First bookbinding project: done!

[luzula]

Okay, here's the result. I am very satisfied for a first try! : D

This is the finished book block. Compared to this photo, what has happened is: glueing on the end papers, rounding and glueing the spine, glueing on the headbands, glueing the mull (thin fabric) on the spine. The mull is what will later make the book block and the case hang together.


Here is the case before glueing it on.


Here is the finished book, open to show where the mull, linen tapes and end paper have been glued onto the case. This looked horrible before it had dried, all wrinkled and uneven! But I guess the moisture made the paper expand, and then when it dried, it shrank up and ended up looking much better. There's only a small wrinkle now, and it's not quite centered, but for a first try I think it looks fine.


Here is the book lying closed.


And here it's lying open.


It's an actual book! That I can put in my book case! : D From the outside, it actually looks a lot like my first edition of Flight of the Heron, except there's no title on the cover.

Here are the things I will do differently next time:
- Punch through the signatures with the awl from the inside, not the outside (see previous post).
- Not make the spine quite so rounded.
- Shape the bit of thinner cardboard that goes against the spine into a rounded shape before I glue it to the cloth (much harder to do afterwards!)
- Make the boards for the front and back slightly less wide.
- Get more practice glueing the end papers on.

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[ride_4ever]

I'm a Collection Management Librarian. I do book acquisitions (i.e., choosing and ordering titles), data entry to create bibliographic content in the RAILS (Reaching Across Illinois Library Systems) database, physical preparation of received books prior to public shelving, and many kinds of book repair.