It has already been suggested that beat­ing is now confined almost wholly to small offices, although in special cases it may be adopted even when a rolling machine is generally used. Beating is, however, the cheapest process for the amateur. The object of beating is to make the leaves of a book lie close together, so that the volume when bound may be as solid as though it were one single block. Mere pressing alone will not do this. In beating, the bookbinder stands before the beating slab, holding in his left hand a bundle of as many sections of the book as he deems advisable to operate upon at once, say, from five up to ten or fifteen, according to the thickness of the paper.

The bundle of sheets is beaten for some time with the hammer, which has already been described. The proper use of the beating hammer requires so much manual dexterity that it is advisable to practice beating with a few folded sheets of blank paper. The handle is grasped with the right hand, with the big knuckles downward and the wrist curved. The wrist and hand are then slightly twisted so as to give the face of the hammer an upward turn that almost permits the operator to see the face of the hammer. Then, by a downward turn, the hammer is allowed to descend on the work. The blow must be given with very little more force than is furnished by the weight of the hammer. The hammer must not by any chance fall edgewise on the sheets; if it does, many leaves will be cut through, and the work spoilt. The bundle of sheets must be constantly shifted and evenly struck all over, and a sheet of stiff, smooth paper, placed at the top and bottom of the bundle, will keep the sheets clean. The solidity of a bound book depends on the amount of beating or rolling it receives.

If it is necessary to bind very recently printed sheets, they must not be beaten or rolled; nor should this be done if the ink is so wet as to smear, or the ink will set off, as it is technically termed; that is, the printing on each page will be partly transferred to the facing page, and both pages will be somewhat illegible. The sheets of a new work should, before they are folded, be hung on lines in a dry, well-ventilated room till the ink is thoroughly dry. Test the sheets by placing a piece of white paper on a printed page; rub the paper hard with a folder or the finger nail, and if there is then no sign of setting off, the sheets may safely be beaten or rolled.

Many bookbinders who possess a rolling machine will probably roll an amateur's work at a very small cost. There are also houses that do rolling for the trade. Beating, however, will answer very well. Indeed, very old books should 'on no account be rolled; the paper on which they are printed being uneven in thickness, and the actual printing having been done under varying degrees of pressure, care­ful beating must take the place of rolling, or the work will be spoilt. After the sheets of a book have been beaten a few at a time, all the sheets of the volume should be beaten together and then placed once more for a short time in the standing press.

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