Bookbinding Workshops

Bookbinding Workshops at Conways of Halifax

Beginners day courses available covering techniques such as single section bindings, hard and soft cover and simple Japanese stab bindings.

More advanced courses to follow.

Please contact Fiona Conway at Fiona@conwaysofhalifax.co.uk

Or myself, Roger Grech at papercutbindery@gmail.com

8. Paring the Leather

We now need to pare the leather so that it is thin enough to work at the turn-ins and reduce the bulk along the edge.

Before we start attacking the leather with sharp pointy things, we need to make a template so we can cut a piece to the correct size. I usually use a Bulky Newsprint, but I seem to have none in stock so standard newsprint will have to do today.

Start with an oversized piece and making sure you have a right angle on at least one corner, mark a border 25mm along the top and down the left side. These will be the head and left fore-edge. You don’t want more than an inch excess around the boards as the larger they are the more pull they will exert on the board and cause excessive warping.

Lay the book front board down on the marked paper and mark the tail and the edge at the spine.

Holding the book down, firmly smooth the paper over the spine and crease around the backboard.

 

Now lay the paper flat and the crease marks should indicate where the backboard will sit. Mark it in, along with the spine area and the 25mm excess all around. Cut it out and your template is ready.

 

 

Use the template to cut a piece of leather from your chosen skin. For this book I have chosen a deep chestnut coloured Calfskin. Once cut out transfer the marks from the template to the flesh side of the leather.

Ok, for the paring process I’m going to use a combination of English and French paring knives and a flat-faced Spokeshave. Your knives have to be as sharp as possible, so always spend time checking for nicks or burrs. For sharpening the knives I use a 600 grit wet and dry paper glued to one side of a piece of 6mm MDF, and on the reverse, a piece of leather for stropping.

The surface you pare on should be strong flat and smooth. Most binders seem to favour old Litho stones as they are more sympathetic to the knifes edge. They are, however, quite hard to get hold of. I use an old inking ‘stone’ which is actually steel but you could use a thick piece of glass or granite.

With a piece of wood to protect the leather clamp it to the stone to keep it steady.  

 

Our first job is to edge pare the leather to take the majority off so that when we use the spokeshave to literally ‘shave’ the leather, the shavings won’t build up and tear it.

To do this place the point of the knife on the stone, and using a shallow angle, draw the knife across the edge. This does take a lot of practice, and I’m by no means an expert. Definitely practice on off cuts and spare pieces, you may find a technique that suits you better.

Once the edge has been angled about 6/7mm in, you can start using the spokeshave.

The spokeshave needs to be modified for use on leather rather than wood. This link will guide you through the process, http://www.hewit.com/skin_deep/?volume=16&article=2

Starting about 15mm away from the 25mm line, push the spokeshave away and off the pared edge. Shave all along the edge evenly; repeat until the thickness has been reduced significantly. Brush the shavings off the leather and from under it regularly. 

I’ve read that it needs to be 0.4mm or so, but you will before long get a feel for how thick it should be. As long as you bear in mind that it has to form around the edge of your boards, you can make a decision as to how thick it needs to be. The image below shows the same leather folded before and after paring.

Once the edge has been sufficiently thinned, feel for any uneven areas and rectify them. Once done move on to the tail and then finally the fore-edges.

Our next stage is to further pare the areas of the turn-ins that will form the head caps. These are the areas that will be turned and tucked into the hollow back, and therefore need to be thin so as not to form an unsightly ridge. 

For this process I use either the rounded French paring knife or the heel of the English paring knife. I then take the edge right down to the hair side so it’s incredibly thin.

The corners need now to be cut at a 45% angle. You need to leave a small gap between the cut and marked rectangular area of the board. This is so the board won’t poke out when covered. The measurement for this should be about a board and halves thickness. But I tend to leave around 6/7mm.

Cut the corners and edge pare them very thin. 

Finally feel the entire surface of the flesh side and what you may feel is a noticeable step between the original thickness of the leather and where you have pared it. This needs to be rectified or it will be visible when pasted down. Using the spokeshake gently reduce the step, feeling constantly for uneven areas.

When finished reapply the markings and the job is done. 

7. Lining

In this post we are going to deal with the final few stages that need to be completed before work on the Leather begins.

All these stages involve Lining.

Before we do anything, we need to protect the book block. From now on we won’t need to open the book, so to keep the pages clean and keep the gilt edge from harm we have to Cap the book.

For this I use a 120gsm Archival Kraft paper. It needs to fit snugly around the block, so you need to measure all its dimensions, height, width and depth.

 

Once the Net has been drawn out onto the paper join the depth dimension with a diagonal line. Then cut it out and crease along all the lines with a bone folder.

Turn the flat cap over and crease the triangles that will form the corners in half.  

Now form the cap off of the book to firm up the creases and form the corners. The excess triangular corner pieces on the inside need to fit into the hollow area created by the concave fore-edge.

When you’re happy with it, cap up the book block and tape it down.

  

 

Once capped up we are now ready to line the spine. The idea is to strengthen and protect the spine edge of the sections, whilst still allowing the spine to open freely.

Each piece of lining material is slightly larger than the preceding layer, with the final lining measuring from centre to centre of the endpapers. Also all material used needs to have its grain running from head to tail as usual.

The first lining is to even out the spines profile. We need to build up the areas between the tapes, for this I use starched muslin glued on with PVA.

For the next layer I use a quality heavy, yet supple hand made paper longer at head and tail. I have used 190gsm Bockingford.

