger tray to match this shape.

I then cover the tray as usual with an off white book cloth.

For the outer case of the box I cut out a piece of Stonehenge paper for the spine lining the height of the cover boards and the width of the rounded spine piece. This is what the leather will be pasted to and if I want the box to have the look of a raised cord binding I add the false bands to the paper.

I used double sided tape to mount the spine piece to the rounded spine section. For this box I cut out pieces of book board to create a raised bands and glued them to the Stonehenge. The false bands were cut wider than the spine width and after being glued in place the ends are trimmed flush to the edge of the rounded shape.

The Stonehenge paper spine piece is taped in place over the rounded spine board with double sided tape so I can remove it from the spine piece after the leather is put on.

When I am ready for pasting on the leather for the cover I wrap the trays in plastic wrap to protect them from the paste and put the outer cover boards in place in relationship to the trays and then it all goes into a lying press.

The leather is pasted on in two stages. First I put the leather over the spine and work it down around the false bands but do not turn over the top and bottom edges yet.

After the paste has dried and the leather is set across the spine I remove everything from the press and peel away the rounded spine board from the Stonehenge spine lining. I repaste the turn ins and set the headcaps, making sure the rounded edge of the larger tray will fit in place next to the headcap. To help in making the headcap, I use a small piece of cord using the ends to wrap the leather around.

When the leather is dry I line the inner hinge of the cover. Here I used a orange book cloth on a different box, normally I try to match the cloth I used on the trays. I tried once to line the trays and this inner hinge with paper but the paper broke along the hinge area soon after I finished it so I always use cloth now.

The marbled papers are added to the cover and then the trays are glued in place as usual.

In this photo you can see how the spine piece is the same length as the smaller tray and the rounded ends of the larger tray set down next to the headcap.

There is a video/DVD of Scott Kellar's methods for making rounded drop spine boxes at the Guild of Book Worker website. He demonstrated at the 1999 meeting in Chicago. I have used his method many times and then started adding the extended rounded tray pieces.
http://www.guildofbookworkers.org/events/se-main.php

For general direction on making drop spine boxes, also known as clamshell boxes go to:
http://www.indiana.edu/~libpres/Manual/treatments/clam/front.html

Perfect Bound?

2011-03-25T10:54:00.000-07:00

Perfect binding is the technique of securing loose single pages of a book into a solid text block with an adhesive rather than by means of sewing. A common example of this is the paperback; almost everyone has seen at least one where the binding has failed and the pages have begun to fall out. Less than perfect, the binding with glue is sometimes needed for a book. To aid in the gluing of the edges of the pages I have made a simple jig.

Measuring the height of the cross pieces of my laying press, I cut two pieces of book board to this height by the opening between the screws. Then two more boards cut to around 5 inches wide by the length between the screws. I hinge the two boards together on one side with book cloth leaving a small gap between them. I made this set of boards to use with pages that are 8 1/2 x 11, the most common size I am asked to bind.

These boards should lay in the press as seen in the photograph. They will help to hold the pages together when you put them in the press and provide a surface when gluing and then finally will hold the pages together after they have been glued.

The text block is squared up between the boards with the fore edge is placed inside the press. Check to see that the spine is out for gluing and the pages are squared up to the spine.

After the pages are secure put down waste sheets under them as you fold them over to one side. This fans out the edges and when you glue you actually are gluing the sides of the pages at the spine edge. Before gluing, I place another waste sheet on top to keep the glue from going too far on the top page. Brush PVA glue across the fanned edges.

Quickly before the glue starts to dry the pages are folded over to the other side and glued again so both side of the pages are glued at the edge. Sometimes you will hear this kind of adhesive binding called a "Double Fan Binding."

After the second side is glued, remove the waste paper and slip wax paper between the pages and the boards of the jig. Bring the pages back upright and clamp the boards around the pages. Let the glue dry over night in the press and then line the spine and prepare a case as usual to finish the binding.

For thicker books, I sometimes give the text block a slight rounding by using a cardboard tube under the press so when I put the pages and board in the press they shift over the curve of the tube. You do not want to round the pages too much because it will interfere with the fanning over of the pages and will not expose as much of the sides of the pages for gluing.

Finishing in Hand Bookbinding

2010-08-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

This binding was done on Finishing in Hand Bookbinding by Herbert and Peter Fahey, a book about the decorative techniques used in fine leather binding. I bound this book a few years ago but did not finish the decorative work on it until this summer. It had been set aside while I was deciding what to do for a design. I would occasionally bring it out and try something new but I was not happy with anything I attempted and back on the shelf it went, unfinished.

