Part 6

The book is now put into the backing boards in the press and glued and backed as described in dealing with the Library Binding.

Lacing Holes.

Two boards, as wide as the book and one-fourth of an inch longer, are cut from heavy tar or mill board. The boards are placed in proper position closely up against the joint projection of the back, and marks perpendicular to the back edges of the boards, are made, indicating the positions of the cords. At each mark and about one-half of an inch from the edge, a hole almost as large as the cords, is made with an awl from the outside, and the projections caused by the awl are trimmed off. Then about one-half inch from these holes, another row of somewhat smaller holes is made. These holes are not in the lines drawn from the edges of the boards, as is shown in Figs. 26 and 27, and are punched from the inside, leaving the projections caused by the awl.

Then a kind of V or trough is cut from each of the first series of holes to the edge of the board, making a place for the cord to lie, Fig. 27.

Lacing.

Now the cords are frayed out and trimmed thin at the ends, and with paste, the frayed portions are twisted to points and inserted down through the first holes and up through the others, a, Fig. 26. When the cords have been drawn tightly and a small amount of paste put around the holes, the ends are again frayed out and spread about the holes, and with a hammer, the board resting firmly on a block, the protruding parts of the board are pounded down about the cords. After this has been done to all the cords on both sides, the book is left to dry.

The cutting of the edges in boards, is a process requiring the greatest care. A mark is drawn on the white endpaper indicating where the head is to be cut. A tin and a piece of heavy cardboard are placed between the book and the back board. These make a cut-against to protect the cover from the knife. The front board is now drawn down even with the head mark, Fig. 28, and prepared in this way, the book is put into the cutting press.

It is essential to good work that the book be absolutely true in the press, and that the head mark and the top of the board which has been pulled down, be on a level with the top surface of the jaw of the press. The cutting is the same as described under Library Binding, page 27.

The book is now removed, the covers are thrown back, and with a try square against the head, a mark is drawn on the endpaper, showing where the foredge is to be cut. With the covers hanging down and a pressing board and one or two thicknesses of cardboard for a cut-against, the book is put into the press and the foredge cut. The foot is cut exactly as was the head.

Head and Foot Bands.

It is now time to make the head and foot bands. The book is fastened in a lying press as shown in Fig. 29, with the head leaning toward the workman. A needle, into which is tied one end of a long, colored silk thread is run through the middle of the first section down to the head puncture and out through the back, the thread being drawn half its length through. Then a strong piece of cord, considerably longer than the width of the back, is laid on the head of the book just back of the boards. The needle end of the thread is brought directly forward over the cord, while the other end is crossed over the needle end of the thread, under the cord, and forward over the cord the same as the first thread. Then changing hands again, this operation is repeated twice when the needle is run down into the head of the book and out at the back one-half inch or more below the head but as it comes back over the cord, it is crossed by the other thread exactly as at first. About every fourth crossing, the thread should be sewed into the book.

When the cord is covered to the other side of the book, the two threads are knotted firmly beneath the cord. A small bit of paste is put at the end of the silk on each side, and the cord cut off. Then a tough piece of paper reaching from the top cord to the top of the headband is glued on to hold the band in place.

The foot band is made in exactly the same manner.

Then a strip of paper as wide as the back is glued on and carefully fitted about the cords.

Rubbing Sticks—Band Nippers.

The leather back is put on as in the Library Binding, but much greater care and patience are required in rubbing down the leather about the cords and making it adhere strongly to the book at all points. Rubbing sticks, 7, Plate I, come in good place in this operation. Band nippers are often used to force the leather against the cords. The leather is moistened slightly at the head and foot and made to lie down snugly against the head and foot bands. After this, the leather pieces for the corners are cut and marked up, leaving a three-quarter inch margin on the two equal sides of the triangle, Fig. 30. A general rule for the size of corners is that the altitude of the finished corner triangle should be about the same as the extension of the back leather over the side of the book.

Leather Corners.

The corners of the leather pieces are cut out just as the corners of the paper in the previous book. Then the edges are pared thin. The leather corners are covered with paste, one at a time, a corner of the cover board is placed in proper position on the leather and the turn-ins pasted, a and b, Fig. 31. This done, the book is put under light pressure for a time. The leather is now all trimmed to proper size and the cover paper marked and cut for the sides. The one-eighth inch lap is marked on the leather back, and the book laid on the paper as in previous book. Then with a sharp pencil, points are made on the paper showing where it must be cut to allow not more than one-eighth inch lap on the leather of the corners, Fig. 31.

