Just working on a Quarter bound Journal with Leather
Jointed Endpapers, and I thought I might as well document and share them with
you. Back in Post1 I made mention of many different forms of endpapers. I
tend to stick to the ‘Made’ endpapers that were used then but from time to time I do like to dabble in the
madness that is the Leather Jointed Endpaper.
Leather jointed endpapers when completed and affixed
to the book give the appearance of the leather both on the outer cover and on
the inner joint. Mainly used in fine bindings it doesn’t hurt to keep your hand
in now and then.
For each endpaper you are going to need:
2 white folios
1 colour folio
1 colour single sheet cut 10mm wider than the colour
folio
1 piece of leather
All pieces are over sized.
For the whites I’ve used the same paper as my book
block, Somerset Book White 115gsm. For the two coloured components I’ve chosen
a grey and light brown Ingres paper 90gsm.
First paste out one side of the colour folio and apply
it to the single colour sheet with the ten millimetre excess protruding from
the folded edge. Give it a firm nip in the press then place under weighted
boards to dry. Repeat the process for the other endpaper.
When dry trim the excess ten millimetre piece of
coloured paper down to five millimetres and sand the edge down to reduce its
profile. Paste out and fold over the folded edge and firmly bone it down. Again
repeat the process for the other endpaper.
While they are both drying we can now prepare the
leather for the joint. The leather needs to be pared very thin, if it’s left
too thick it will cause problems when sticking it down later.
For this I’ve used a paring machine but you can use a
knife and spokeshave. If you were going to use a spokeshave I would pare a
larger piece of leather so you can clamp it down easier and then cut both
pieces you need from that.
I’ve pared my pieces down to about 0.3 of a millimetre
then further edge pared one side super thin. Each piece is roughly five
centimetres wide and slightly shorter than the endpaper for ease of
positioning.
When the endpapers are dry remove them from the
weighted boards. Paste the endpapers folded edge and attach the leather hair side down onto the folded
edge of your endpaper leaving a little of the folded colour visible. Remembering to put down the super thin edge pared side of the leather. This
stagers the material at the fold, making the edge less bulky. Give both
endpapers a gentle nip and leave to dry under weighted boards.
When dry we need to attach a compensation sheet to the
leather. This will be removed at the end but needs to be there during binding,
otherwise the endpaper will have an uneven thickness and the leather will mark
the adjacent sheets.
When making any book where something will be added after
binding you need to use compensation sheets i.e. photo albums. If we just
applied the leather after all the binding had been completed the book would not
function properly. This way the leather joint has been part of the construction
from the beginning.
To attach the compensation sheet first trim the edge
of the leather to give a good straight edge. Stretching may have occurred
during paring.
Now attach a piece of card/paper the same thickness as
the leather to the trimmed edge with scotch tape on the flesh side.
Next paste one side of a white folio and place it
on the side of the colour folio with the attached leather joint, sealing the
leather between the white and coloured folios. Gently nip then place between
weighted boards again. Repeat for the other endpaper.
Finally paste between four or five millimetres of the
final white folios folded edge and tip onto the white folio you have just stuck
down. Bone down then open this final folio and fold it around the whole
endpaper so it’s wrapped in the final white folio.
This will be the waste, which in this case I will use
to form a tongue that will fit between the split boards of my covers. I’ll show
you those another time.
For now trim them down to match your sections. Mark
up for sewing as before and pierce. The rest of the book block is also pierced
with the kettle stitches sawn.
These endpapers are sewn on in the same way as the
Made endpapers we used in the previous posts.
