Welcome to about book binding your resource
for FREE bookbinding information.
 |  |  |
by Joseph W. Zaehnsdorf
Published in London 1897
The word “rounding” applies to the back of the book, and is preliminary to backing. In rounding the back, the book is
to be laid on the press before the workman with the foredge towards him; the book is then to be held with the left
hand by placing the thumb on the foredge and finders on the top of the book pointing towards the back, so that by
drawing the fingers towards the thumb, or by pressing fingers and thumb together, the back is drawn towards the
workman at an angle. In this position the back is struck with the face of the hammer, beginning in the center, still
drawing the back over with the left hand. The book is ten to be turned over, and e other side treated in the same
way, and continually changed or turned from one side to the other until it has its proper form, which should be a part
of a circle. When sufficiently rounded, it should be examined to see if one side be perfectly level with the other, by
holding the book up and glancing down its back, and gently tapping the places where uneven, until it is perfectly
true or uniform.
will be found to round it; and some papers
will be found more obstinate than others, so
that great care must be exercised both in
rounding and backing, as the foredge when
cut will have exactly the same for as the
back. Nothing can be more annoying than to
see books lop-sided, pig-backed, and with
sundry other ailments, inherent to cheap
bookbinding.
The back when properly rounded should
be about a third of a circle, according to the
present mode, but in olden times they were
almost flat. They were not rounded as now
done, but the swelling caused by the thread
used made quite enough rounding when put
in the press for backing.
Flat back books have a certain charm
about them, the more so it in other respects
they are properly forwarded. The theory is
altogether averse to practical binding. I
have always been given to understand that
we round our books in order to counteract
the tendency of a book to sink in and
assume a convex back. Any old well-used
book bound with a flat back will show at
once this defect.
Messrs. Hopkinson and Cope, of
Farringdon Road, London, manufacture a
rounding machine. They claim that this
machine will round 600 books per hour, and
that any desired “round” may be given to
the book with great uniformity.
email: info@aboutbookbinding.com