The corners of the paper are cut out, the paper covered with paste, the book placed in proper position and the turn-ins pasted as at c and d. Care must again be exercised that the paper comes squarely against the edges of the boards and fits closely around the edges of the leather. For such processes, the bone folder is almost indispensable.

The next step is the lining of the boards. A rectangular piece of heavy paper is pasted on the inside of each cover and fitted snugly against the edges of the leather and paper turn-ins. After these linings are dry, the end papers are trimmed and pasted down. In this case, great care and patience are necessary to make the endpapers attach themselves to the back edges of the boards. Of course, the outside white leaves are torn off and the colored pastedowns are drawn back upon the boards as in the Library Binding, and with a bone folder, the papers are forced against the back edges of the boards. Then the book is closed and immediately opened. If in closing, the endpaper is pulled loose or wrinkled, it is again put into proper order and the book again closed.

When the end papers hold their positions perfectly, the book is thoroughly protected with paper, tins and boards and put lightly into press.

Then the head is colored with India ink, a coat of beeswax put on, and a burnisher used to give it a polish. It is well to leave the completed book under some pressure for several days.

If, in the process, some paste has gotten on the leather or paper, it may be removed by the use of a damp cloth, carefully rubbed over the soiled places.

Hollow Back.

In case a hollow back is desired for this book, deep punctures are sawed at every cord, and the cords which are smaller than in the flexible binding, are sunken into these punctures, Fig. 32. The sewing in such a binding is very simple, the thread running along the middle of the section and behind the cords, with kettlestitches at the head and foot, the same as in the flexible sewing.

Before the cover goes on, a heavy paper folded as in Fig. 33, making from three to five thicknesses, is glued by the bottom layer to the back.

But especially in elementary work where very little gold tooling and lettering are undertaken, the hollow back is neither necessary nor desirable. At all events, let us avoid the false cords sometimes seen in commercial books.

V. REBINDING.

The foregoing work has assumed that the books were to be bound from the original, unfolded sheets.

In case of rebinding books, the following preliminary steps are necessary before beginning the sewing:—

1. Taking off old cover. This is done simply by pulling loose the endpapers and carefully loosening the super. If the glue or paste refuses to come off, it is covered with a coat of fresh paste, and after a short time may be scraped off.

2. Cutting sections apart. The leaves are counted until the thread is reached which indicates the middle of the section. The thread is clipped and the same number of leaves, disregarding plates, is counted, bringing us to the end of the section. The counting is necessary because of the fact that in many books, the first and last few sections are pasted, or tipped, together, making it difficult to tell where one stops and the other begins.

3. Beating out the joint. In books which have been rounded and backed, the first and last few sections especially have a decided bend near the backs caused by the hammering. This is removed by laying the sections down on a solid block and hammering them along the joints.

4. Mending, cleaning and guarding. Guards are strips of tough paper about one-fourth of an inch wide which are used to paste together the leaves of a folio that have been torn apart, and to fasten plates into the book. In case of the torn folio, the leaves are laid side by side in the proper position and a guard, covered with paste, is placed over the joint where the leaves come together. The leaves are then folded together creasing the guard in the middle. This general rule as to the placing of the guards is given in the form of a bull:—“If it is to be guarded on the outside, put the guard on the inside; but if it is to be guarded on the inside, put the guard on the outside.” That is, if it is the outside folio of the section to be guarded, put the guard on the inside of the folio, so that the ragged edges of the tear may be gathered up by the glue on the back and that it may not interfere with the sewing. But if it is an inside folio to be guarded, put the guard or the outside of the folio. When guarding in a plate, a folio is opened out, the plate placed on the proper leaf, and the guard put on as in the case of a torn folio.

5. Cutting new end papers.

After all the foregoing steps, the book is ready to be pressed, placing the sections upon each other and inserting tins and boards as described in Case Binding.

When it comes to re-sewing the book and putting on new covers, the practice is to use any method or any combination of methods that seems to be demanded by the conditions and size of the book, and the character of usage which it will probably meet. It is not unusual in commercial binderies to sew books especially large, heavy books, on tapes or on sunken cords without regard to the style of cover. This is done especially where the book has large, thick sections that are difficult to hold in place. Thus it is seen how far, under some conditions, we depart from the standard types.