When binding the book, I used a Japanese chiryogami paper for the endsheets and it was this print design that finally gave me the idea for the design. The strong hard edges of the pattern and its modern feel needed to be used on the cover as well as inside.

The answer to my problem was eggshells. I used duck eggshells from my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) which kept us supplied with duck eggs for most of 2010. I rinsed the shells and then placed them in a diluted solution of bleach and water to remove the inside membrane on the shells. This membrane must be removed or it can cause the shell to fall off the book later.

I glued a piece of black Japanese tissue to a thin piece of Plexiglas to give me a flat surface for gluing on the egg shell pieces and for sanding, which comes afterward. I brushed out PVA on the Japanese tissue and then crushed sections of the shell down flat on the tissue. I went back in with small pieces of shell to fill in any voids. To flatten the curves of the shells, I rolled a dowel across the top of the glued shells to press them into the glue. This also caused smaller cracks in the pieces of shell which showed up after the gesso was sanded.

Once all the pieces were in place and allowed to dry, I brushed over them twice with a black gesso that acts as a kind of grout around the shells.

With 220 grit sandpaper, I sanded the gesso back, exposing the shells. You can sand some areas less, leaving more of the black for a different effect. I also tried gluing some pieces of the shell with the curve up. Then after sanding you have a small pool of black surrounded by the shell. After sanding, I washed off the surface to remove all the dust and then let it dry. Once they dried, I sprayed the shells with a lacquer to seal the surface and give it a glossy finish. I used two coats to give a good finish to it.

On some other pieces, I tried using dyes and acrylic paint to stain the shells before lacquering but decided for this project to keep the shells white.

To aid with planning of the design, I photocopied the shells so I could cut up the copy first until I knew what I wanted for the book.

I then tried different arrangements on the book before drawing out my final design.

I made a title piece that I inlaid into the front, then I also inlaid the eggshell panels. After trimming out the areas, I painted along the cut edges where the lighter areas of the leather showed.

The black leather panels and the lines in the design are onlays. Here I am gluing the leather into the blind tooled lines with PVA.

For the larger onlays I scraped back the area with a scalpel to give the glue a more absorbent area to hold to. In this photo you can see that before covering the book in the terracotta leather I added strips of thin board to raise up the areas along the spine and fore edge of the cover, creating a recessed section on the cover.

When a Spine Goes Bad

2010-05-11T07:55:00.000-07:00

Spine can become misshapen from misuse or from being stored badly. Over time, the glue hardens and the distortion become set which adds stress to the joints of the cover, causing them to fail.

The front cover of this Bible was detached so I removed the text block from the back cover and placed it between book boards in my lying press. When putting the it in the press I tried to reshape the spine bit only had a little improvement.

I peeled away as much of the spine linings as I could get to come off easily. I coated the spine with a thick mixture of methyl cellulose to soften the lining paper and old glue. After 10 minutes, I used my bone folder to scrap away more of the lining and then repeated the operation again.

The old glue layer had softened enough so I could take the book out of the press and try to reshape the spine back to a more rounded shape. Then I applied another round of methyl cellulose and continued to remove the last of the lining and glue layers on the spine.

When the spine was finally clean I removed the book from the press and again reshaped the spine. I then returned it to the press to finish drying.

When handling large books like this, I tilt my laying press on its side in a stand I built for it. This allows me to place the book in on its side and rest it on the cheek of the press instead of trying to lower it from above and hold on to it while turning the screws. After the press is tightened I lift and turn the laying press over with the spine upright.

The press sit on the shelf at both ends. This allows the text block to hang below while I am working and I can store the stand and press separately.

To keep the shape of the rounded spine, I used three layers of paper and a layer of linen cloth on the spine. The paper of this Bible was very thin and had a good drape so even with a more heavily line spine it still opened well and the extra lining will help to hold the shape of the spine.

I then worked on the cover which was a heavy paper case embossed to look like leather. I reattached the front cover and reinforced the back hinge.

Paring Knives and a Spokeshave

2010-03-01T10:04:00.000-08:00

An array of tools are needed to do the work of fine binding. To start with, I'll talk about paring knives. I have several knives and use them all regularly but I do have a favorite one. It is an English style paring knife made by my friend Jack Shapiro.

