The book is now laid upon the glued cloth, and the manipulation of colorering proceeded with, much the same as the covering of a whole bound book in leather.

The cloth must be well rubbed down so as to thoroughly adhere both to the back and boards, and the edges of the boards must be made nicely square.

The joints should also receive particular attention, but great care should be taken not to mark the cloth with the folder, nor damage the grain more than possible. If necessary, through the glue getting too cold to work, the book may be held to the fire for a few seconds, when the glue will again become fluid.

The" forwarding" of the book is now practically finished, and it is ready for the finisher. Some binders paste down the endpapers now, while others prefer to leave that operation until the book has been finished. Whenever the former plan is carried out, it is best to cut a slight shaving only from all round the outside loose end-paper with the knife and cutting-board, as this obviates any unsightly projection of the end-paper inside the board, caused by the stretching of the end-paper from the damping with the paste. The board of the book is laid back, and the end-paper pasted over with thin paste by the brush, and the board lowered upon it, when it will adhere. The board is then again raised, and the end-paper rubbed down with the hand and folding-stick, the latter being especially applied with great care at the joints. This is very necessary, or the paper may not properly "go home" and adhere here, and, if it should not, an unsightly protuberance of loose paper at the joint will be the result, which is generally termed a "pencil case," and. is a clear mark of bad bookbinding.

Flexible Binding -The kind of work thus denominated concerns those books which, as before explained, are sewn upon the bands without any saw-kerfs being made in them, so that the bands or cords stand up from the back, as in old books. This kind of work is not lined up and the leather is attached directly upon the backs of the sections themselves; but a piece of fine linen is glued over the headband and well rubbed down, the surplus being cut off when dry. The bands are damped, and then knocked up perfectly straight and square with the end of a cutting-board or a blunt chisel. If there are any saw-kerfs in the back from former binding, pieces of untwisted cord are pasted and carefully worked in.

These are all well smoothed when dry, and no means should be neglected to make the back perfectly level, as any inequalities will show through the leather when the book is covered.

In the style called "flexible, not to show," a piece of stiff muslin, called" mull," is glued on the back first, and then one piece of paper. For the hollow, three, four, or even five pieces are glued one on the other to gain firmness, whilst the" book itself will appear as if it had a flexible back.

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