Board edge repair

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

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.

When a Spine Goes Bad

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.

1897 Bibeln

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.