Bookbinding Tools - for Bookbinding

A majority of the tools used by Fine Bookbinders are the same ones used in Medieval times and through the centuries. Backing hammers, bone folders, brass finishing type and decorative tools, cobblers knives, glue brushes etc. The same goes for the equipment. There are new ones developed for Conservation thank goodness. Gaylord.com is a good outlet to find any of these tools except for gold finishing.
http://book-restoration.com

Custom Fine Cloth Bindings - Bookbinding

A fun way to preserve your novel or dissertation or any form of personal writing is to have it bound in a custom cloth binding. It is much less expensive than having it bound in leather and the final product is just as beautiful. As with the example in the video, you can use what ever art work or titleing to be inlayed in the cover as the spine is usually pretty thin. I was able to do a short lenthwise label on mine, so that it can be identified on the shelf. http://book-restoration.com

Katrina Victim Restoration

A cloth binding came to me out of New Orleans. It was badly damaged from the flooding. I had to dismantle the cover; soak off pages that were stuck together at the front and rear of the book. Tissue repair throughout the book. Resew the text.
Rebind it in a new cover. www.book-restoration.com

Childrens Book Conservation/Restoration

Most childrens books that come to me are in terrible condition. The pages have been scribbled on. The cover torn and extremely worn. The text usually has to be resewn.
This Uncle Remus is a First Edition Cloth Binding. It required a complete dismantling. Page repair, section repair, resewing. New hinges, relining of the spine, cloth reback with matching cloth. The final product is a solid binding. The only thing I don't mess with too much is the discoloration on the cloth covers. Acrylic paints dabbed on can even out the problem. I prefer to leave the discolorations as it gives the book character and keeps its antiquarian charm.
Please visit my website at www.book-restoration.com Go to the examples book and you will enter my photo gallery. I have a cloth restoration before and after section you will enjoy.

Cloth Binding Conservation

Many times when I am Conserving a Cloth Bound Binding, I have to match the original cloth. There are two important points of consideration when doing this. The material should match exactly or very closely, and the color needs to match exactly. I almost always have to dye the cloth to match eventhough I have an extensive antiquarian cloth selection to choose from. Usually there is a original spine I can relay but in the case of this book there wasn't one. A 22k gold tooled leather label is sometimes the way to go, especially if there is a lot of gold embossing on the cover. In this books case, I found that a hand tooled ink/paper label would look better. The final product is a beautiful, solid little cloth binding ready to be sold or saved in ones collection. Please go see many of my Cloth Conservation before and after photos at my website at www.book-restoration.com

Restoration of Rare Historical Books

I just finished Restoring/Conserving a very Rare 3 Volume set from the first woman to write a historical book about America, dating back to the early 1800's. (Warren's America) The volumes were in terrible shape. The spines were completly deteriorated. I did leather restoration rebacks on all of them. I conserved the boards and endsheets. (The boards were crumbling and one was missing a corner, which I reconstructed. I recreated the spines to match the originals as much as possible. The second volume was apparently rebound for the Whig Library at some point, so it was a slightly different size. It is tricky matching up spines when any of the volumes don't completly match. You have to measure from the tail going up. They came out very well and suitable for reselling. I can only post 2 pictures on this Blog, but if you go to my website at www.book-restoration.com under Leather Restorations I have all the pictures posted.

New Cloth Binding for Museum Album

This leather bound album from a Museum in Kentucky arrived in need of a new cover. The original leather binding was completely ruined from red rot and fire damage. The options were a new leather cover or a new cloth cover with inlay from the original binding. They opted for the cloth cover. For more examples of my work please go to my website at www.book-restoration.com

Moldy Heirloom Bindings Resurrected

I recently completed 3 heirloom bindings of the religious order. They had been stored in a box in a damp area for too long and were completely covered in mold in the text and the covers. I first disasembled the covers and went through the texts removing mold with a water and bleach combination. The two smaller books I had to put new cloth fine bindings on. The Bible I had to put a new full fine leather binding on. For more photos and information about my work please go to www.book-restoration.com

Family Bible Restoration/Conservation

This project required Restoring/Conserving a large leather Heirloom Family Bible. The spine was detached from the cover but otherwise in pretty good shape. I did a leather restoration/conservation reback which includes the following process. Dismantling the cover and spine. Removing the fly leaf marbled endsheet. Cleaning the spine. Adding new cloth hinges. Relining the spine with new headbands, mull, and a hollow back spine. Rebacking the spine with new leather. Putting up the hinges, relaying the fly leaf, and relaying the original spine.
www.book-restoration.com

Leather Conservation Reback

History of Nebraska, illustrated, 1882. This is a large binding that required a great deal of work. The leather spine was torn and the cloth boards were quite damaged. I did a Leather Conservation Reback and cosmetic repairs to the cloth boards and leather corners. The finished Binding came out very nicely.
www.book-restoration.com

Full Leather Fine Binding

This project consists of removing a cloth cover and rebinding the book with a new full leather fine binding with raised bands and 22k hand gold tooling.
www.book-restoration.com

Musings of a Hermit Bookbinder

As I work at my bench this morning, creating handmade marbled endsheets and working on hand tooled 22k gold leather labels, I realize how obscure my work has become in 2010. The Fine Bindings I create are for the Greatest Generation, Silent Generation and Boomers. My generation, Gen X, barely knows what a fine leather binding is. My daughters generation, the Millenials and subsequent generations have no idea what Fine Bindings are. How many Fine Bookbinders are left on the planet at this point? Maybe 100, if that. I am reading a book about Easter Island, regarding the mysterious wooden tablets now located in Museums around the world, how in just a few short years, master craftsmen of a certain type can completely disappear. I appreciate how my teachers of the Craft, Maureen Duke, John Mitchell and Lester Capon, were brave in their last ditch effort to pass on their knowledge and skill by setting up a school in Surrey, England. One more generation was able to learn and continue an ancient knowledge. But now that we are in the Digital Age and natural resources are dwindling, why bother to continue? In a few short years all books will be read on hand held computers, libraries will disappear,every book of any signifigance will have been digitized, the book reading generations will be gone. I realize I am the last of the Fine Hand Bookbinders. There will be no need for us any longer. Our creations will become relics of a curious past, housed in Museums. Going into Fine Bookbinding 20 years ago, this thought never occured to me. Books were the only way of obtaining knowledge. Fine Bindings were the highest mode of preserving that knowledge. Strangely, I am not saddened by this turn of events. I am ready for the world to move forward.