Jack made me this knife so I could teach him about leather binding. I had done two small quarter leather books while in graduate school so my knowledge about working with leather was limited at the time but I was all the Jack had. So when I said I did not have a paring knife I thought the tutorial would end there. A few days later he placed this knife down at my desk and asked when we could start. He also showed me how to sharpen and keep a good edge on it.

I taught him what little I knew back then and he pushed me to do more and helped focus me on the path for my work as a binder. Jack died several years ago but each time I use this knife think of him.

This is an English style knife with an angled edge. I use it for general edge paring. I also use French style paring knives with rounded blades. These work best for thinning out areas around head caps and smoothing areas when ridges can be felt along the pared edges of the leather.

Why two French and two English paring knives? At first I bought the second ones to see if there were other knives to recommend to students but as I used them, I discovered that there are differences with how they cut. I find there are times when one is better for a particular skin or for an area that I am having problems paring. Besides, you can never have too many knives.

To protect the edges of the knives I have made caps or cases for them. The caps are made from thin cardboard cut to fit around the blade and then covered in thin leather. The cases are made from layers of book board and are covered in book cloth and marbled paper. I make recessed areas with the book board so the knife sits down into the case and does not bang around, thus damaging the blade.

I also wrap my knives with leather to make them more comfortable to hold. It is a good way to personalize my tools.

This is my traveling set of knives. It hold two knives and a leather strop and is housed in a Japanese wrap around cover so it is easy to carry.

The strop has a piece of 600 grit wet dry sandpaper on one side and a piece of leather on the other side. There is a 5 mil. sheet of Mylar placed in between to keep the sand paper grit away from the leather and the polishing cream.

To keep a good edge on my knives, I have a leather strop and smaller strops covered with 600 and 1000 grit wet dry sandpaper in my studio. My leather strop is mounted to a piece of wood and has a working area of 10 x 2 3/4 inches. I rub Chromglanz Polishing Cream into the leather.

The sandpaper strops are mounted on pieces of book board. These are used when the edge of the knife has gotten too dull to be just stropped on the leather. The sandpaper helps to reshape and sharpen the edge and then the blade is stropped on the leather to finish polishing the edge.

Another important element in paring is the surface you work on. I have a small litho stone I use but I have also used marbled slabs. You need a very smooth surface to work on. Glass is not a good surface because it is harder than the steel the blade is made with and will dull the edge quickly.

A spokeshave used for woodworking is another tool that can be used in paring leather. The tool and the blade must first be modified for leather work. The angle of the sole plate needs to be lowered and the opening needs to be wider so the parings can be cleared from the blade. The blade needs a longer bevel and the corner has to be slightly rounded so they will not gouge into the leather. When it is used for leather, the blade is mounted backwards into the spokeshave. There is a good article written on how to modify a spokeshave in the Skin Deep newsletter from J Hewit and Sons Ltd.

http://www.hewit.com/skin_deep/?volume=16&article=2#article

There is also an article on sharpening the blade here:

http://www.hewit.com/skin_deep/?volume=24&article=2#article

My spokeshave is from Sears and was bought back in the mid eighties. My binding class bought several others and someone agreed to reshape the soles for the group. When I first used it, things went badly. I had seen someone using it only once and it looked so easy. I put it away for years before I tried again. Later I realized that the sole just had to be reground to the new angle and the opening enlarged, but I also needed to finish smoothing and polishing the sole.

I tried many more times unsuccessfully to pare leather with it. I needed some help and started reading articles about how to use it and asked anyone I could how they did it. Slowly, I got the angle of the stroke and the depth of the blade right. It's fair to say that learning to use these tools takes lots of trail and error.

1897 Bibeln

2009-11-13T07:37:00.000-08:00

This post shows some of the repair work I do on bindings. Anyone doing book repair will be asked to work on bibles. This bible was printed in Stockholm in 1897. It is about 6 inches tall and is covered in a cloth textured to look like leather. When I received it both boards were separated from the book with the back board hanging by the endsheets that were pulling off the board.

The front endsheet had pulled away from the hinge area and had broken in half. Someone had tried to tape it together, which left a dark stain along the break.

The text block was sewn on tapes but the last two sections had broken away.

More tape had been used to try to hold the spine piece in place. The tape had fallen off long ago leaving the adhesive residue along the spine and both boards.

