Leather Jointed Endpapers

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.