Manly Banister - The Craft of Bookbinding

TABLE I

TABLE II

What tools do you really need? To start your bookbinding career, you need a lying press and plow with backing boards and some kind of a simple book press (Illus. 4 and 1314). You can buy such tools ready-made (see list of suppliers on page 159), or you can make them yourself, or have them made from the drawings provided. You do not need a wide outlay of such tools as knives and hammers. If you have them, use them. Otherwise, make do with what you have.

Illus. 4A fruit press makes a good book press. The fruit cage is not usedit is present in the photo for identification only.

Present-day availability of the Redibolt (threaded rod) has vastly simplified the home-shop construction of bookbinding equipment. Redibolts up to diameter by 3 feet in length are available in hardware stores. (In metric countries, threaded rods are sold by millimetre lengths.) Larger sizes can be purchased from an industrial hardware dealer. Sizes up to -inch diameter come in 3-foot lengths. Redibolts of 2-inch diameter and up come in 12-foot lengths, but these are larger than needed and are not to be considered. Purchase nuts required for the size of rod at the same time you buy the Redibolts.

Illus. 5The standing press. This one was made by the author from maple planks, using a 1 -inch Redibolt (threaded rod) for a press screw. It is an ideal press for the classroom or advanced amateur.

LYING PRESS AND PLOW. (Illus. 78). As a lying press only, it is used to hold the book in various forwarding operations (forwarding = all the steps involved in bookbinding from tearing down the book up to but not including finishing or titling).

With the plow, it is used to trim the edges of books. With backing boards, it becomes a backing press. Note the backing boards in Illus. 8. Old-time bookbinders used boards that tapered in thickness from the beveled edge to the bottom edge and are difficult to hold while adjusting the book in the press. The boards shown rest on the tub and cannot fall through. Instead of tapering the thickness, strips of -inch hardboard are glued to the sides at the height of the cheek of the press. The purpose of these strips is the same as that of tapering the boardsto bring the pressure of the press to bear only against the line of backing and not against the entire book. Otherwise, boards narrower than the book would mark an unsightly crease across the endpapers.

Illus. 6Construction details, the standing press.

Maple is recommended for all construction, but other hardwoods, where available, may be used: birch, beech, cherry, etc.

To adapt the plane blade to the plow, the areas to be drilled and cut must first be heated cherry red with a torch or in a gas flame and allowed to cool slowly in the air. The blade can then be drilled and sawed, after which it is again heated cherry red and plunged into water to harden. To temper, place in a kitchen oven at 300 F. (148 C.) for one hour, then quench again in water.

Illus. 7A home-made lying press and plow on its modern adaptation of the tub.

PRESSING BOARDS. (Illus. 2 and 14). Plain pressing boards and grooving boards (to make the French groove at the hinge of the book) are needed. Plain pressing boards can be simply pieces of plywood faced with untempered hardboard. If