I began by separating the pieces of the book and surface cleaning everything. The plastic layer of the tape on the front endpaper popped off easily but the adhesive was soaked into the paper, staining it.

I gently pulled of the back board along the cloth inner hinge and then I began working on the spine. I removed the lining of blue paper using methyl cellulose.

The sections were in good shape but the last section of the book needed to be guarded with Japanese tissue. The sewing was also in good shape except where two sections of the book had broken way. I reinforced the sewing by beginning the new thread in the section before the break and then continued sewing on the loose sections.

I began the lining of the spine by pasting on Japanese tissue and then added a muslin layer that hung over the sides to reinforce the hinges later and then finished with a lining of paper. There was no evidence that the book had any end bands so I did not add any.

To clean up the tape residue on the cover I used naptha and with many cotton swaps. With the tape on the endpaper the naptha didn't help. So I went over it with different erasers and was able to lighten it.

To reattach the board to the text block I lifted up the cloth along the spine and also lifted the endpaper along the spine edge. I then took the muslin layer I had added to the spine linings and pasted it under the endsheets. I then pasted on the lifted areas of the endpapers leaving small areas where the new spine cloth would wrap around the board and go under the endpapers.

The original spine piece had a paper lining which I removed with methyl cellulose.

I made a new cloth spine piece to wrap from the boards and across the spine. This was glued in place under the original cloth.

The new cloth in place under the old cloth of the cover.

This shows the board edge where the cloth wraps around the board and under the endpapers. The lighter layer behind is the original cloth with the new cloth in front.

Here one side is pasted under the endpaper.

After the new spine was in place the old spine was glued over it.

The Restoration of Leather Bindings

2009-06-15T06:58:00.001-07:00

With this binding, I only have photographs of the gold finishing. The book was started several years ago and I finally finished it in May of this year. It was sewn on four tapes with a hollow back spine, silk endbands, leather hinges and covered in a Hewit tan goatskin.

The book was Bernard Middleton’s The Restoration of Leather Bindings, originally purchased in sheets. This book had many drawings throughout and I used two of these drawings for the cover design.

I enlarged the drawings from the book and then redrew them so the curves would match the tools I have. I own a half set of designer gouges (even nos.), a set of blending gouges and a set of line pallets all 1.5 pt thickness from P&S Engraving.

To do this, I used an ink stamping pad and went over the drawing with the different tools, noting which ones went where on the drawing. To help determine which gouges will work, I have a sheet where I have used the gouges to make larger arcs on tracing paper so I can lay it over the drawing to find the right tool for a given curve. The image on the front cover took eight different tools while the back cover took sixteen.

With both drawings there were small lines about a 2 mm and 4mm long and my shortest line tool was 5 mm so I made two new line tools using brass rod set into a dowel handle. I also made a small curve about 2.5 mm wide.

I have written about making tools in an article for The Bonefolder Journal, volume 5, number 2, Spring 2009 which can be downloaded at-

http://www.philobiblon.com/bonefolder/vol5no2contents.htm

I worked on one side of the cover at a time and made my final two drawings on a thin Japanese paper. I attached the drawings on the book by wrapping the paper around the book and taping on a second strip that wraps up over the book. I used dividers to check that the drawing was placed squarely on the book.

The first tooling on the leather was done with a warm tool through the paper pattern. After I went over the entire drawing I lifted up part of the drawing and checked to see if anything was missed. I kept the drawing taped in place in case I needed to go over any missed areas. When all was checked, I removed the paper drawing.

The second tooling of the image was done with warm tools with the leather dry to deepen the impressions in the leather. That way I could straighten out lines and make corrections if needed. For the third tooling of the image I dampened an area with a wet sponge and allowed the water to soak in for a moment and then tooled the impression with a warm tool. This wet tooling with warm tools hardens and deepens the impression.

After the wet tooling was done and the book dried, I painted the glaire into the impressions with a fine brush. I used a #00 liner brush and B.S. Glaire, a shellac-based glaire, and brushed two coats into the impressions. Then I waited an hour for the glaire to dry between coats.

To begin working with the gold leaf I laid out two leaves of gold on top of one another on the gold cushion and cut them to size. Using sweet almond oil I rubbed over an area of the cover I want to tool. Oil helps in handling and holding the gold in place while you tool it.

