Book Knife and Book Repair - the modern world

I am a Jane Austen fan, and a Greer Garson fan.  There is a wonderful scene in the 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice - the one where Elizabeth and Darcy are sparring for the first time in the drawing room at Netherfield - where Garson uses a book knife to open the pages.  It was a common practice.  Book pages are printed on a large sheet, folded and bound into the book.  When a reader sets out to read, they do so with a book knife in hand, to slit the pages.

Today, handed in to me for repair, a book without the pages slit.  The reader, and my coworkers confounded by the pages awaiting a book knife so the information could be opened to the world.  And the book that has confounded them with this small mechanical solution?  Big Data: A Very Short Introduction. (QA76.9.B45H66 2017).

I recommend the Very Short Introduction series.  Even it you need to open the pages with a knife now and then.



           

quick cataloguing tip

Or is that trick?  It's great anyway because it saves you writing a note to the overworked people in cataloguing, attaching it to the book, letting someone haul the book over to the catalogue department, having them print a new tag, affix it to the book and reverse the process to you.  Go to the catalogue (online in these fasinating modern times). Check for the correct number.  Discover it is only the difference of a 0 that should be a 9.  Pull out your trusty dryline whiteout, and whiteout the 0.  Pick up your trusty black pen and write in, carefully now, practice a few times first if you feel you need to, a 9. Situation saved. Shelve the book.

educating repair

Or, what I learned today while repairing a book.  And trust me it is a lot easier to repair a book than figure out why your CSS is not rending properly on the website you are designing for your mother. But I digress.  Today I am repairing torn pages on Remedies in International Human Rights Law.  The 2005 version.  I open to the torn spot, my flimoplast* to the ready and discover that should I loose my ability to 'flip the bird', I can claim over five thousand dollars.  Mind you, that finger your grade school teacher used to point at you, the one your mother told you never to use... that one will net you seven thousand on a trade in you would rather not make.

* ® P  (an extremely delicate translucent repair tape for tears.  It is used by those of us who have not mastered the art of gluing the edges of a tear together with just the right amount of the right kind of glue to make the tear disappear for ever.  Poof.)

backup plan

I had intended to put the original spine back onto this book, but the leather's age and creak, even with a new backing, was not going to take that curve. Soooo, I scanned it, tried to get the colour to come right, but I apparently need practice with that, and created a new spine.  I glued it down onto a piece of spine cloth to strengthen it, folded over the ends and then proceeded to pry the already mended book covers away from the spine.  I spread glue in between the cover and the spine cloth previous attached for the mending of the spine and slid in the edge of the new spine.  Wrapping round, I did the same to the other side and voila, we have the new, if a bit green, spine.

For the sake of historical accuracy I am, of course, building a small pocket inside the back of the book for the original spine.

inside books

It is amazing what people use as bookmarks.  I have been putting the cover back on Western Canada Law*, from 1921.  As I spread the pages out fell a postcard, an RSVP really, from 1921.  Yes, it has been inside that book all this time.  And I will put it back.  It was to be sent to P.E.C. Ecob, Secretary Graduates Association, Collegiate Institute, Saskatoon.  As the city was only incorporated thirteen years before the simplicity of address is understandable.  Mind you the nice white interlopers had been hanging around since 1883 on the general spot, and if my great granddad's buffalo hunting stories are anything to go by had been seen in the area a lot longer. But still, 1921, and no need for a house address, a street name, least of all, a postal code.  And next year I will have to use the provincial area code just to phone next door!  The really pleasing part was the back of the post card, the language of the response:  Dear Sir, In reply to your invitation to the University of Saskatchewan Graduates' Reunion on May 6th next, I beg to say that......, Yours faithfully, ....  What a delightful luxury of language. I think I'll go to the party.

*Full title just for fun: Western Canada law : a concise handbook of the laws of western Canada, as the same are applicable in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, together with other information of value to business men, farmers, secretaries, justices, police magistrates, and all other persons interested in the laws of western Canada / by Arthur E. Popple

Law KF 706 .W37 1899 gets a spine

Second spine in 112 years.  Last time the cardboard replacement method was used.  This time I decided it deserved a spine that would arch beautifully over its beautifully arched spine.  After the new mull was thoroughly dried, I measured, with a string and then the string on a ruler, the distance of the arch.  I decided which colour of book tape I would use (green won out, it looked best and was widest). 

