Bookbinding and The Care of Books
Douglas Cockerell with Drawings by Noel Rooke and other
Illustrations New York 1902
Book binding Chapter XII Part 2
PARING LEATHER
the cover can be got out. Judgment is necessary in
cutting out covers. One workman will be able, by
careful cutting, to get six covers out of a skin
where another will only get four. The firm part of
the skin is the back and sides, and this only should
be used for the best books the fleshy parts on the
flanks and belly will not wear sufficiently well to
be suitable for good bookbinding.
The skin should be cut out leaving about an inch
all round for turning in when the book is covered,
will have been done before it is sold, and the leather manufacturer will have shaved it to any
thickness required. This is a convenience that is partly responsible for the unduly thin leather
that is commonly used. The better plan is to Paring get the leather rather thick, and for the
Leather binder to pare it down where necessary. For small books it is essential, in order that the
covers may open freely, and the boards not look clumsy, that the leather should be very thin at
the joint and round the edges of the boards. For such books it is very important that a small,
naturally thin skin should be used that will not have to be unduly pared down, and that the large
and thicker skins should be kept for large books.
Binders like using large skins because there is much less waste, but if these skins are used for
small books, so much of the leather substance has to be pared away, that only the comparatively
brittle grained surface remains. By the modern process of dyeing this surface is often to some
extent injured, and its strength sometimes totally destroyed.
When the cover has been cut to size the book is laid on it with the boards open, and a pencil line
drawn round them, a mark being made to show where the back comes. The skin is then pared,
making it thin where the edge of the boards will come. Great care must be taken that the
thinning does not commence too abruptly, Leather or a ridge will be apparent when the leather
is on the book.
The paring must be done quite smoothly and evenly. Every unevenness shows when the cover is
polished and pressed. Care is needed in estimating the amount that will have to be pared off that
part of the leather that covers the back and joints. The object of the binder should be to leave
these portions as thick as he can consistently with the free opening of the boards. The leather at
the head-caps must be pared quite thin, as the double thickness on the top of the headband is
apt to make this part project above the edges of the board. This is a great trouble, especially at
the tail, where, if the head-cap projects beyond the hoards, the whole weight of the book rests on
it, and it is certain to be rubbed off when the book is put on the shelf.
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