Bookbinding, and the Care of Books Part 4

WASHING

When there are stains or ink marks on books that cannot be removed by the use of hot size or hot water, stronger measures may sometimes have to be taken. Many stains will be found to yield readily to hot water with a little alum in it, and others can be got out by a judicious application of curd soap with a very soft brush and plenty of warm water. But some, and especially ink stains, require further treatment.

There are many ways of washing paper, and most of those in common use are extremely dangerous, and have in many cases resulted in the absolute destruction of fine books. If it is thought to be absolutely necessary that the sheets of a book should be washed, the safest method is as follows:--Take an ounce of permanganate of potash dissolved in a quart of water, and warmed slightly. In this put the sheets to be washed, and leave them until they turn a dark brown. This will usually take about an hour, but may take longer for some papers.

Then turn the sheets out and wash them in running water until all trace of purple stain disappears from the water as it comes away. Then transfer them to a bath of sulphurous (not sulphuric) acid and water in the proportion of one ounce of acid to one pint of water. The sheets in this solution will rapidly turn white, and if left for some time nearly all stains will be removed. In case any stains refuse to come out, the sheets should be put in clear water for a short time, and then placed in the permanganate of potash solution again, and left there for a longer time than before; then after washing in clear water, again transferred to the sulphurous acid. When sheets are removed from the sulphurous acid they should be well washed for an hour or two in running water, and then may be blotted or squeezed off and hung up on lines to dry. Any sheets treated in this way will require sizing afterwards. And if, as is often the case, only a few sheets at the beginning or end of the book have to be washed, it will be necessary to tone down the washed sheets to match the rest of the book by putting some stain in the size. For staining there are many things used. A weak solution of permanganate of potash gives a yellowish stain that will be found to match many papers. Other stains are used, such as coffee, chicory, tea, liquorice, &c. Whatever is used should be put in the size. To ascertain that the right depth of colour has been obtained, a piece of unsized paper, such as white blotting-paper, is dipped in the stained size and blotted off and dried before the fire. It is impossible to judge of the depth of colour in a stain unless the test piece is thoroughly dried. If the stain is not right, add more water or more stain as is needed.

Experience will tell what stain to use to match the paper of any given book.

To remove grease or oil stains, ether may be used. Pour it freely in a circle round the spot, narrowing the circle gradually until the stain is covered. Then apply a warm iron through a piece of blotting-paper.

Ether should only be used in a draught in a well-ventilated room on account of its well-known inflammable and anaesthetical properties.

A very dilute (about one per cent.) solution of pure hydrochloric acid in cold water will be found to take out some stains if the paper is left in it for some hours. When the paper is removed from the solution, it must be thoroughly washed in running water. It is important that the hydrochloric acid used should be pure, as the commercial quality (spirits of salts) often contains sulphuric acid.

The following recipes are quoted from _De l'organisation et de l'administration des Bibliotheques, par Jules Cusin_:--

To remove stains from paper:--"_Mud Stains._--To take away these kinds of stains, spread some soap jelly very evenly over the stained places, and leave it there for thirty or forty minutes, according to the depth of the stain. Then dip the sheet in clean water, and then having spread it on a perfectly clean table, remove the soap lightly with a hog's hair brush or a fine sponge; all the mud will disappear at the same time. Put the sheet into the clear water again, to get rid of the last trace of soap. Let it drain a little, press it lightly between two sheets of blotting-paper, and finish by letting it dry slowly in a dry place in the shade.

"_Stains of Tallow, Stearine, or Fat._--To take away these stains cover them with blotting-paper and pa.s.s over them a warm flat-iron.

When the paper has soaked up the grease, change it and repeat the operation until the stains have been sufficiently removed. After that, touch both sides of the sheets where they have been stained with a brush dipped in essence of turpentine heated to boiling-point. Then to restore the whiteness of the paper, touch the places which were stained with a piece of fine linen soaked in purified spirits of wine warmed in the water-bath. This method may also be employed to get rid of sealing-wax stains.

"_Oil Stains._--Make a mixture of 500 gr. of soap, 300 gr. of clay, 60 gr. of quicklime, and sufficient water to make it of the right consistency, spread a thin layer of this on the stain, and leave it there about a quarter of an hour. Then dip the sheet in a bath of hot water; take it out, and let it dry slowly.