I cut the tape the needed length and then cut a piece of binder tape.  It is gummed cloth.  You need not use it.  At home I would use a sturdy piece of regular cloth.  A cotton probably, some unsuspecting male's old cotton trousers, or, as I have used before, ancient and venerable linen towels.  Cut the cloth to cover the length of the book's covers and width of the spine arch.  Then place it centred on the sticky side of the book tape (that's important - sticking it to the non sticky side of the book tape requires glue and leaves your cloth strangely exposed on the outside of the spine.  An artistic statement perhaps, but not the one I am after.).  Then! to make the ends of the curve of the spine match the thickness of the book covers place the always useful pieces of string the width of the spine.  This time I cut straight up from the string ends and only formed the wedge shapes afterwards using an knife, but you can simply cut out the wedges with scissors. 

With the book resting on the cloth of the new spine, press the tape onto the book cover.  Draw up the centre first and work out to the edges. The tapered ends are then wrapped around to the inside of the cover.

Next time a quick look at the finishing off bits.

Law KF 706 .W37 1899

It is not surprising that at 112 years old this book was not is as fine a shape as it was when it was born.  It had been re-spined once in the time honoured method of cardstock, string, and tape - which I am sure I have already shown you somewhere.  But this new year repair required a bit more effort.  It was, as you can see, hanging on by two original cloth tapes sewn to the spine.  I did not want to cut those tapes, but I did want to give the spine a completely new mull for support.  With the covers separated as they were it came to me in a bright moment to thread the mull between the tapes.  This was done yesterday.  Today I have glued the ends to the inside of the cover.  I will show you more as the repair progresses.

making it up

As we go digital the equipment needed for certain book repairs becomes rare indeed. Cerlox binding or Comb binding is a dying art and all the places near me that were capable of replacing a broken comb have gone to join the dodos. I first used a cerlox binder when I worked at a photocopy shop in the early 1990's.  I used to make homemade calendars with it.  But long use causes the plastic spines to break and not only is the photocopy shop closed, the printing department on campus has closed down all but its main branch. So I had to make the repair up as I went along.  I decided a perfect bind was the best, but there were those large rectangular holes cut up the spine side of the paper:  making for a very weak spine.  So I used my hand binding experience and strengthened the spine with a paper lacing before I proceeded with the perfect bind. 

me vs the ipad: round one

I'd like to say I won that one, but perhaps I could describe it as a draw?  Our work group has been provided two ipads so that we might come to better understand the minds of the new humans.  At least if you follow all the hype you might think of them as new humans, almost a different species.  I meet them daily at the desk and they seem just like the old humans to me; that is, perfectly human and generally very nice.  Still, it is best, as the world turns, to keep up with the changes.  So today I introduced myself to the the ipad we call Henry (not that you can tell the difference between him and Georgina if it weren't for the labels I put on them) and said 'hello'.  We did not get on well from there because Henry kept his mouth shut and would not not assist me in any way.  I have been told the Henrys and Georginas of this world are suppose to be intuitive.  If they are, they are faking being obnoxious and obtuse to an excellent degree.  Of course you might say I am the one with the intuition.  True enough, I do, and a good deal of stick-to-ativeness, which is why I have managed, without breaking Henry over the edge of my desk in frustration, and a couple of calls to people with their own ipads, to take photos, front and back, and to send them to Henry's email (which I can open) and voila....my latest book repair underway.

scoring details

I had to add some reinforcement to the spine of this book, but it wasn't bad enough to need a complete spine replacement.  So I matched the tape colour as closely as possible with the book cover and put an inch of tape on either side.  Using a scoring tool---in this case the end of a pen---I marked in the three lines to match the design in the cover.  Little details like this help make the repair blend in.  Other good scoring tools are bic pen caps (I have used the business end of a bic pen, but only when the ink is good and gone), letter openers, knitting needles, and golf tees.  Bone folders are of course the traditional scoring tool, even the modern ones which are made of plastic and can there for, but aren't, referred to as plastic folders.  Plastic bone folders can leave a trail of plastic across what you are scoring, but in some cases so can the bone.  Be careful of the kind of surface you are scoring.  Test, especially, a dark colour first and if necessary lay a light sheet of scrap over top so that the score will mark through but the bits of the plastic or bone will not leave a trail.

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.

Holy Book Repair part lll

So, I suspect your glue is dry enough now, we can put in the endpapers.  Cut them out carefully.  They are a practice art to get right, and get in place right.  Remember lining up the text block with the green tape?  Yup, well this was why.  Sometimes, often times, it is nice to use a glue stick for this, but we very sure you have acid free. Don't trust the packaging, trust the words on the glue stick itself. We ran out of glue while making Jennie's Nighty and the Christmas Concert last year and I got glue sticks which claimed to be acid free, but they didn't actually print that on the stick itself.  They made the paper turn green.  Not good.  For this project I took my acid free glue stick and coated the inside cover and then half an in onto the first sheet of the text block.  Ever notice the first sheets are stuck together at the inside edge in a hard cover book?  This is why.  It helds to hold the text block in place, give extra support to the work of the mull.  Use your bone folder to smooth the endpaper into place.  Best to start it off from the outside edge of the cover.  If you have miss cut it you can always trim it to match the pages.  You never get another chance to make it line up and look good on the cover.  Run the bone folder gently down along the crease and close the book.  Repeat on the back cover.