I used a piece of cotton wool and rubbed it against my face to pick up a small amount of natural oil. Then I rolled the cotton over the gold leaf to pick up the gold off the cushion. The oil on the cotton pad is very slight but it does pick up the gold and then when it is laid on the book where the sweet almond oil has been rubbed on the leather, the gold will stay in place.

Pressing the cotton on the gold a second time with a quick down and up motion pushes the gold into the tool impressions. This helps me see where to place the tool for the next tooling.

I went over the gold covered areas with warm tools using the heat of the tool to adhere the gold to the leather with the glaire in the tooled lines. I have a gold rubber that I rub over the loose gold leaf to pick up the extra gold. I then grease up the next area and lay more gold and continue tooling. After I have gone over the image I repeat the whole process two or three times building up the layers of gold in the tooled lines.

Faults and breaks in the gold may require some small areas to have glaire painted in again and then lay down the gold and retool.

After tooling, the edges of the lines are cleaned up with a sharpened wooden stick, in this case an orange stick used for manicures. The tooling of the gold and cleaning up of the impression takes several hours for each side.

For the titling of this book, I tried several different sizes of type and arrangements using the ink stamping pad and a lettering pallet.

As with the cover drawings I made a pattern on Japanese paper that I used for the first tooling.

I did the title in sections that would fit into my 4 inch pallet.

The first tooling through the paper pattern.

The third tooling with damp leather and warm type

Placing the gold for the first layer of gold leaf.

This book is to be my working copy for restoration work on bindings which is why it often got set aside and took years for it to be completed. I was looking forward to having it on my bookshelf, so of course the first thing I did was send it to England for a binding exhibition. It will be on display at the Society of Bookbinders' 17th Biennial Education & Training Conference at the University of Warwick.

The Dreamtime

2009-05-01T17:52:00.000-07:00

This binding was done on the book "The Dreamtime" by Charles P. Mountford, printed in 1968. The book is about Australian aboriginal myths and includes drawings and paintings by Ainslie Roberts.

I was quietly taken by the painting and the colors the artist used and built my design for the binding based on an illustration for the origin of fire story. I changed the shape and placement of the rocks and made a drawing of the design to size.

The book was bound in a green cloth case binding which I removed then disbound the pages.

The pages had 12 holes punched for the original machine sewing; I used five of the holes for three recessed cords and the kettle stitches for sewing the book. I used two pieces of 18/8 thread for the recessed cords.

After sewing I added several sheets of plain bond paper folded into two sections that were equal to the thickness of a leather hinge. A section was tipped in with PVA along the spine of the book in the front and back of the sewn textblock. They will be removed later when the leather hinges are pasted in. I glued up the spine with PVA and rounded and backed the book. The page edges were then sanded smooth.

Headbands were sewn with two colors of silk thread on a flax cord and the spine was lined with two layers of bond paper that I sanded between layers to give a smooth surface to the spine.

The boards for the binding were made of .080 Davey board lined with a bond paper to help stabilize them and were shaped by sanding the edge along the top, bottom and foreedge and were laced onto the book. I added a one on two off hollow and the final lining was a piece of Stonehenge paper with the edges beveled and sanded before being glued down to the hollow.

For the design I need to create a darkening sky so I started with a yellow goatskin from Harmatan and cut it to a rough size. Using the aniline dyes from Hewitt mixed with water I begin brushing the dye on the damped leather. I kept the areas broad without trying to worry about details at first. When the leather was dry the color was not dark enough so I repeated the process. Some areas of the skin did not take the dye as well as others so when the skin was almost dry I stippled dye over to darken these areas.

The design centered on fire leaping across the sky and I decided feathered onlays would give the edge quality I wanted for the flames. A feathered onlay is pared for the face of the leather scraping off a very thin layer with the edges broken up by cutting through the grain of the leather.

Previously when I had tried feathered onlays I used my paring knife to pare off the pieces. I had also seen a photo in Philip Smith’s books showing him using a spokeshave. I tried both and got random shapes but for this design I needed to control the shapes more.

I had also tried using my Scharf-Fix to feather onlays and I thought if I could raise the leather in the shape I needed, the blade would shear it off the leather. I took a sheet of Mylar and traced the shapes with a marking pen from my drawing. Using blue painters tape, I placed two layers of tape on the backside of the Mylar. I then cut out the shape with a pair of scissors.

