Bookbinding and The Care of Books
Librarians by Douglas Cockerell with Drawings
by Noel Rooke and other Illustrations
New York
1902
Book binding Chapter XIV
Part 10
Inlaying or on laying is adding a different Inlaying
on different leather from that of the cover, as
Leather decoration. Thus on a red book, a panel or
a border, or other portion, may be covered with
thin green leather, or only flowers or leaves may be
inlaid, while a jewel-like effect may be obtained by
dots, leaves, and flowers, tooled over inlays of
various colors. Leather for inlaying should be pared
very thin. To do this the leather is cut into strips,
wetted, and pared on a stone with a knife shaped
somewhat as at fig. 60, B.
steel punches cut to the shape of the tools; or if only a few inlays are needed, the tools may be
impressed on the thin leather, and the inlays cut out with a sharp knife. The edges of the larger
Inlaying on inlays should be pared round carefully.
For inlaying a panel or other large surface, the leather is pared very thin and evenly with a
French knife, and a piece of paper pasted on to the grained side and left to dry. When dry, the
shape of the panel, or other space to be inlaid, is marked on it through the paper pattern, and
leather and paper cut through to the shape required. The edges must then be carefully pared, and
the piece attached with paste, and nipped in the press to make it stick. When the paste is dry, the
paper may be damped and washed off. The object of the paper is to prevent the thin leather from
stretching when it is pasted. For white inlays it is better to use Japanese paper than leather, as
white leather, when pared very thin, will show the colors of the under leather through, and look
dirty. If paper is used, it should be sized with vellum size before tooling.
When many dots or leaves are to be inlaid, the pieces of leather, cut out with the punch, may
be laid face downwards on a paring stone, and a piece of paper, thickly covered with paste, laid
on it. This, on being taken up, will carry with it the "inlays," and they can be picked Inlaying on
up one at a time on the point of a fine Leather folder, and stuck on the book. "Inlays" of tools
are attached after the pattern has been "blinded" in, and must be again worked over with the
tool, in blind, when the paste is nearly dry. On vellum an effect, similar to that of inlays on
leather, can be obtained by the use of stains.
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