CHAPTER XII

Preparing for Covering--Paring Leather--Covering--Mitring
Corners--Filling-in Boards

PREPARING FOR COVERING

After the headband is worked, a piece of brown or other stout paper
should be well glued on at the head and tail, care being taken that it
is firmly attached to the back and the headband. When dry, the part
projecting above the headband is neatly cut off, and the part on the
back well sand-papered, to remove any irregularity caused by the
tie-downs attaching the headband. For most books this will be quite
sufficient lining up, but very heavy books are best further lined up
between the bands with linen, or thin leather. This can be put on by
pasting the linen or leather and giving the back a very thin coat of
glue.

The only thing now left to do before covering will be to set the
squares and to cut off a small piece of the back corner of each board
at the head and tail, to make it possible for the boards to open and
shut without dragging the head-cap out of place. The form of the
little piece to be cut off varies with each individual binder, but I
have found for an octavo book that a cut slightly sloping from the
inside cutting off the corner about an eighth of an inch each way,
gives the best result (see fig. 58). When the corner has been cut off,
the boards should be thrown back, and the slips between the book and
the board well pasted. When these have soaked a little, the squares of
the boards are set; that is, the boards are fixed so that exactly the
same square shows on each board above head and tail. A little larger
square is sometimes an advantage at the tail to keep the head-cap well
off the shelf, the essential thing being that both head and both tail
squares should be the same. In the case of an old book that has not
been recut, the edges will often be found to be uneven. In such cases
the boards must be made square, and so set that the book stands up
straight.

[Illustration: FIG. 58.]

When the slips have been pasted and the squares set, tins can be put
inside and outside the boards, and the book given a slight nip in the
press to flatten the slips. Only a comparatively light pressure should
be given, or the lining up of the headbands or back will become
cockled and detached.

PARING LEATHER

While the slips are being set in the press the cover can be got out.
Judgment is necessary