Thoughts on New Bindings vs. Conservation/Restoration

If a bookbinder has been properly trained in the Art of Fine Bookbinding/Book Conservation they are usually able to pull of both types of Bindings with a high level of skill. You find though, that each Bookbinder has a preference to either Binding New Fine Bindings or resurrecting the original bindings with Conservation/Restoration. I have found there to be a distinct choice between the sexes. Most female binders lean towards conservation/restoration whereas males lean towards new bindings. If I may dip into the psyche of this pattern it makes perfect sense. Most women by nature are nurturers and want to take something that has been worn and misused and neglected and with a gentle hand, rebuild it, using all of its original parts back into a solid, beautiful, fully functioning artifact. Men, however, seem not to want to deal with all of the crumbling parts and would rather discard the original and start with a something fresh and new. I refer to myself as a Fine Bookbinder/Book Conservator because in my business there is a call for both kinds of work. I excell, however, at Conservation and find the work much more rewarding.
http://www.book-restoration.com

Traditional Hand Bound Fine Cloth Bindings on Modern Bibles

I get a lot of requests to save modern Bibles. They were usually purchased for $10 and have a short life because they are used so much. Also, because the covers are machine bound and the materials usually cost in the cents. I almost always choose to put on a new cover in cloth or leather. The goal is for the binding to last the length of the owners lifetime and then to be handed down to their children. I can rebind them in either cloth or full leather. People usually opt for cloth because of the $100 price tag. They receive new boards, headbands, mull, acidfree paper lining on the spine, the cloth is always something sturdy like a english buckram or canadian linen. They are a solid hardcover English Binding with excellent flexibility. I usually do a 22k gold hand tooled leather label and gold lines at head and tail of the spine. I try to save the original endsheets if possible as they usually have notes and scripture written all over them. http://www.book-restoration.com/

bookbinding with shedded snake skin

I have been collecting shedded snake skins for years on my family's farm in Kentucky. I recently tried binding with one. I have always been hesitant as to how it would work as the shedded skin is so delicate. I cut a piece of the snake skin at the fattest part and flattened it out. I cut the same size piece of kozo shi japanese tissue. I used PVA and glued the kozo shi; then laid the snake skin on it,,worked it with a bone folder; then put it in the nipping press for ten minutes. It adhered perfectly. I then proceeded to try it on a small binding. It worked perfectly, adhering to the board and successfully made a nice little binding out of it. The snake skin darkened when lined with the tissue giving it a beautiful color and texture. Give it a try some time! But only use shedded skin... don't kill a snake to make a book! http:// www.book-restoration.com

Heirloom Bible Conservation/Restoration

August 2010

This week I restored a large leather Heirloom Family Bible. I have done many of these type of Bibles over the past twenty years. The cover on this one was in the worst condition I have seen in a long time. The boards were split in two. I had to vacuum out a serious amount of mold and then spray to kill any remaining; reglue the boards and put them in the nipping press overnight. I then cleaned the boards and glued down all loose pieces of leather; gave them a good oiling while I worked on the text. I repaired the marbled endsheets. Added new cloth hinges, new headbands, mull, acid free paper lined hollow back spine. I rebacked it with matching dark leather, put up the new hinges and relayed the original spine which was the weakest and most damaged part of the Binding. The Bible came out very solid and I my client was very happy. To all of you reading this blog,,know that all is not lost on deteriorated heirloom bindings. With a knowledgable Bookbinder/Conservator, your books and Bibles can be saved and given a new life. I can be reached at http://www.book-restoration.com/

Restoring Life and Campaigns of General Robert E. Lee

This particular Binding has been through the wringer. There isn't a publishing date in the text, but I feel it dates to the 19th Century. At some point it was "restored" by another binder. A new spine, leather corners and endsheets were added. The endsheets don't match the original marbled sides of the original boards. The spine, while elegantly tooled, was poorly bound. The leather corners were still intact but rot has taken their toll. I have removed the corners,spine and lifted the endsheets. I will retain the original boards, adding new calfskin corners, a new calfskin spine and replace the endsheets with a matching marble. I will most likely relay just the spine as it is fully gilded. The calfskin will be dyed and oiled so that all of the calfskin is perfectly matched. The final product will give the binding new life while retaining its original boards, thus giving it an antiquated appearance.

New Blog - Amanda Buck Fine Book Binding and Restoration

My name is Amanda Buck. I am a Fine Bookbinder, Book Conservator/Restorer in Dahlonega, GA. I have been an Independent Bookbinder for twenty years. I will be posting articles about various projects that come into my Bindery. Each book that comes in whether it be a Fine Rare Binding or an heirloom cookbook or Bible, has their own set of problems. I will be explaining the process of how to Conserve the Binding, thus retaining as much of the original Binding and Restoring it to a beautiful fully functioning book that will last generations. be sure and check out my website at http://www.book-restoration.com or my YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/BookRestorer