Rebinding DUNE - Part 2 - Rescuing A Vintage Book: Custom Endpapers, Backing & Covers

[Music] hello everyone I'm Dennis welcome back to my binder in the previous video I took a battered old copy of Dune paint mistakenly took it apart then carefully repaired every single page before stitching it back together but that was just the beginning of this book's transformation today I'll be giving it some custom end papers beefing up the spine weaving some endbands and then finally getting it back between some covers but first I need to prepare some materials so let's go take a look in the filing cabinet in addition to book binding I also make my own marbled papers these are a few of the prints that I made recently and there's one in particular that I really like so let's take a little 30second detour so I can show you how I made it if you've never heard of it paper marbling is a technique of floating paint on a liquid medium to create designs which can then be printed by laying paper onto the fluid bath the paint fuses to the paper on contact creating a permanent and completely unique design when it's lifted off rinsed and dried it's ready to use if you'd like to learn more about paper marbling I made a longer version of this clip which you can watch by way of the link on your screen but for now back to book binding of all the prints that I made I really like this one the most because the pattern really reminds me of the Rolling sand dunes of oracus to select the part of the paper that I want to use for the end papers I made a little viewing window out of some card stock I use it to scan over the pattern to select just the parts that I want with my favorite portions selected I'll carefully cut them out the type of end papers I'll be making will have the marbled paper in two separate panels so I'll need four pieces in total the second component on the end papers will be this handmade cotton paper which I was fortunate enough to purchase in person at the paper mill in Montreal it'll make up the blank white fly leaves of the front and back of the book as well as the waist sheets I'll need four pieces that are double the width of the book which will get folded in half next I want to burnish this marbled paper a lot of people ask me why I do this and it really is mostly an aesthetic choice I like the glossy smooth surface created by the burnishing and I feel it also deepens the colors and makes them a little bit more intense the beeswax also imparts a little bit of extra protection on the paper which I like working on the hard surface of my litho Stone I apply just a little bit of beeswax with a cloth and then starting slowly from the center I use my Agate burnisher to press down firmly onto the paper I then work slowly across the face of the paper in multiple directions to create a nice even finish here you can see the side by side of the paper before and after burnishing the final material that I'll be using for these end papers is leather I'll cut out two strips about an inch and a quart wide to thin the strips I'll use this device called a skyver which is just a term for thinning leather it has a razor sharp blade and by pulling the material between the blade and the lower roller I can get a very consistent thickness or in this case thinness I'll then switch to my pairing knife to Bevel the long edges of the strips and finally I'll trim them to a nice straight edge on both pieces so with all the materials prepped I can now start assembling the endpapers I'll begin by sorting out my four pieces of marbled paper these two will be pasted down to the inside of the covers later and so I'll set them aside for now the other two pieces get glued out with some PVA glue just along the edge so it can attach the leather strips these will become part of the cover hinges and will be visible in the finished binding I'll press those into place with my bone folder and then set them under some lightweight to dry while those are drying I'll fold up the white sheets I want to try to preserve the decl edge for these so I'm folding them a little bit off center next I'll glue out one of the white sheets to back the marbled paper here I'm using a mix of PVA and methyl cellulose which has a slightly longer working time than straight PVA that gives me enough time to get my marble paper lined up and to pitch the glued paper to the faint line that shows the edge of the marbled paper through through the leather I give it an initial press with my hands then with some parchment and blotting paper inside I'll pop it into the Press between some boards while I work on the other end paper when that one's done add it to the press and leave those to dry overnight the next morning I'll add an additional white folio to each end paper just tipped on with PVA along one Edge I'll give those a nip in the press for 15 minutes or so long enough for the glue to really grab I'll then take them out and fold back one leaf of the white paper to form the waist sheet this protects the marbled paper throughout the binding process but will also play an important structural role later to attach these to the book I'll first trim the head of each end paper 90° to the spine Edge doing so allows me to align them properly for piercing using my template from part one I pierce holes through the two white sheets taking care not to damage the marbled paper or the leather and because I use the same template from before the holes in the end papers match up perfectly with the sewing holes on the text block that makes sewing on the end papers easy I'll use the extra long bits of thread that I left on the book from part one and then finish off each one with a kettle Stitch [Music] with those now securely attached I can trim them to length I'll slide my ruler in underneath the text block so that I can trim the head flush with the existing pages on the for Edge I slightly mismeasured the fly leaves so I'll need to remove a bit of material there I'd wanted to keep the original decal edge of the handmade paper but instead I'll mimic it by tearing away the excess of course I had to go and use a high quality paper here and tearing it is easier said than done in the end I wound up using tweezers to finish it off at least I can trim the waist sheet with a blade so that's the text block completed with the endpapers and all the sewing done which is a big milestone in The Binding process the book is still feeling pretty flimsy though so it's time to start working on the spine and getting it all Consolidated rounded and backed in the last video a few people asked if this book's paper was acidic and if it was worth all the trouble of rebinding it I've got my little acid test marker here so I'll make a little Mark right down in the gutter where it'll be hidden as you can see it comes up purple which means the paper is not acidic