I cut the yellow leather into one inch strips, the width of the cutting area on the Scharf-Fix and thinned them down to about .5 mm thickness (about half of the thickness of the leather). I peeled the tape away from the Mylar and put it on the back of the leather. Then with the flesh side up I ran it through the Scharf-Fix set at a height equal to the thickness of the leather. When it hit the tape the leather was pushed up into the blade.

I used a photocopy of the drawing and cut out the shapes of the flames to guide where to glue down the onlays. Using PVA and paste I glued the feathered onlay on the cover leather and put them under a weight to dry.

For the rock onlays I used the more traditional technique for onlays. I thinly pared light tan leather and using another photocopy of the drawing cut the shapes out of the leather. I then used the dyes to tone and shape the rocks. After they were dry, I edge pared the pieces and glued them on to the cover leather.

At this time I dyed areas on the cover to darken and to add shadows to some of the fire shapes so the image appeared more 3-dimensional.

After everything had dried I took the leather and using my spokeshave to back pare the leather so the onlays would recess into to the thickness of the leather and be level with the rest of the skin.

I went over the binding boards, smoothing down the areas around where the cords laced into them, notched the board corners at the head and tail and slit the tube for the leather turn ins. I then capped up the book and trimmed the leather to its final size and pared the edges.

I used paste to adhere the leather to the binding being careful not to over wet the front of the leather. After the leather was on and had dried I allowed the binding to sit out for a day to see if the boards pulled. I then added a piece of Iowa B9 flax paper in the inside of both board to balance the pull of the leather.

I dyed two strips of leather for the hinges and trimmed and pared them to size. I removed the false sections I had tipped in the front and back section after sewing and then pasted in the hinges. After the hinges had dried I trimmed them out. I had over pared the leather around the top headcap and on the back board had a gap at the turn in. I dampened the leather and lifted up the pieces and pared a patch to fit, then pasted everything back down.

When beginning the dark tooling I had a copy of the drawing near by and lightly marked the dry leather first with a small bone folder as a guide before tooling. This leaves a light impression on the soft leather and if I am not happy with the line it could be removed by dampening the leather and then letting it dry.

The tooling on the image was done free hand with my brass stylus, first the tool was heated and used on the dry leather and then the impressions were tooled again with the tool heated after wetting the lines with a small brush with water. Heat and moisture will darken the line and make it permanent.

S. A. Neff designed the brass stylus I used. There is another type--often called an Ascona tool--first used by Hugo Peller. He designed the tool to make a wide tooled line into which he could place a fine onlay of white leather. There is also a earlier description in 1892, Sarah Prideaux using a dash tool from a set of hand letters that she shaped into a stylus tool and used in a free hand manner.

I have an ascona style tool but prefer the Neff design. It can be made from a brass rod set into a wooden dowel handle. After shaping with files the edge can be smoothed with fine sandpaper and given a final polish on a leather strop and polishing compound.

S.A. Neff made a presentation of this tool and how he uses it at the GBW Standards Meeting in 2001. There is an article by Neff published in the GBW Journal in Vol. XXXIX No. 1 and also video available from Guild of Book Workers.

I took a workshop from Neff several years ago and now use this tool regularly.

I am holding the Neff stylus and below is an Ascona tool.

This shows the shape of the Neff stylus tip from two angles.

With the tooling done I used Hewit’s Leather dressing to seal the dyed leather.

The title was done with 14 point Garamond type using a hand pallet and done in gold leaf. I started with a paper pattern and then blinded in the title. Then I used B.S. glair and laid on the gold and tooled it in.

The endpapers were made from some paste paper I had made last year,

This book was juried into the Marking Time Exhibition sponsored by the Guild of Book Workers and will travel to several different locations over the next two years. The first location is at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and the exhibition opens May 15 and runs until August 15. More information about the exhibit can be found at

http://www.guildofbookworkers.org/events/exhibits.php

WATER

2009-03-23T13:05:00.000-07:00

When I see a design binding I carefully look at the design and details of the piece and often find myself stopping and thinking how did they do that? I will look over an area where the last time I worked on a book I struggled a bit and wonder if they had similar problems. So I am posting the details of how I did a particular binding. Successes and failures and the way mistakes were handled.

Water is a book commissioned by Designer Bookbinders and printed by Incline Press for an international bookbinding competition set for June of 2009. A group of the books where sold unbound or “in sheets” to binders through out the world at a cost of 100 GBP (approx. $200). Then binders had about 10 months to complete the bindings and send them back to England for judging.

