Bookbinding and The Care of Books
Douglas Cockerell with Drawings by Noel Rooke and other
Illustrations New York 1902
Bookbinding Chapter VIII Part 2
book should be determined by the
necessities of the case; that is to say, a back
that has, through guarding, or excess of
sewing, a tendency to be round, is best not
forced to be flat, and a back that would
naturally be flat, is best not forced to be
unduly round. A very round back is
objectionable where it can be avoided
because it takes up so much of the back
margins of the sheets, and is apt to make
the book stiff in opening. On the other
hand, a back that is quite flat has to be line
up stiffly, or it may become concave with
use.
the back projecting, a little over the edge of the
press or table, then to draw the back over towards
the workman, and, while in this position, to tap it
carefully with a hammer (see fig. 36). This is
repeated on the other side of the book, and, if
properly done, will give the back an even, convex
form that should be in section, a portion of a
circle. Rounding and backing are best done after
the glue has ceased to be tacky, but before it has
set hard.
Backing is perhaps the most difficult and
important operation in forwarding. The sewing
threads in the back cause that part to be thicker
addition to the thickness of the paper, twenty thicknesses of thread.
If the boards were laced on to the book without rounding, or backing, and the book were
pressed, the additional thickness of the back, having to go somewhere, would cause it to go
either convex or concave, or else perhaps to crease up (see fig. 37). The object of rounding is to
control the distribution of the swelling, and to make the back take an even and permanently
convex form.
between the square ends of the board and the edge of the back (see fig. 38),
though the convexity and even curve of the back would be to some extent
assured. What is done in backing is to make a groove, into which the edges
of the boards will fit neatly, and to hammer the backs of the sections over
one another from the centre outwards on both sides to form the “groove,”
to ensure that the back shall return to the same form after the book has
been opened.
slips outside) a short distance below the edge of the back (fig. 39). The
amount to leave here must be decided by the thickness of the boards to be
used. When the backing boards are in position, the book and boards must
be carefully lowered into the lying press and screwed up very tight, great
care being taken to see that the boards do not slip, and that the book is
put in evenly. Even the most experienced forwarder will sometimes have
to take a book out of the press two or three times before he gets it to
quite evenly and without allowing the boards to slip. Unless the back has
backing, no amount of subsequent hammering will
put it permanently right.
The backs of the sections should be evenly fanned
out one over the other from the centre outwards on
both sides. This is done by side strokes of the
hammer, in fact by a sort of “riveting” blow, and not
by a directly crushing blow (see fig. 41, in which the
arrows show the direction of the hammer strokes).
If the sections are not evenly fanned out from the
of the hammer, as shown in fig. 42, A, or are unevenly fanned over
more to one side than the other, as shown in fig. 42, B, the back
although it may be even enough when first done, will probably
become uneven with use. A book in which the sections have been
crushed down, as at fig. 42, A, will be disfigured inside by creased
in the paper. It is a mistake to suppose that a very heavy hammer
is necessary for backing any but the largest books. For flexible
books a hammer with a comparatively small face should be used,
as by its use the book can be backed without flattening the bands.
It is well to have a hammer head of the shape shown in fig. 43. By
using the thin end, the force of a comparatively light blow, because
concentrated on a small surface, is effective.
At fig. 44 is shown an ordinary backing hammer.
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