"You can also use the following method, generally employed for finger-marks:--

"_Finger-marks._--These stains are sometimes very obstinate. Still they can generally be mastered by the following method:--Spread over them a layer of white soap jelly (_savon blanc en gelee_), and leave it there for some hours. Then remove this with a fine sponge dipped in hot water, and more often than not all the dirt disappears at the same time. If this treatment is not sufficient, you might replace the soap jelly by soft soap (_savon noir_), but you must be careful not to leave it long on the printing, which might decompose and run, and that would do more harm than good."

Sheets of very old books are best left with the stains of age upon them, excepting, perhaps, such as can be removed with hot water or size. Nearly all stains _can_ be removed, but in the process old paper is apt to lose more in character than it gains in appearance.

MENDING

For mending torn sheets of an old book, some paper that matches as nearly as possible must be found. For this purpose it is the custom for bookbinders to collect quant.i.ties of old paper. If a piece of the same tone cannot be found, paper of similar texture and substance may be stained to match.

Supposing a corner to be missing, and a piece of paper to have been found that matches it, the torn page is laid over the new paper in such a way that the wire marks on both papers correspond. Then the point of a folder should be drawn along the edge of the torn sheet, leaving an indented line on the new paper. The new paper should then be cut off about an eighth of an inch beyond the indented line, and the edge carefully pared up to the line. The edge of the old paper must be similarly pared, so that the two edges when laid together will not exceed the thickness of the rest of the page. It is well to leave a little greater overlap at the edges of the page. Both cut edges must then be well pasted with white paste and rubbed down between blotting-paper. To ensure a perfectly clean joint the pasted edge should not be touched with the hand, and pasting-paper, brushes, and paste must be perfectly clean.

In the case of a tear across the page, if there are any overlapping edges, they may merely be pasted together and the end of the tear at the edge of the paper strengthened by a small piece of pared paper. If the tear crosses print, and there are no overlapping edges, either tiny pieces of pared paper may be cut and laid across the tear between the lines of print, or else a piece of the thinnest j.a.panese paper, which is nearly transparent, may be pasted right along the tear over the print; in either case the mend should be strengthened at the edge of the page by an additional thickness of paper. In cases where the backs of the sections have been much damaged, it will be necessary to put a guard the entire length, or in the case of small holes, to fill them in with pieces of torn paper. The edges of any mend may, with great care, be sc.r.a.ped with a sharp knife having a slight burr on the under side, and then rubbed lightly with a piece of worn fine sand-paper, or a fragment of cuttle-fish bone. Care must be taken not to pare away too much, and especially not to weaken the mend at the edges of the sheet. As a general rule, the new mending paper should go on the back of a sheet.

Sometimes it is thought necessary to fill up worm-holes in the paper.

This may be done by boiling down some paper in size until it is of a pulpy consistency, and a little of this filled into the worm-holes will re-make the paper in those places. It is a very tedious operation, and seldom worth doing.

Mending vellum is done in much the same way as mending paper, excepting that a little greater overlap must be left. It is well to put a st.i.tch of silk at each end of a vellum patch, as you cannot depend on paste alone holding vellum securely. The overlapping edges must be well roughed up with a knife to make sure that the paste will stick. A cut in a vellum page is best mended with fine silk with a lacing st.i.tch (see fig. 18).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 18.]

Mending is most easily done on a sheet of plate-gla.s.s, of which the edges and corners have been rubbed down.

CHAPTER V

End Papers--Leather Joints--Pressing

END PAPERS

If an old book that has had much wear is examined, it will generally be found that the leaves at the beginning and the end have suffered more than the rest of the book. On this ground, and also to enable people who must write notes in books to do so with the least injury to the book, it is advisable to put a good number of blank papers at each end. As these papers are part of the binding, and have an important protective function to perform, they should be of good quality. At all times difficulty has been found in preventing the first and last section of the book, whether end papers or not, from dragging away when the cover is opened, and various devices have been tried to overcome this defect. In the fifteenth century strips of vellum (usually cut from ma.n.u.scripts) were pasted on to the back of the book and on the inside of the boards, or in some cases were merely folded round the first and last section and pasted on to the covers. The modern, and far less efficient, practice is to "overcast" the first and last sections. This is objectionable, because it prevents the leaves from opening right to the back, and it fails in the object aimed at, by merely transferring the strain to the back of the overcast section.