The text is made of short poems and prose with the theme of water giving a wide range for designing the binding. I began by looking for materials and ideas for the design. I first worked on a drawing of a shore line of a lake with a circular ripple going across the water. I had just purchased some hand dyed fabric from Ghana that had blues and dark oranges with a pattern that I felt would suggest water movement. I thought this could be used as a cloth doublure. I had blue and terra cotta goatskins from Harmatan that worked with the cloth.

I worked on the drawing for some time but was not happy so I kept redrawing and began the sewing and binding of the pages. It was sewn on flattened cords that were laced onto the covers. The covers were made of .080 Davey board lined with a bond paper to help stabilize them. I wanted leather hinges so I added several sheets of plain bond paper folded in a section that was equal to the thickness of the leather hinge. A section was tipped in with PVA along the spine of the book in the front and back of the sewn textblock. They will be removed later when the hinges are pasted in.

The top edge of the pages were trimmed slightly, scraped and sanded smooth for decorating with the other edges left with their uneven deckle and torn edges. For the edge decoration I cut out several sizes of circles of blue low tack painters tape. I used a Japanese hole drill for this. I placed a few circle on the edge and then splattered acrylic paint along the edge. Placed more circles and splattered again. I used yellow, burnt orange and two blues to build up the color. As I began removing the circles not all stood out enough so I traced around the taped circles with a prisma colored pencil before removing them. The design was to suggest bubbles in water.

The headband was sewn with blue and light brown silk threads on a single core.

Water-drops, drips, ripples, splashes and waves. I started looking for new ideas. My lake image never came to be. I keep coming back to waves. I drew out a design that I liked and then redrew it many times to fit the book. As the binding continued I made a plaquette to begin working out the design. A plaquette is a practice board covered in the same leather and other materials you are using on your binding.

I had in mind a fabric doublure within a recessed frame on the inside boards. I did this frame with heavy card stock glued around the edge of the back of the plaquette. I pared an oversized turn in to cover the raised frame.

With the plaquette I first tried tooling the drawing. I used Sid Neff’s technique of cutting a pattern out of 3 ply Bristol board and then tracing along the edge with a brass stylus.

Because the stylus is drawn along the pattern piece tooling with leaf cannot be done. This movement of drawing across the leaf would tear it. Foils can be used with this technique because of the Mylar layer protects the foil when transferring it with the heated tool. I used a silver foil on the plaquette. I was happy with the basic design but not with the look of the foil work. I then tried airbrushing white highlights on the waves but still I was not happy. Back to the drawing board.

I made another plaquette where I tried raising the design by applying 1 ply mat board pieces. Then I covered the piece in leather (.06 mm split skin) and used dense foam to press the leather into the relief design. I pressed the damp pasted out leather onto the plaquette in a nipping press for 10 minutes then removed the piece and worked over areas with a Teflon folder to sharpen the edges in areas and then did the turn ins.

The boards for the binding were shaped by sanding the edge along the top, bottom and foreedge and laced onto the book. The spine was lined and a one on two off hollow was added. The final lining was a piece of Stonehenge paper with the edges beveled and sanded before being glued down to the hollow.

The drawing was redone to work better with cut shape and the pieces were cut out and applied to the cover. The crests of the waves are the highest point and were built up with additional pieces of mat board under the main shape. I tore the edges of these built up pieces to taper the edge then sand the edge to have a gentle rise to the piece.

Where the raised pieces crossed the spine I tapered them to end at the joint so the thickness would not prevent the book from fully opening.

I went over the covers smoothing down the areas around where the cords laced into the boards, notched the board corners at the head and tail and slit the tube for the leather turn ins. I then capped up the book and began preparing the leather.

The leather was cut to size with the turn ins oversized (1 3/4 inch) so the leather would cover the frame area on the inside of the boards. The turn ins were pared thinner using an Scharfix with the paring done flat without a bevel so the areas covering the frame would be even.

This photo shows the set up in the press. The book is supported from below with a pressboard held in place by a weight on the shelf under my press. I use compressed foam along with pressboards to give more even pressure across the uneven surface. This will be the set up when I press the leather over the design

To cover the book I used the German technique of attaching the leather in sections. This is described in Bookbinding & Conservation by Hand, by Laura S. Young I first damped the whole skin with a sponge and pasted out the spine area letting the paste absorb in and then brushed the spine area of the book with paste. I had marked out the position of the book on the flesh side of the leather before pasting so I could center the book when covering. After I had the leather in place and rubbed down along the spine I placed the book in a finishing press with the sides of the unattached leather draped over the press. I then carefully worked the damp leather over the raised areas across the spine. I then let it dry for a few hours.