It sometimes happens that the folios are so badly torn at the folds that to guard them would make the back unusually thick. In such cases, the overcasting method is used. The back of the book is cut if it is in very bad condition, and then instead of sewing through punctures over cords or tapes, several of the leaves are taken and placed in the same position as a section, and sewed through, whipping over and over, and going around tapes or cords in the usual manner. It frequently happens however, that a book is in good condition with the exception of the cover, in which case, simply a new cover is put on. This necessitates re-gluing of the back and putting on new super and end papers. Then the question arises how to fasten in the end papers so that they may be strong. One method, especially in the case of heavy books, is to put in a cloth joint. This is a folded strip of cloth about one inch wide, at each end of the book, with one side of the fold pasted to the outside leaf. Then when the cover is put on, the other side of the cloth fold is pasted to the board, Fig. 34. A folio of cover paper is then tipped against the cloth and the outside leaf pasted to the board; or in many cases, a separate sheet is used for the pastedown, leaving both leaves of the end folio free.

In the case of marbled endpapers, the folio is cut of paper to match the book, a piece of super or canvass is put along the fold like a guard, then the single sheet of marbled paper is pasted entirely over the first page of the folio which is then tipped in to the cloth of the joint. Where a book is to be resewed, sometimes single end sheets of heavy cover stock, together with the cloth for the joint, are folded around the backs of the first and last sections and sewed in with them, Fig. 35. Then when the boards are put on, the cloth is drawn back over the edge as before.

Another method of attempting to reinforce and strengthen the first and last parts of a book is to sew through the endpapers that are to remain free as “flyleaves” and the leaves of the first half of the first and last sections. This seems of somewhat doubtful value, although it may be of some service in the case of a thick, heavy book.

A very practical and easy method of rebinding moderately thin books which have torn backs, is to sew them in the manner described for a fourth-grade Language Book, Fig. 40, page 55, and put on a new case binding. In such cases, care must be used to make the joint wide enough to allow the boards to come well in front of the stitches; otherwise, the book would not open without tearing the cover.

Plate III shows a number of library books rebound in this manner by seventh grade boys.

VI. EQUIPMENT.

Equipment for elementary bookbinding, as already indicated in a preceding chapter, can be made almost entirely to fit the purse.

The statement occurs in text books and has gone the rounds on “good authority” that very little can be done in the way of bookbinding without a large and unusually expensive equipment. It is difficult to understand how such a statement could be made by anyone who is familiar with craft binding and its simplified forms as they may be worked out in the lower grades of our schools.

Of course, it is possible to spend any amount for bookbinding equipment, but there are many schools where good elementary work is being done with absolutely no equipment except pocket knives, scissors and such other aids as may be picked up about any school building.

It is entirely possible to adjust the upper grade work so that only a few will be handling the same processes at the same time, thus making a small equipment answer the purposes of a good sized class.

For making the typical books under good conditions with a moderate number of pupils in the eighth grade or high school, the following equipment may be said to be elaborate, and can be had for about $75:—

1 10-inch Card Cutter, 6 Lying Presses, 1 Plow and Press, 2 Letter Presses, 12 Sewing Frames, 2 Paring Knives, 3 Pairs Backing Boards, 2 Back Saws, 6 Try Squares, 3 Hammers, 3 Doz. Pressing Boards and Tins, 6 Awls, 6 Paste Brushes, 12 Bone Folders.

Even this equipment may be very materially reduced. Many of the items may be improvised, made, or furnished by the pupils.

For instance, the sewing frames are of simple construction and offer an excellent problem for the class in woodwork.

The plow and press are not an essential even in high school work. Most excellent work may be done by cutting both paper and boards with a sharp knife guided by a trysquare or straight edge, against a cutting tin. Any ordinary hammer will do for backing purposes. So this brings us back to the repeated proposition that much and good bookbinding can be done in the schools with almost no equipment.

VII. SUGGESTIVE COURSE.

In the previous discussions of the three main types of books, practically every process used in elementary hand-binding has been described.

The following outline is the result of several years of effort on the part of the author, to develop a series of problems involving the bookbinding processes, meeting some of the constructive needs of the various grades of the school, and relating in some vital way to the regular school interests.

It was thought that confusion would be avoided by indicating the methods and processes of a set of specific problems. It is understood that these problems are only typical and that from these, a great variety of books may be worked out in response to special needs. In the practical work of the class, these problems are not dictated step by step and in detail, to the pupils; but as far as possible each pupil plans for himself, size, number of pages, proportions, color combinations, decoration, etc. A very large part of the value derived from such work, comes from the necessity of thinking and planning in advance, and from the privilege and exercise of choice.

