WINTHROP C. PEABODY

In most families are to be found numerous magazines which are not valued to the extent of going to the expense of having them bound up at a bindery, but are, nevertheless, well worth the time and slight cost necessary to binding them at home. In many instances, book binding begun in this casual way has been found of so much interest, and the worker has acquired such skill, that bindings of most artistic and mechanical skill have been executed, and a library of choice bindings eventually acquired.

It will be the purpose of these articles to direct the reader along the first stages of this artistic occupation, but sufficient information will be given so that continued progress can be followed intelligently, and with a proper understanding of the lines along which to study.

A start will be made, therefore, by describing the processes to be followed in binding a set of magazines, and that the illustration may be familiar to us, we will take the numbers of Amateur Work for one year, and comprising a volume. Other magazines will vary but little from this one, and no difficulty will be found in working them if these directions are followed. It is assumed that before commencing the work of binding the reader will have provided himself with the necessary tools, which may be purchased of dealers in book-binders' supplies, or that he will have made them, as described in previous numbers of this magazine. The sewing frame, described in the September, 1902 ; the press, December, 1902, and cutting press and plow in the February, 1903, issues, are all necessary tools ; the cutting press and plow can be dispensed with if a printer friend with paper cutter can be prevailed upon to do the trimming, but as work of this class works havoc with the knives, a refusal may be expected at the second visit.

The first work is to look over each magazine carefully, smoothing out folds or wrinkles, mending torn places with gummed paper specially prepared for this use and obtained at the public libraries if the stationer does not keep it. Also observe if plate illustrations are correctly placed, that no pages are missing, and that colored illustrations are protected by thin, strong sheets of tissue. Further directions for handling colored plates will be given later.

An examination of the method of binding or stitching each magazine is next in order. Amateur Work being wire stitched in two places, the several sheets making up one magazine being assembled one within another; "saddled" as it is termed, the whole making up what in the book will be termed a "signature".

Other magazines will be found bound with wire staples driven through the sheets from top to bottom, near the edge, and others are stitched with thread in several different ways. The two latter classes of magazines generally have several signatures to each magazine, each signature being handled separately when being stitched for binding into a book.

The wire staples, or threads, as the case may be, must be carefully removed, using care not to tear the folds of the leaves. If glue has been used for attaching a cover, the application of hot water is necessary, or the glued surface can be held in the steam from the nose of a teakettle, but should be protected by strips of wood along the edges, held by clamps, to prevent the moisture from working back onto the page and damaging it. After wetting or steaming, the edges should be allowed to dry thoroughly before further work is attempted as, while moist, the sheets will tear very easily. The glue, when moistened as directed, should be scraped off with a dull knife, followed by a moist sponge. The signatures are then separated and laid upon a flat surface to dry, being collected again in the original order when dry.

Again examining the several magazines which are to make up one volume, it will frequently be found that the margins are not uniform at top or bottom. When this is the case, it is necessary to so arrange them that the margins will be alike, so that the book will "register ". First find the magazine or signature having the least margin at the top, measure the distance from the headline to the top edge of the page, then mark on the back of each signature a guide line giving the same top margin. When assembled for sawing cuts for the stitching, these marks should be in line, giving to the book an even register.

The handling which has thus far been given the sheets will have the effect of making them lie loosely together, and be more or less wrinkled. To compress them and smooth out the pages, the signatures comprising a book are jogged up evenly at the back and put in the press, where they should remain over night under heavy pressure. Colored illustrations, especially if of recent print, would become attached to the pages facing them if not suitably protected while in the press. In binderies, sheets of tin (not tinned iron) are placed over colored plates, but for the occasional use of amateurs, the oiled paper used for wet copying of correspondence and obtainable at most stationery stores, will serve the purpose as well. As they are so handily obtained, their purchase can be deferred until the necessity for the r use arrives.

As the reader who engages in book binding will, in all probablity, have several books in process at a time, to assemble them in the press it is necessary to have a supply of pressing boards, varying in size for the different sizes of books to be bound. They are smooth, rectangular pieces of maple, or birch or other fine-grained, hard wood, from 1/2 to 3/4 in. thick, and about 1 in. larger on all sides than the books they are used with. They should be very smooth and even. The top block nearest the screw should be about 2 in. thick. The books to be pressed are piled one upon the other in the center of the press, separated by the pressing boards, as illustrated in the description of the press. Care must be used to get the pile as near the center as possible, so that the pressure of the screw will be applied evenly. If a book be thrown out of shape in the press by being placed to one side, it will be quite difficult to again get it to remain even.

To the reader who has but few books to bind, and who is not desirous of fitting up a press as described, a book or two can be pressed by means of wooden hand clamps, such as are used by cabinet-makers for gluing up work, and pressing boards rather thicker than as above specified. An enterprising friend of the writer made use of a bench vise with thick boards each side of the book, and binding only one book at a time.