And done.  It is good to put wax paper inside the endpapers and press the book a while.  Perhaps not as long as the two weeks I was away, but you can if you want to.  I took the finished bible to the adorable little old priest and he was so pleased.  He asked me what he owed me.  Well, I really didn't want to charge him full price, he is such an adorable little old priest, so I said, "Well, Dad, you can have it for Father's Day."  Saved me having to get him a card.*

* Roman Catholics and the like in the crowd do not panic.  My dad is a catholic priest, he just isn't a Roman Catholic priest.  Anglicans, and others, can marry.  (Fifty-five years this month. And yes, they are both adorable.)

Holy Book Repair, Batman, part ll

 In wholing the book, returning the text block and the cover back to their unified state, I first lined up the new end paper (here secured by an ever handy brick) with the text block, then marked it with green painter tape.  I love green painter tape and use it often in my book repair work, and my art.  It holds, removes with ease and does not mark.  Once the green tape was in place to be sure the text block would be exact in its positioning I cleared the new end papers to a safe distance from whence they could observe, and proceeded to be liberal with the glue.  

It should be noted, just before you are liberal with the glue, that over the end of the spine, over the mull, I had placed a white strip of card stock, and when I spread the glue, it was from the end of the spine area on the cover out onto the boards where the mull would lie.  No glue is to go down the spine of the cover itself, or down the spine of the text block.  The mull is what is attached to the book's cover, not the spine.  Rather as though you glued your arms to the wall, but left your back free.  Why you would do this to yourself I am not sure, but the image should give you the right idea for what to do with the book.  With the book cover lying flat on the table, place a brick on either side of the text block to keep it in place and go away for a while.  A day.  A week if you want, it doesn't matter.  Go on a  holiday, go to Europe. 

When you get back your book will look rather like this.  

Holy book repair,Batman! part 1

This adorable little old priest came to me and asked if I could repair his Bible.  Apparently he uses it a lot and its spine was coming apart.  I offered to build a new cover, but he liked the designs on the old cover so I mended it.  First I helped the text block complete its escape.  I gave it a new mull and picked out fresh end papers.

Then I prepped the cover for its reunion with the text block. I stripped off the old end papers and using a piece that discard, strengthened the spine from the inside.  I applied book tape down the outside of the spine and to the corners which were showing their age.  

Book tape comes in few colours.  Red, blue (the kind even a desperate boat owner having to purchase from the miss mixed paints wouldn't choose), brown, (the kind that makes you think of icky things), yellow (YELLOW), British racing green, a lovely burgundy (that goes well with many law books I work with at my day job, but did not match this Bible), and black (old faithful).  There is also white, but it reminds me of white socks with black shoes and I have never used it.  If you have an expense account and wish to go to Brodat's you can indulge in a dark brown (which makes you think of chocolate), and maroon.  It is always good to dream.  Still neither of the Brodat colours would have matched the Bible either, so I stuck with the old standard, black.  Matches the priestly robes and all.

Upcoming, the wholing of the book.

spinal separation

Easy breezy repair and a most important one.  In hard covers the text block likes, on more occasions than the book-brother authority would like to admit, to make a break for it now and then.  We have no idea why text blocks feel the need to break free of what protects them from a hard wear world, but the burden of the cover just seems to become too much all of sudden and they lean out, unclenching the glue attachments and list toward all out freedom.  If you can catch them in this partially escaped state, you can save yourself a lot of work.  Pleasurable work, but work non-the-less. 

Get your glue ready, in a little puddle on a plate or some such item.  Get your glue brush ready.  This is a paint brush that is either in retirement, or was crafted by people who believe paint brushes should be disposable in quality.  Make sure your glue brush has a long handle and is not very big in the bristle department.  A size one is a good bet. Not too big and not too small for the job.  Just like porridge.  Spread the spine and cover open as in the picture, exposing the areas in need of fresh glue.  Swipe up a dollop of glue on the brush, hold it over the opening with your hand near the brush, and, with practiced timing, let go, then just before it lands on the desk below, catch the handle again and paint the glue all up the inside edges of the spine where the boards and the end papers should be attached.*  Put the glue brush in water.  Lay the book on its spine with the covers flat on the desk and gently press the end papers back into place.  Close the book, lay it flat and drop a brick on it. Gently. Leave it until the glue dries.  Done.

