Jenny asks, How do you control swell in a book with a lot of pages and only two-sheet sections?
But first, a word about the sponsor of today's video.
Schmedt are the sponsors of the DAS Answers Q&A series of videos.
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They're world leaders in the manufacturing and sale of bookbinding, tools, materials, and machines.
You probably know them as the maker of the Schärffix leather paring machine.
It's common to see Schmedt equipment in professional binderies around the world, and there's no reason why hobby
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Go check out their website.
As bookbinders.
we don't always control what we're given to bind.
In an ideal world, we can use the amount of paper, the number of sheets per section, and the thickness of the
thread to manage swell.
But maybe you're sewing an old book or just given sections without consultation, from whoever printed them.
Once the paper thickness and the section is taken out of your control, you only have the thread thickness as a
variable. The thinnest thread I like to use is 40/3 linen, but I'll go to a thinner cotton thread, doubled up, in a
pinch. The next thing to do is to use compression as you're sewing to force the thread slightly into the paper and maybe
even flatten the thread a little.
After each section or two - or fewer - sewn on, I use my bone folder to firmly bone down over the spine folds.
I use this technique a lot.
You can keep track of the swell as you sew and if it looks like it's going to be too much, you can start to do this.
And once done, if there's still a bit too much swell, you can try and beat some of it out by holding the block in a
press and either using the bench or knocking down iron.
You can carefully hammer over the spine folds.
On delicate books, you might not want to use the rubbing of a bone folder over the spine folds.
And for this reason, Chris Clarkson invented the consolidation stick.
I don't work on these types of books, so it's not something I've used much.
But if you're interested, Arthur Green makes and sells them.
But then you get the occasional Bible manual or dictionary where they start their third run through the alphabet on the
signature marks and the techniques discussed so far won't work.
The last tool in the toolbox is two- or three-on sewing.
This is when two or more sections are added with one pass of the thread from head to tail.
There's lots of trade offs.
Less thread means less strength.
Not every section is attached at the kettle stitches.
There is less thread inside each section, making the swell less evenly distributed.
And this affects backing.
But with practice you can sew a book much faster.
In Jenny's case, I think two-on sewing might be the solution.
Book binding is all about trade offs.
Thanos asks two things, which I hope I've interpreted correctly.
Part 1, or a), asks: is it better to sew one thick section or two thinner sections?
Personally, I would go with a thicker single section up to a point.
That point is usually 8 sheets of medium weight text paper.
More than 8 sheets, and I would go to two sections.
Just as a recap, 1 sheet folded into a folio becomes 2 leaves with 4 pages.
A 4-sheet section would have 8 leaves and 16 pages.
Part 2 asks: if the book is not divisible by the number of pages in a section, can you reduce the sheets in the last
section to reduce the number of blank pages at the end?
This is a great question and the answer is sort of yes.
I wouldn't put all the work on the last section, maybe two thirds of the book has four sheet sections, and the last
third is three sheet sections.
This will impact the swell, but by not varying the number of sheets per section by much, the impact can be minimized.
Maybe examples are in order.
Let's say your book has 156 pages.
10, 4-sheet sections would be 160 pages.
So instead of having 4 blank pages at the end, you could make the last section a 3-sheet section.
Now, your book has 152 pages.
You could do 9, 4-sheet sections and a final 2-sheet section.
But I think it would be better to do 8, 4-sheet sections and 2, 3-sheet sections.
But don't be scared of using a blank leaf or two, even adding one at the start.
A bit of space around the book can be a good thing.
Back to the 156 page example, putting a blank leaf at the start and finish and you're using ten sheet sections and no
complications to your imposition.
I hope I've answered Thanos's questions.
That's it for the Q&A today.
But before you go, I'd like to show you the Schmedt sample book.
All the large book binding suppliers have samples.
They don't cost much, but are really worth having.
No one has experience with all the materials that the suppliers stock.
So how do you know if you should buy something for a new project?
The best way is to check the sample book in the rounded and backed cased book videos, I've been giving options for
materials available around the world.
Without the sample book, I wouldn't have been able to recommend the Mappen carton, or folder card, as the perfect
card for the spine stiffener.
Go check out the Schmedt website, and you might consider ordering a sample book and catalog while you're there.
And don't worry, you can choose between four languages to see their website in, including English, which is handy for
me. A big thank you to my Patreons who support make this channel possible.
And once again, a thank you to Schmedt for making this Q&A video possible.
Until next time, cheerio.