so good news both the endpapers and the first and last signatures of a book get lots of wear and tear so I want to reinforce those I'll apply a narrow strip of PVA glue just along the inside edges of each it doesn't require much I take care to pull each section forward so that it's aligned properly at the spine and then I'll put it under a lightweight for a while just long enough for me to set up my backing press for the next operation a few pieces of scrap card will protect the book while I'm working on the spine and help keep the tapes out of the way I make sure that the book is well squared up both along the spine and at the head and then I do my best to keep it that way while I put it in the press and put the squeeze on [Music] it I close up the sewing holes before applying straight PVA glue between the tapes some of you may be wondering why I'm using PVA when I went to so much trouble to use reversible paste for the paper repairs well at that stage I didn't know if what I was doing was actually going to work so I wanted to make sure that I was able to remove the adhesive if it all went pear-shaped now I'm in much more familiar territory and since this isn't a conservation binding by any means PVA is the most convenient and appropriate adhesive for this particular application but I'm not a complete monster this is an acid-free archival PVA so hopefully it'll last a good long time I let that stand in the press for about half an hour long enough for the glue to be dry to the touch but not completely firmed up it needs to be a little bit flexible for the rounding and backing process for this a backing Hammer is my tool of choice I gently Flex the book to pull on the spine and then use a light tapping motion to ease the signatures into position a properly round spine will hold its shape and help reduce the overall swell I flip it over frequently to make sure I'm getting an even round this book is cooperating pretty well and I think that looks pretty good some layout lines will help me align the book and the press to create the shoulders as I put the squeeze on it in the Press you can see it's almost forming the shoulders all by itself I'll make sure the tapes are moving freely I don't want them to restrict the movement of the signatures as I form the shoulders I'll start off just with my bone folder easing the signatures over so they're headed in the right direction before Bringing Down the hammer I'm going to try something new here I've got this little folded scrap of parchment which will fit between the sewing tapes and prevent the hammer from marring any of the sewing while I work on the spine I start pretty gently but once I'm sure everything's moving in the right direction I can increase the strength of the hammer blows and get everything formed into shape once I'm happy with that I'll brush on a generous amount of PVA over the entire spine including the tapes which will lock everything into place for further consolidation I'll cut a strip of mul and I'll glue that down as well taking care to rub it down all over to make sure it's fully adhered and as I was so impressed with the Koo paper on the repairs I'm going to add a strip to the spine of the book as well I cut it to length and width glue it out with methyl cell mix and carefully apply it to the spine rubbing it down well and molding it around all of the sewing tapes with that done I'll leave the book right there in the press and let everything dry thoroughly overnight my next task is to sew some endbands onto the book to help me get the sewing in the right place I'm going to add these strips of paper to the center of every signature this process is called [Music] flagging I'll wax a length of the same light linen thread that I used to sew the book and attach a needle no fancy colors here for now these are strictly structural endbands though I mean to dress them up later on in the binding process for now they'll help make up for the misted kettle stitches from the two on sewing I'll start my sewing from the inside of the second signature I'll use a piece of hemp cord as the core for the headband which has been stiffened with some PVA glue after the initial Loop I'll wrap the core enough times to reach the middle of the next [Music] signature then I tie it down through the center of that signature with another Stitch followed by a few more [Music] wraps I continue with the same weaving pattern wrapping and tying down working my way across the spine the tricky part of weaving endbands apart from keeping the weaving pattern straight is maintaining a consistent tension on the [Music] thread [Music] when I reach the other side I make a final wrap then attach the needle to the other end of the thread Stitch that through and finish it all off with a square [Music] [Music] knot before working on the other endband I'll take the time to slide my flagging papers around to the other side weaving the second endband always seems to go a little bit faster than the first and so in short order I've got that one finished as [Music] well finally I'll trim off the ends of the cores with my scissors I think I want to add one more layer of paper to the spine this will help reduce some of the texture of The Sewing and I like to think that it strengthens the stitching of the endbands I'm using some regular brown craft paper for this I'll mark the distance between each of the sewing tapes on the paper before cutting those to length and gluing them in place with some more PV when I started this binding I'd hoped that the sewing tapes would be a little bit more pronounced to show on the spine but that hasn't turned out to be the case I do want the flat wide bands to show through through on the finished book though so I'm going to add some thin leather strips to create those I'll cut a strip of leather the same width as the sewing tapes and then cut some pieces to length I also bevel the ends so that they make a nice transition from the spine to the shoulders of the book and they too get glued in place with some PVA and are allowed to dry okay it's time to make the covers I've got two options of greyboard one is about 1 and 1 12 millim thick and the other is about 2 and 12 millim even though it says 2.8 on the gauge initially I thought I would use one layer of each to make a laminated split coverboard of about 4 Ms thick but in the end I went with two layers of the 2 and 1/2 mil for a nice chunky 5 mil cover working in the long grain Direction I break them down to width with a ruler and blade so that they can fit onto my Chopper I think this machine started Life as a metal shear but it works well for cutting board and it makes short work of this 2 and 1 12 mil material I'm making these a little bit oversiz and I'll trim them to length later I Mark a line on the inside of one of the boards to show where not