Softcover book repair and slip case

A Professor at the college I work at asked if I could repair a book for her. It's an old soft cover book printed in 1931. This book was originally made very cheaply by the binder. The paper probably has a large quantity of straw in it, which is very acidic but was cheap to produce. Since its publication pages have turned brown and is a bit brittle in some places.  Now the Professor wanted the book restored to as close to original as possible which meant making it a softcover instead of casing it in with a hard cover. I'm all for repairing things to as close to their original form as possible.

Now when I say the book was made cheaply I'm going off of the evidence that I have. The book was only cut at the head of the book, the tail and foredge are uneven. No tapes, and only a thin spine lining. The sewing is link stitch and it is still holding up very well after 88 years although the last few sections of the book were getting a bit loose.  They just sewed it up, put a thin spine lining on, cut the head of the book and glued the heavy card cover directly to the spine. That's it. Quick and easy and was probably made affordable to students.








Now the Professor doesn't want any huge changes as this was the book she used for her dissertation. So it has sentimental value to her. I'm not even supposed to clean the stains off of the cover as it is part of the books history and charm.



Since the paper has browned so much I needed to match something with a similar colour. I ordered a few sheets from a couple of different companies but when they arrived they were more grey than brown and unsuitable. Something with paper I wish I could actually browse the store as the pictures they take can very from the actual merchandise due to lighting and quality of the camera.  However I found some suitable paper at my weekly class and as materials are part of me fee I didn't feel so bad using it for this project.






The next step was to clean up the spine.  I put a heavy dollop of paste on the spine and placed some plastic over it to keep it from drying out. After 25 minutes the moisture in the paste softened the old adhesive enough where I could scrap most of it off with my bonefolder.  Normally I'd use my lifting knife but the paper used is soft and I didn't want to damage it. I then wiped off the excess off with a damp cloth, squared the book again and left it to dry.




My original plan was to use some heavy Japanese paper on the spine and joints of the new cover. However my instructor told me it would still wear out over time and that using calico would be a better solution. So I added the calico with about five millimeters over onto the bookblock. Then left it to dry.



I then added some PVA to the calico and placed the book block on the new cover, rolling it over and using my bone folder to remove any air pockets and get a nice firm contact with the cover. Then time to trim the new cover to the book block.  The head was easy as it was the only exposed side that was flush. The tail and fore edge were both a bit random (I'm sure there is terminology for an uncut side. I just don't know what it is called) Once that was dry I then glued the edges of the old cover, about 2 cm worth all around, but leaving the middle dry and placed them onto the new cover. Then I added what remained of the original spine piece.



And finished.  I'm glad I had some input from my instructor as I've only done one other paperback journal before and that one was very straightforward as the old adhesive gave out. The book and coaver where in good condition. I only needed to glue them together again. I had planned to do exactly what I've done but obviously I needed to change some of the materials that I used. 

However I thought how nice it would be to make a slipcase for this book.  I've never made one before so this would be a good time to give it a try. I will be taking another 5 day course from Shepard London in which I will be learning how to make a slipcase and I'd like to go in having a basic understanding of the process.  So I read up in several of my books on how to go about it and each one gave a different set of instructions on how to assemble them. So I choose to make it with each piece separately and glueing them together. It is very fiddly and hard to keep together as the boards were slightly warped from putting the inner lining on. 








 I'm not sure how I managed to get it a bit short but there should have been at least 1mm extra in height. I made a jig consisting of two boards glued together to make sure I had sufficient height but it still came out a small. And the plastic tabs don't help either. However the book still fits in without the need for force and as it was my first ever slipcase I'm pretty pleased with the results. 

What is next? Well I'm working on 3 A6 notebooks, two flat back and one rounded. Then I'm going to take a break from A6 for a spell and do up some A5 and A6 books.  I'm also repairing four other books. An old Switzerland travel book that is very thick in the centre do to all the maps tipped in and two other bog standard books. One that just needs to be cleaned up and a new case made the other needs to be resewn and a case made. Then of course there is that monster of a book. The 1853 London Illustrated Times which will take me 20x longer than I originally thought it would.

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