Binding A Book

Binding A Book – The illustration shows how a book will appear when bound and it also gives the technical terms in use among the professional bookbinders. Books are made up from sections of folded paper, fastened together and then bound. The sections of the folded paper are known as folios and these are made on the following simple plan. Take a sheet of cartridge paper measuring 8 ½ in. by II in. and fold this in two, lengthwise, and tear along the creased line. Then fold each piece in half to make a folio. Prepare I2 sheets of this paper and you will have 24 folios in all. The folding process in illustrated, giving the technical names for these.

The next step in the preparation of your book is to cut a strip of linen, 2 in. wide and about ¾ in. shorter than the folded edge of the folios or section s it is called. Paste the linen over the folded edge as shown in the diagram. Now punch three holes in the centre of this linen, making the top and bottom hole about I in. from each end. Do the punching with a suitable nail and the help of your hammer.

Next sew through these three holes as directed in the diagrams, using the saddle stitch illustrated, with heavy sewing thread, preferably white in colour. Put your needle through the centre hole and push it through one of the outer holes, then back through the centre. There are now two threads protruding through the centre hole, and by a little manoeuvring, see that each end is about 6 in. in lenth. You can remove the needle and bring one thread up each side along the inside and tie a firm knot to secure. Cut off the ends as close as possible to the knot.

Trimming the book is simple. Straighten up the pages as neatly as you can and place a steel edged ruler over the line to be cut and slice off the surplus paper with a very sharp knife. When flattened out, the pages should all be quite square and even.