to apply any of the PVA glue then I sandwiched together the other piece and put it under a lightweight while I glue out the other coverboard those then get put into the press to make sure that they're well adhered while those are drying it's time to deal with these unruly tapes I'll use some scrapbo to protect the shoulders and then I'll trim the tapes to length in retrospect I could have done this a lot earlier in the process and saved myself the headache of these things getting in the way all the time then working on another piece of scrap board I'm going to fray out the ends of the tapes I use both my all and a micro spatula to separate the fibers and then scrape away the material to a nice feathered Edge and here's where the waist sheets are going to come in handy they're going to get folded over to sandwich together both the tapes and the mul to create tabs I use my folder to crease the paper along the line where I need to fold it and then I trim it to size I'll do that on the other side of the book as well before I break out any glue once again I'm using PVA here I first make sure that the tapes are glued down and spread out evenly then I'll put down the all and fold over the flap of the waist sheet I make sure that the shoulder is still nice and square before adding a bit of parchment and blotting paper and then I'll flip the entire book over onto a pressing board I work fast to glue out the other tab as well because I want to get this into the Press right away I'll be using maximum press pressure for this step so I'll also add a couple of pressing tins which will stop the tabs from getting pressed into the text block and leaving impressions in the paper the boards are dry now and you can see that there's still a slight Gap left for me to insert the tabs I did square up my stock when I rough cut it but I'm going to take the time to trim the tail ends of both Wards Square by hand I'm starting at the tail because that's the end the book stands on and if the covers are going to be out of square I want it to be at the head where it won't be as noticeable after about an hour in the Press I'll take the book out and stand it up so that the air can circul at around the tabs and let them dry completely the next day the tabs are nice and dry though they've developed a bit of a potato chip curl that won't be a problem though they're going to be squeezed firmly between the coverboards I need to trim off a little bit of material at each end of the tabs which will allow for the leather to be turned in on the covers later I'll work carefully with a pair of scissors to trim away 20 mm at each end making sure of course not to Nick the leather hinge I'll also bevel Each corner at a rough 45° angle hopefully that will assist in sliding the tabs into the cover later this is a good time to do a dry fit before gluing everything irreversibly into place the scrap of wood that I had made for a handy gauge to make a consistent gap between the coverboard and the shoulder which is about 5 mm I'll measure to make sure that I have a consistent 4 mm square at the tail of the book and then I'll mark the head of the coverboard where it needs to be trimmed I'll measure and mark the other cover and then trim both boards to finished length at the inside hinge corners of the boards I'll make some slight relief bevels this is called back cornering and removes the stress point from the cover material my blade also left a rather rough finish along the edges so I'll lightly sand the boards all the way around to ease those Transitions and I'll take a moment to clean up the mess from all the sanding I'll do one more dry fit to make sure that everything is looking good and I'll add a couple of registration marks to guide me when I get to attaching the covers glue-ups like this are about as stressful as bookbinding gets so I need all the help I can get that means getting my pressing Tins in place ahead of time as well so I don't forget those later I use my bone folder to create a little bit of extra space on the inside of the split boards and then I'll use a cheap brush to delicately apply just enough methyl cell PVA mix down into the Gap I'm using mix here to give myself a little bit more time to get the cover positioned properly before the glue sets up I'll slide the first tab into the board and use my gauge to help me get it positioned properly I put some parchment lining paper in which will prove to be important in a minute I'll then work quickly to get the other cover glued up and attached as well then it's back into the press for a quick firm squeeze after just a minute I'll take the book back out and you might notice that a whole bunch of extra glue seems seem to have come out from somewhere not sure how that got there I'll wipe that away with a brush and then it's back into the press to dry completely all right the book spent a night in the Press time to see if everything's where it's supposed to be at first glance nothing is stuck where it shouldn't be stuck so that's a good sign line the spacing at the shoulders looks good the covers open really well so I'm happy with that now I've just got a few more things to do to finish off this stage of The Binding the 4 edges of the covers still need to be trimmed to size I'll make some marks 4 mm from the text block on both the front and back covers and then with a few pressing boards for support I'll open the covers up fully and cut them to size these double thick boards are really quite tough to get so I make sure to use a fresh blade take my time and make plenty of light passes so as not to murder myself finally I'm going to do one last trim to the marbled end sheets so that they don't extend out past the edges of the text bar well this book is well in its way to surpassing its original form but I'm going to leave it here for this video The Binding itself is complete and If This Were a typical book The Next Step would be to apply the covering material but this is not going to be a typical book I've got a few special Design Elements planned before I get to the finishing stages so be sure to subscribe to the channel and ring the notification Bell so you don't miss part three if this video has inspired you enough to want to support me directly you can do so easily just by buying me a coffee you'll find a link in the video description cheers and of course you can always help the channel for free simply by clicking the like button it's the easiest way to help this video find its way to other Book Lovers like you both they and I will really appreciate it so as always I'm Dennis thanks for watching and I'll see you in part three

Channel: Four Keys Book Arts

Views: 211,490

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Id: EQDnVT8CkoE

Length: 31min 24sec (1884 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 23 2024