Let us assume that we are taking the problem of the fourth grade spelling book, page 53, Fig. 38. The first thing necessary is the spelling paper as a basis for our plans.

Each child is given a sheet of paper, say 3½×8 inches. The class is questioned to bring out the general characteristics of the cover needed, such as the direction of opening, the necessity for a hinge in the top cover, etc.

Then the matter of the squares or the extension of the boards is taken up and the pupils express opinions as to the amount of the extension. After reasons are given for various opinions, the pupils calculate and write on the sheets of paper the sizes the boards are to be cut.

Then comes the question of the distance the hinge is to be from the back. One pupil may answer three inches and another one-half an inch. Reasons are brought out why neither is satisfactory and also why it may vary, say, from three-fourths of an inch to one and one-half inches, and each child writes on his paper the distance he prefers. The same plan is used with reference to the width of the hinge; and since this may vary greatly, even from one-fourth to two inches, guided always by the ideas of good proportion and fulfillment of purposes, the pupils are asked to write down their preferences.

Then is taken up the question of the proportion of cloth to paper on the covers. In the first place, it is apparent that constructive considerations demand that the cloth must reach from the back some distance beyond the hinge toward the foredge, but how far beyond is a question of good proportion. It is always found that children vary but little in their judgments of proportion in this matter. The author has made this proposition to scores of children:—“Let’s have the cloth and the cover paper meet at the middle of the cover,” and in the whole number of children, there has never been one who would agree to any such an arrangement. When the matter of the cloth has been determined, the pupils calculate the sizes the pieces of cloth and paper must be cut, allowing the proper turn-ins. These dimensions are written down with the other decided points. From this information, the pupils make simple drawings. From samples of various colors of cloth, paper, and cords, the pupils select satisfactory combinations. In this, as in all other matters, if pupils make wrong selections or show poor judgment, it is the opportunity of the teacher to suggest and to convince them of the wisdom of some other choice.

The material is next marked out and cut. Of course, this is done by each pupil from the information he has written on his sheet of paper.

The actual pasting of the boards into the cloth and paper requires but few suggestions or directions if the pupils have gone through the work of the previous grades. If they have not, then they are asked to place the board upon the cloth in the proper position, mark around it, and clip out corners as at a, Fig. 36. When the cloth is pasted on, the same process is used with the paper allowing it to lap one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch on the cloth, b. When the covers are completed and pressed, the punctures are made and the cord tied in.

FIRST GRADE.

1. Home Book.

This is made to contain the freehand cuttings of the house and its furnishings, the family, the barn, the chicken house, all the animals, machinery, etc., about the home. It is made up of sheets of manila paper with colored sheets of the same size for covers. These are all tied together with a heavy cord through two holes punched at one end. 3, Plate IV.

2. Nature or Sketch Book.

Made of the same material as the Home Book except that only one colored sheet is needed. But the sheets are all folded in the middle and three or four punctures are made with a darning needle or a punch along the fold. A cord threaded into a large needle is run into the top puncture and out at the bottom puncture; then back into the second puncture from the bottom around the thread and out at the same puncture. This is repeated at each puncture until the top one is reached, where the ends of the cord are tied together, 2, Plate IV. The book may be made by finding the middle of the paper, punching the holes and tying the cord before the folding is done.

3. Portfolio.

This is made of two sheets of paper, one of which is one-half inch narrower and one inch shorter than the other. The small one is placed upon the large one in such a way as to leave a half inch strip around three sides. The two corners of the large sheet are cut out and the edges pasted and folded over upon the small sheet.

SECOND GRADE.

1. Portfolio.

Made of one piece of tough paper by simply cutting rectangles from the lower corners of the sheet, as shown in Fig. 37 A, and folding the rectangles a, b, c on dotted lines. The two smaller rectangles are pasted to the larger one, c.

2. Scrap Book.

Made of single leaves with a two-inch fold at one end. Covered with a folio of Bristol, reinforced at the back with strip of book cloth, and tied through five punctures with heavy cord. Fig. 37. See 6, Plate IV.

3. Nature Book.

Cover same as Scrap Book with the addition of pieces of cover paper pasted on the covers, reaching from the cloth to the foredge. Book made of folios sewed like 2, grade one. Pasted into cover.

4. Spelling Book Cover.