In order to make provision for any strain there may be in opening the cover, it is better to adopt some such arrangement as shown in fig.

19. In this end paper the zigzag opens slightly in response to any strain.

The way to make this end paper is to take a folded sheet of paper a little larger than the book. Then with dividers mark two points an eighth of an inch from the back for the fold, and paste your paste-down paper, B B, up to these points (see fig. 19, II). When the paste is dry, fold back the sheet (A1) over the paste-down paper, and A2 the reverse way, leaving the form seen in fig. 19, III. A folded sheet of paper similar to A is inserted at C (fig. 19, V, H), and the sewing pa.s.ses through this. When the book is pasted down the leaf A1 is torn off, and B1 pasted down on the board. If marbled paper is desired, the marble should be "made," that is, pasted on to B1.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 19.]

There are considerable disadvantages in using marbled papers, as if they are of thick enough paper to help the strength of the binding, the "made" sheet is very stiff, and in a small book is troublesome. On no account should any marble paper be used, unless it is tough and durable. The quality of the paper of which most marbled papers are made is so poor, that it is unsuitable for use as end papers. For most books a self-coloured paper of good quality answers well for the paste-down sheets.

It is a mistake to leave end papers to be pasted on after the book has been forwarded, as in that case they have little constructive value.

Every leaf of such an end paper as is described above will open right to the back, and the zigzag allows play for the drag of the board.

Paper with a conventional pattern painted or printed on it may be used for end papers. If such a design is simple, such as a sprig repeated all over, or an arrangement of stars or dots, it may look very well; but over elaborate end papers, and especially those that aim at pictorial effect, are seldom successful.

Ends may be made of thin vellum. If so, unless the board is very heavy, it is best to have leather joints.

A single leaf of vellum (in the place of B1 and 2, II, fig. 19) should have an edge turned up into the zigzag with the leather joint, and sewn through. Vellum ends must always be sewn, as it is not safe to rely upon paste to hold them. They look well, and may be enriched by tooling. The disadvantage of vellum is, that it has a tendency to curl up if subjected to heat, and when it contracts it unduly draws the boards of the book. For large ma.n.u.scripts, or printed books on vellum, which are bound in wooden or other thick boards and are clasped, thicker vellum may be used for the ends; that with a slightly brown surface looks best. The part that will come into the joint should be sc.r.a.ped thin with a knife, and a zigzag made of j.a.panese paper.

Silk or other fine woven material may be used for ends. It is best used with a leather joint, and may be stuck on to the first paper of the end papers (B1, No. 2, fig. 19), and cut with the book. The glaire of the edge gilding will help to stop the edges fraying out. In attaching silk to paper, thin glue is the best thing to use; the paper, not the silk, being glued. Some little practice is needed to get sufficient glue on the paper to make the silk stick all over, and yet not to soil it. When the silk has been glued to the paper, it should be left under a light weight to dry. If put in the press, the glue may be squeezed through and the silk soiled.

If the silk is very thin, or delicate in colour, or if it seems likely that it will fray out at the edges, it is better to turn the edges in over a piece of paper cut a little smaller than the page of the book and stick them down. This forms a pad, which may be attached to the first leaf of the end papers; a similar pad may be made for filling in the board.

Before using, the silk should be damped and ironed flat on the wrong side.

Silk ends give a book a rich finish, but seldom look altogether satisfactory. If the silk is merely stuck on to the first end paper, the edges will generally fray out if the book is much used. If the edges are turned in, an unpleasantly thick end is made.

LEATHER JOINTS

Leather joints are pieces of thin leather that are used to cover the joints on the inside (for paring, see page 154). They add very little strength to the book, but give a pleasant finish to the inside of the board.

If there are to be leather joints, the end papers are made up without A 1, and the edge of the leather pasted and inserted at D, with a piece of common paper as a protection (see fig. 19, IV). When the paste is dry, the leather is folded over at E.

A piece of blotting-paper may be pasted on to the inside of the waste leaf, leaving enough of it loose to go between the leather joint and the first sheet of the end paper. This will avoid any chance of the leather joint staining or marking the ends while the book is being bound. The blotting-paper, of course, is taken out with the waste sheet before the joint is pasted down.

Joints may also be made of linen or cloth inserted in the same way. A cloth joint has greater strength than a leather one, as the latter has to be very thin in order that the board may shut properly.

With leather or cloth joints, the sewing should go through both E and F.