Bookbinding and The Care of Books
Douglas Cockerell with Drawings by Noel Rooke and other
Illustrations New York 1902
Bookbinding Chapter VII Part 4
The easiest way to set up the sewing-frame for such sewing is to sling a piece of wood through
two of the lay cords, and to pin one end of the vellum or tape band round this, pull the other
end tight, and secure it with a drawing-pin underneath the frame. The sewing, in the case of
such flat bands, would not go round, but only across them. To avoid undue looseness, every
three or four threads may be caught up at the back of the band, as shown in fig. 33.
One way to avoid having too much swelling in the back of a book consisting of a great many
very thin sections is to sew “two sheets on.” In this form of sewing two sections at a time are
laid on the sewing frame. The thread is inserted at the “kettle stitch” of the lower section, and
brought out as usual at the first cord, but instead of being reinstated into the lower section, it is
passed into the upper one, and so on, alternately passing into the upper and lower sections.
This will give, if there are five bands, three stitches in each section instead of six, as there would
be if the sewing were “all along,” lessening the thread, consequently the swelling by half. It is
usual to sew the first and last few sections “all along.’
The common method of sewing is to make saw cuts in the back, in which thin cords can be
sunk, and the thread merely passes behind them and not round them, as in flexible sewing. This
method, although very quick and cheap, is not to be recommended, on account of the injury
done to the backs of the sections by the saw, and because the glue running into the saw cuts is
apt to make the back stiff, and to prevent the book from opening right to the back. Indeed,
were a sewn-in book to open right to the back, as it is expected a flexibly-sewn book will do,
showing the sewing along the centre of each section, the saw marks with the band inserted
would show, and be a serious disfigurement.
of leather, and the headband was often sewn at the same time,
as shown at fig. 32, A. This is an excellent method for very
large books with heavy sections, and is specially suitable for
large vellum manuscripts, in many of which the sections are
very thick. An advantage of this method is, that the twist
round the double cord virtually makes a knot at every band,
and should a thread at any place break, there is no danger of
the rest of the thread coming loose. This is the only mode of
sewing by which a thread runs absolutely from end to end of
the sections. The headband sewn at the same time, and so
tied down in every section, is firmer and stronger than if
worked on in the way now usual. In the fifteenth century it
was the custom to lace the ends of the headbands into the
boards in the same way as the other bands. This method,
while giving additional strength at the head and tail, and
avoiding the somewhat unfinished look of the cut-off ends of
the modern headband, is, on the whole, of doubtful
advantage, as it is necessary to cut the “turn in” at the point
where strength in the leather is much wanted.
double bands; with the headbands worked at the same time with the same thread; B is the
modern flexible sewing, and C the common sawn-in method.
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