To even out the gaps between the tapes still further, I apply fillers made from 120gsm Archival Kraft. Then finally a layer of Manila Kraft paper.

Using a good strong pair of scissors, you need to trim the lining close to headbands. This can be quite scary so take your time. Cut in a well-lit area, keep the scissors steady and roll the book from the beginning of the cut to the end. Again, take your time; you don’t want to nick the headbands! 

We are now going to apply a Hollow Back to the spine. This in effect is a tube of kraft paper or light card that is stuck to the spine and in turn to the leather. Towards the end of the binding process it will be slightly slit to accommodate the leather turn in. 

For this I’ll be using Belmont Hollow, a 225gsm card ideal for the purpose although I have used the same 120gsm Archival Kraft mentioned earlier. Both are fine.

Take a piece of scrap paper and measure the width of the spine between the coloured portions of the endpapers. Now measure out three widths of the spine on a piece of Belmont and cut the whole longer than the spine. Now crease and fold and check for fit.

Now glue out one edge and so that you have a tube with one thickness of card on one side and a double thickness on the other.  

The single thickness will be glued to the book and the double will be stuck to the leather. This is known as one on and two off.

It’s a good idea to glue the hollow to the book quite soon after it has been made as it will be more pliable now as opposed to when it is dry. You will need to keep working the hollow until it is well stuck. 

Now trim the hollow in the same manner as the lining.

 

Before we put a final lining on the cover boards we need to set the slips.

At the moment the tapes are standing proud from the boards. Place the boards in their final position and mark the profile of each tape.

Now open the book back on its self and with a sharp scalpel cut the marked sections out to the depth of the tapes. Brush a little PVA into the recesses, close the book and smooth down the tapes.  

Finally you need to line the boards. I’ve used 300gsm Somerset Satin, a heavy paper but with a smooth surface that will give the leather a good foundation.

Cut the paper larger at head, tail and fore-edge. Paste and apply right on the spine edge of the board. Smooth off and gently crease around the edge. Do the same on the back board and press until dry. 

 

When dry remove the excess board lining paper by sanding with a fine wet and dry paper. Do not be tempted to trim it off with a scalpel or craft knife. You will cut the headband; trust me it happens!

 

Sanding the edges gives you a clean edge and a softer profile for the leather.

In the next edition I’ll show you how to measure up and pare the leather. Until then leave the prepared book between pressing boards.

 

5. Lacing on the Boards

Whether you are using pre-prepared or made boards now is the time to measure up and trim to size.

Before we do this we have to trim the protruding edge of excess endpaper along the fore edge. This excess is due to the rounding and backing process, but it gives us a false edge to measure to, so it must be trimmed.

To do this, place a piece of waste board into the joint of the book to protect the backed spine. Then slide a metal ruler underneath the pages at the fore edge on top of the endpaper, lining the ruler up with last page. Using a sharp scalpel trim the excess endpaper, then repeat the process for the other edge.

 

Now take your oversized boards and trim the spine and tail edges to 90°. Now place the board fully up against the spine joint and then mark the lip around the tail, fore edge and head. This lip measurement is up to you, but I personally feel anything more than 3 or 4mm is a little excessive. 

Trim the back board first then using this as a template trim the front board.

We now need to mark where we are going to punch the holes for the tapes.

Along the spine edge of each board mark a line 6 or 7mm in. place the board up against the joint and pull the tape tight over the marked line. Now with a needle or awl mark the centre of the tape on the line. Then place the boards aside for now.

   

Our next stage is to glue a ‘fence’ to the joint. This serves a couple of purposes. Firstly, it creates a space for the tapes to occupy when the book is opened. Also it stops the leather pulling the boards too tight against the joint when drying. It needs to be double the thickness of the tape and the length of the book and the width of the boards. You may need to laminate different papers to get the thickness right. The fence will be removed along with the waste sheet at the very end. Glue the fence to the Joint with a little PVA and leave to dry.

 

When the fences are dry our next stage is to fray out the tapes. This is where the use of pliester tapes makes life that little bit easier. Most cotton tapes are woven with a bead along either one or both edges, making fraying out agony. You can lace on your boards without fraying but there’s a lot of cutting into the board and that could get messy.

Using a needle or awl open the weave and fray out each tape right down to the sewing. 

  

 

Next with a little paste taper the ends and let them dry to harden off.

  

Now take your boards and punch the holes for the tapes where we marked them earlier. The holes don’t want to be more than 2 or 3mm in diameter. 

 

When the tape ends are dry push them through the corresponding holes. 

To position the boards properly have some pressing boards up against the spine so that the board is supported when open. Hold the board at 90° to the book and right into the joint. Pull the tapes through the holes tightly and close up the holes on the inside with the point of a bone folder to grip the tapes.

 

Now, whilst holding the board in the joint, lower it gently closed. The tapes will now have the appearance of being tight, but still allow board to open freely.

When you are satisfied that boards are correct open gently so as not to disturb the tapes and rest the board on the pressing boards pushed up against the spine. Snip the excess tape off leaving around 2cm. 

Paste the board under the tape, fan it out and stick it down. Do each tape one at a time, you may find a needle helps when fanning out. Repeat the process for the other side.

 

You now need to let the tapes dry thoroughly. I use thin acetate as a buffer between board and book to prevent the tape sticking to the book. Then leave under weighted boards until dry.

Our final stage is to knock down the tapes to give them a flatter profile. For this I use my backing hammer and the heavy duty steel stone I have for leather paring, but any strong surface would do I think.

The boards are now laced on and the book is ready for our next stage, the Headbands.