I pasted up one side of the leather at a time and used a foam pad with pressboards in my nipping press to attach the leather to the cover. After pressing I worked over the edges of the raised areas with a Teflon folder.

I finished the second side and then opened the book to set the joints. The back cover opened well but when I opened the front cover the leather puckered and popped away from the front joint, I had not pulled the leather tight enough across the joint when covering.

I quickly damped the front of the leather across the board and along the joint and carefully pulled the leather off the front board. I flatted out the leather and repasted and waited for it so soften up a little. I scraped off the paste and repasted with a thin fresh layer and recovered the board. I had to keep the joint tight but not stretch out the leather. I pressed again and worked over the design and opened the cover to set the joint and it looked much better.

I did not turn the leather over the edges of the book at this time but let the book dry over night. I pressed the book between the foam under some pressure for the first few hours to make sure the leather would not shrink and pull away from the raised areas. Then layered the cover with soft felt and pressed with a lighter weight over night. Through all this process of covering I used heavy Mylar sheets between the cover and the text block so the moisture would not enter into the pages and cause cockling of the paper.

After the book was dry I checked to see how the leather molded around the raised area and double check how the board opened and if there where areas where the leather detached from the book. The alignment of the leather on the front cover was a little off from pulling it back off and re covering but over all things were good.

I then dampened the edges of the leather with water. After allowing a few minutes for the water to soak in I pasted up the edges and finished the edges and endcaps. I allowed to book to sit out for several days to see if there was any pull on the covers. There was a slight pull on the boards but I decided to do the leather hinge first before correcting it in case things changed.

The extra sections added to allow space for the leather hinges were removed and the hinge area was cleaned out of any left over glue or leftover paper. The leather was cut and pared to size allowing extra with to cover the inside edge of the frame. I removed the false sections and cleaned the hinge area of any left over glue and paper. The leather hinges were cut and pared to size allowing extra width to cover the inside edge of the frame

After several more days of drying the slight warping of the boards was the next issue to fix.

I trimmed out the leather and cut a piece of flax paper (University of Iowa B9) I knew would have a good counter pull to the leather on the boards. The paper was cut about a 1/4 inch smaller than the opening. I sprayed the paper lightly with water to allow it to expand with the moisture and then glued it up with PVA. I stretched the paper within the opening and then put Mylar sheets inside the covers and pressed the book overnight. The following day I removed the book and set it out with the boards open to continue drying and to see if they would stay flat.

As I looked at the overall look of the design of the cover I felt the waves needed to stand out more. I took the plaquette and tried to sand away the top edges of the leather exposing the light color below to highlight areas. I did not like the look so I darkened the areas behind the wave, which I liked more.

Using a paper copy trimmed slightly smaller and blue low tack painter’s tape I mocked out the waves. I then air brushed the background just above the waves using acrylic paint.

For the title I tried several different type styles and sizes. When I found the one I liked I foiled stamped it on to a piece of Mylar that I used to locate where to hand tool the title.

I then made a paper pattern of the lettering and placed it on the book. I first tooled through the pattern and then removed the pattern and retooled the impression. I was a little shaky and left a double impression on one of the ends. I dampened the area to see it the impression would soften out. It lessened but I had to dampen and carefully work over the area again. I then retooled with entire impression with a warm tool while the leather was damp.

After glaring the impression and placing the aluminum leaf I heated up my lettering pallet. When I picked up the pallets I accidentally touched the printers type to the hot stove and melted the edge of the letters. I noticed the type when I checked it to see if it was right side up. At this pint I cursed many times and had to clean up and put things away. I was too upset to finish.

Feeling more calm the next day I reset the type and finished the title. After this I decided to buy some brass type to replace the printers type I was using. Next time there should be fewer problems doing a short title on a book.

I sanded smooth the inside frame for the doublure. I tried using the cloth on the first plaquette I made but again was not happy with the result. The frame area was not deep enough and since the book did not have any of the terra cotta leather the cloth no longer went with the rest of the design.

I went through all my decorative papers, but nothing looked right. I went to my favorite art store Wet Paint and found a Japanese chiyogami paper. I finished pasting in the doublure and flyleaves and let the book dry for a few days under a lightweight.