spine's end

Most books get to rest on their ends.  Not like the good old days when the little (and big) monks and nuns knew that lay a book on its side and stacking them up that way was what was best for them.  In the 'modern' era when books were printed and made by machine (you'll note I did not say manufactured because as we found in an earlier post it means made by hand), we had so many of the darn things that stacking them on their sides was not space efficient.   Soooo, the ends get worn.

It is not always needed to removed and replace the entire spine.  In this case cut away the torn bits, find a closely colour matching stiff piece of paper and cut it to slide down inside the spine.  If the end papers are separating from the covers it is good to have the paper run over the joints between the spine and the cover boards.  This was not the case with this book so I just made it the width of the spine.  Do have it go down a ways into the spine for strength.  Apply the glue, made sure the glue is facing out when you slip (push it gently) down into the spine and adjust it to match where the end of the spine should be.

After this you can make a tracing of the rough end of the spine and put in an extra thicker piece to finish it off, or you can take a piece of colour matching book tape and wrap it over the edge.  Just to tidy things off.