*I have tried the method where you pour the glue down inside the book along the edges of the spine, but that generally ends up with smears of glue along the shaft of the glue brush.  If you don't mind cleaning that up, or don't care if your glue brush is caked with dried glue, go for it.  Not that I would admit to being fastidious in anyway.  And not that anyone who has seen my work station while I am in the middle of a project would think it.  But I generally do it the other way.

spinal injury

When the spine of a trade or mass paperback cracks like this you have an opportunity to repair your patient such that it will look very like it has never been in hospital.  The tricky bit it not getting the glue down into the break.  Tip back the opening and run a line of glue, or (and) spread it in with a narrow paint brush.  The trick is getting the two sides to lock back into place.  The book will try its best to just rest in position leaving it riding up on one side.  I find it best to put the two tip edges together and push them down onto the glue.  Then I viciously place the spine against the edge of my desk and run it down sharply.  This is where you find out you have put in too much glue...on one occasion it shot out so far it splatted on my shirt. But there is nothing like experience to teach you how much is too much. And how much is too little, as when your book falls apart again.  Like flour in the bread dough, you get a feel for it.

Tippin'in

When your pages are falling out.  More to the original point, when a page or two falls out.  I have never seen anything quite like this Sask. Report.  And not even all the pages that were loose made it into the photo.  The procedure for tipping in is to lay down a line of glue, dip the inside edge of the page into the glue, and gently slide it into place.  The correct place. Always be sure of that before you make contact with the glue.  Right page in page order, right side up, and right side to the outside.  All the fun you can have with a single sheet of paper.  Amazing isn't it.

I have put down my line of glue on a gridded plastic sheet which comes off the back of laminating sheets.  It is fantastic for this sort of thing. And for slipping in between pages that have been glued so the glue only ends up where you want it.

The last step I did on this Sask. Report was to turn it upside down and shake it.  After the glue had dried.  There was no other way to be sure I had found all the pages that were slipping out.

Inside the cover

When the endpapers on a hard cover splits I was taught to use gummy binder tape for the repair.  It is fully functional, but looks less than stellar.  In fact as time goes on it looks worse and worse, like a hobo with patched pants.  White pants, patched with brown plaid.  Soooooo, being an enterprising, and over keen little thing, I kept my eyes out for a substitute that might meet my exacting needs.  Change being what it is, I was soon rewarded with a pile of discarded legal texts; the kind they make by the row for beauty of conformity, and then update, with more beautiful conformity.  They also indulge in several blank pages front and back of the actual word portion of the event to demonstrate, hummm, wealth? extravagance? generosity to my book repair needs?  Must be it.  My cutting tool in hand I extricated the pages, and in several cases ribbons and decorative spine endings too, but that's another story.   

Clean off any rough bits from the broken endpapers, cut a nice piece of your rescued paper, mind the grain, and glue it over the gap.  Instead of greyish, hey look-at-me-I-am-a-repair, you get a tidy, I-am-elegant-and-decorative look.  On my own budget I have been known to get a variant colour and use that, which naturally enhances the decorative look of the repair. 

finding your page

Today we deal with the consequences of the 'children' who find the trip to the photocopier so onerous that they just have to rip out the page(s) they need for their work.  In that case there is nothing to do but contact another library and get replacement pages.  However they often come single sided; makes for a tight fit, twice as much paper in a narrow space.  But with the coming of double sided printers, scanners, and my personal fave, Photoshop!, a much more pleasing outcome can be attained.

Working in Photoshop it is especially easy to line up your back to back pages by having them on different layers, changing the opacity of the top layer and moving it into alignment with what is now visible below.  You can also clean up all the ugly edges and black photocopy dots that come from the pages faxed over to you.

Paperback novel part lV

Notice how agile I am with Roman numerals?  Since this was a single strip new spine, and not a whole new cover, or wrap around spine, I added tape.  Clear heavy duty tape.  Regular packing tape isn't thick enough. Keeping your fingerprints off it is the biggest challenge.  I like to lay/lie the book down on my gridded cutting matt.  That way I can use the lines to guide me into placing the tape on straight.  Run a bone folder, or plastic spatula like tool such as in the picture, to make sure there are no air bubbles and the tape is firmly attached.  Then I flip the book over and starting in the middle use my thumbs to press the tape evenly onto the spine.  Pull it over onto the back cover in a similar manner and smooth out the tape with the tool. 

To finish off, make a cut, angling inward, from the edge of the tape to the edge of the text block at the point the cover opens away from the pages.  Fold the tape around the cover top and bottom front and back, then cut flat to the spine ends the remaining tape.

Volia, she's done.