This is Part 2 of 3 in my adventures of creating a book using fish leather. In Part 1, we divulged the hidden sewn skeleton of the book, showcased the importance of end sheets, and created a mock gilt edging of the bookblock. In this part, more attention will be on shaping the bookblock and getting it secure enough so that it can be opened and closed routinely. After all, books are made to be used and enjoyed!
4. Consolidating the Spine
Gluing up the spine helps ensure the density of the bookblock stays rigid enough to hold together. There are a few different steps with this process. First, I glued the block square and let it dry. Now that the block is consolidated, I softly hammered it into a slightly rounded spine, this makes it easier to open the book and alleviate pressure points along the spine. Finally I glued a strip of cotton muslin (called a mull, super or scrim depending on where you live in the world) to the spine to sure it up and give it more strength and flexibility. Time to leave this to dry overnight!
5. Split Board and other Binding Styles
I created split boards for the covers with two sheets of archival E-flute board for each. Cut to match in size and be a bit taller than the bookblock, each pair was glued together, leaving ⅓ of the inside surface clean. This creates the ‘split’ and enables the binder to insert the slips into the covers. These will then be covered by the leather and paper for the end result. Aside from learning how to deal with leather, this technique was the newest process for me to learn. Most of the binding styles of the circulating materials at the library are either case or perfect-bound. It was a good excuse to learn this style. Other binding styles I experimented with before attempting this technique were laced-on boards (a popular medieval style binding) and the coptic stitch (an ancient style with a modern revival). I liked both styles, but felt that for this exploration with the fish leather, the split board style enabled me to use more of the material in a natural way and also result in a more conventional size book.
6. Assembling the Basic Book
With my bookblock and my covers prepped, it was time to assemble! I started by creating the slips to go into my covers. The mull glued over the spine was used to secure my spine to the loose tapes and the loose pages on either side of the bookblock. This is different to a case binding where the mull gets attached to the spine and then to the inside of the cover directly. This sandwiching of the mull between the split boards will not only secure the covers to the block but make it easier to attach the leather to the book as a mostly complete item.
To accomplish, I first glued the tapes to the page, then the mull to the tapes and page and then I added a bit more glue to the top of the mull and folded the page in half and over the top of the mull to create a small packet or slip! More drying time and some pressing of the slips to make sure they’re stable and consolidated. The last step was to trim the slips so they’d fit in the split boards. I forgot to cut 1-½” off from the top and bottom, which was crucial to ensuring a clean fit of the leather around the head and tail caps later in the process, and instead just cut diagonally from the corners. (I just mis-remembered this step, but it ultimately meant I had to cut my head and tail pieces of leather a bit shorter and fuss with them more later.) With these slips created, I coated them in glue and slipped them into the split board covers, leaving a shoulder the width of the covers themselves – this makes it possible to open the book’s covers without stressing the spine.