Bookbinding and The Care of Books
Douglas Cockerell with Drawings by Noel Rooke and other
Illustrations New York 1902
PULLING TO PIECES
Bookbinding Chapter II Part 4
rust and disfigure the book by circular brown marks. Such marks will usually
have to be cut out and the places carefully mended. This process is lengthy,
and consequently so costly, that it is generally cheaper, when possible, to
obtain an unbound copy of the book from the publishers, than to waste time
repairing the damage done by the cloth binder.
After the volume has been collated it must be “pulled,” that is to say, the
sections must be separated, and all plates or maps detached.
If in a bound book there are slips laced in the front cover, they must be cut
and the back torn off. It will sometimes happen that in tearing off the leather
nearly all the glue will come too, leaving the backs of the pages detached
except for the sewing. More usually the back will be left covered with a mass
of glue and linen, or paper, which it is very difficult to remove without injury
to the backs of the sections. By drawing a sharp knife along the bands, the
sewing may be cut and the bands removed, leaving the sections only
connected by the glue. Then the sections of the book can usually be separated
with a fine folder, aft the thread from the centre of each has been removed;
the point of division being ascertained by finding the first signature of each
section. In cases where the glue and leather form too hard a back to yield to
this method, it is advisable to soak the glue with paste, and when soft to
scrape it off with a folder. As this method is apt to injure the backs of the
sections, it should not be resorted to unless necessary; and when it is, care
must be taken not to let the damp penetrate into the book, or it will cause
very ugly stains. The book must be pulled while damp, or else the glue will
dry up harder than before. The separated sections must be piled up carefully
to prevent pages being soiled by the damp glue.
All plates or single leaves “pasted on” must be removed. These can usually
be detached by carefully tearing apart, but if too securely pasted they must be
soaked off in water, unless of course the plates have been painted with water-
colour. If the plates must be soaked off, the leaf and attached plate should be
put into a pan of slightly warm water and left to soak until they float apart,
then with a soft brush any remaining glue or paste can be easily removed
while in the water. Care must be taken not to soak modern books printed on
what is called “Art Paper,” as this paper will hardly stand ordinary handling,
and is absolutely ruined if wetted. The growing use of this paper in
important books is one of the greatest troubles the bookbinder has to face.
The highly loaded and glazed surface of some of the heavy plate papers easily
flakes off, so that any guard pasted, on these plates is apt to come away, taking
with it the surface of the paper. Moreover, should the plates change to be
fingered or in any way soiled, nothing can remove the marks; and should a
corner get turned down, the paper breaks and the corner will fall off. It is the
opinion of experts that this heavily loaded Art Paper will not last a reasonable
time, and, apart from other considerations, this should be ample reason for
not using it in books that are expected to have a permanent value. Printers
like this paper, because it enables them to obtain brilliant impressions from
blocks produced by cheap processes.
In “cased” books, sewn by machinery, the head and tail of the sheets will
often be found to be split up as far as the “kettle” stitches. If such a book is
to be expensively bound, it will require mending throughout in these places,
or the glue may soak into the torn ends, and make the book open stiffly.
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