Bookbinding and book repair
Tatiana Smagin binds and repairs by hand at one bench in Geelong. A spine that has split, a block of pages that has come away from its covers, a family bible read until the hinges gave, a run of journals that needs binding into one volume: each is sewn, backed and covered with the structure the book needs, not the one that is quickest to put on. What a book keeps of its own is kept.
The same book at three moments: the sections sewn one onto the next, the sewing held upright on the frame with its tapes, and the block rounded and backed between its boards.
Five kinds of job. Most books that come in need the first or the second; the rest are chosen because of what the book is for, not because they cost more.
I
The usual failure: the cloth or leather has cracked along the joint, a board hangs by a thread, the spine strip is gone. The old covers are lifted, the joint is rebuilt with new material underneath, and what survives of the original spine and its lettering is laid back down over it.
Done this way the book keeps its own face and gets a new hinge to open on.
II
When pages are falling out in handfuls, the sewing has gone or the book was glued at the spine instead of sewn. The block is pulled apart, the old adhesive cleared, folds mended, and the sections sewn again on tapes or cords.
A book that was never sewn can be guarded into sections first, so it can be, instead of being glued a second time.
III
For a book worth keeping that has no binding left, and for loose material that should become one volume: a thesis, a run of a journal, a set of maps, a manuscript, a family's recipes.
Cloth, buckram or leather over boards, endpapers chosen to suit, and the title tooled or lettered on the spine.
IV
Tears closed and torn-out leaves put back with Japanese paper and wheat starch paste; weak folds guarded; dog-eared corners relaxed and flattened; surface dirt lifted dry where the paper will take it.
Repairs are made to be reversible, so that whoever comes to the book after this can undo them without damage.
V
Clamshell boxes, slipcases and simple four-flap wrappers, each built to the book rather than bought in a size. For a volume too fragile to be repaired without losing what makes it interesting, a box is often the better answer.
Boards are covered in cloth and lined, and the box is labelled so the book can be found without being handled.
Four steps, the same for a paperback held together with tape and for a nineteenth century quarto. Nothing is taken apart before the estimate is agreed in writing.
Roughly how old it is, what it is bound in now, what has gone wrong and what you want from it afterwards: a book to read, a book to shelve, or a book to keep as it is. Photographs of the spine, the joint and an open page are enough to start.
The structure is examined: how it was sewn, whether the paper will stand handling, how much of the covering can be saved. You get a written estimate setting out what would be done, what would be kept and what would have to be replaced.
If something turns up once the book is open — a split that runs further than it looked, a previous repair that has to come out — the work stops and you decide, before it goes on.
What was done, what materials went into it, what was deliberately left alone, and how to shelve and open the book so the repair lasts. The record goes with the book, because the next binder will need it.
A one-person bindery is not a conservation laboratory and is not a printer. These go elsewhere, and saying so now saves a book from being sent the wrong way.
If your question is not here, write it on the request page and the answer comes back in writing, before anything is agreed.
It can. For an ordinary reading copy a sound repair makes it usable again and that is the whole point. For a book that might have collector value, any intervention — new sewing, a new spine, even a clean — changes what a buyer sees, and a box may be the right answer instead. If that is a real question for your book, have it valued first by someone who does valuations, because that is not done here.
Closely, rarely exactly. Old bookcloth grains and leather finishes are not made any more, so the aim is a material that sits honestly beside the old one rather than one pretending to be it. Wherever enough of the original covering survives, it is lifted, kept and laid back over the new work, which usually looks better than any match.
Longer than most people expect, because paste and adhesives have to dry under weight between stages and that cannot be hurried without the book warping. A hinge repair is measured in days of drying; a full rebinding in weeks. A date is given in the estimate and you are told in writing if it changes.
Not here. Water and mould damage needs drying and treatment facilities this bench does not have, and opening a damp book at the wrong moment destroys it. Keep it cold and move as little air over it as possible, and ask a conservation studio or a library conservation service straight away rather than waiting.
Say what it is, what has gone wrong and what you want it to do afterwards. A written estimate comes back, with what would be kept and what would be replaced, before anything is taken apart.