Today, we will finish rebinding an old paperback novel into a hardcover book, retaining the original covers.
Last week we removed the original covers.
We added end papers and we reinforced the spine, ready for a new cover.
Today will make a new case cover.
We'll put the original covers onto the new case, and then we'll put the book into the case, completing the book.
I'll start by measuring the size of the text block.
The important measurement I need to start is the height of the book, which I'll then add 4 millimetres to - 2 times 2
- for the square at the head and the tail.
And then I want the thickness of the book for the spine piece of board.
There's no hard rule on how wide to make the spine board.
A lot of people use exactly the width of the text, plus the boards.
I like to use slightly less.
In the past, I've used the thickness of the text block plus one and a half boards thicknesses.
And today I'm going to use the thickness of the text block plus the boards, minus 1 millimetre.
The blank boards I'm using are oversized.
So the first thing I did was straighten up an edge and then cut the spine board off, which was 12 millimetres wide.
Now I'm squaring up a corner on each of the boards, and then from the square edge, I'm measuring the height that I
want. I'm not going to cut the boards to width at this point.
Instead, I'll join all the boards together with a piece of paper, and then put the Text block inside the case and
measure the width directly from the text block.
I find this an easier and more accurate way of trimming the fore edge of the boards.
I'm also trimming the spine board to the same height as the
cover boards. Now that I have the boards cut, I'll join them up with the strip of paper.
And this is what makes this a Bradel binding as compared to, say, an English style square back binding.
It's important that the grain direction is head to tail.
And I'll just cut it oversize.
So I'm doing 100 millimetres wide and taller than the book.
Any office bond copier type paper will work.
But I'm using Permalife, because I have it.
I'll glue up the spine board and just place that roughly in the center of the paper and then trim up the head and tail.
Then I'll flip it over and use a bone folder to crease it down the edge of the board and then trim to the final width.
I'm going to trim to 30 millimetres away from the board.
The width isn't super important.
It just needs to be wide enough to make a strong connection to the boards.
So anything between 20 and 40 millimetres would work.
For the book to open well, there needs to be a gap between the spine boards and the cover boards.
The width of this joint seems to be a topic of great debate.
I'm using a quarter of an inch or a bit under 7 millimetres.
Then I'll glue out the paper to this line and attach the boards to it.
Make sure that you attach the square edge of the boards.
Use a ruler to make sure that everything is square and a spacer gauge is really handy to make sure that the width of
the joint is even.
Repeat this for the other board.
So why did I use quarter of an inch of the joints?
In Peter Verheyen's article on the Bradel binding, he suggests that 7 millimetres is a good starting point for a
standard sized book.
But what's a standard size book?
So anything with boards from one and a half to two millimetres, and just average thickness cloth.
If you're using heavier cloth or thicker boards, you would increase the width of the joint, 8 or 9 millimetres.
And if you're trying to make a more refined book, you might decrease it to 6 or maybe 5 millimetres.
But I really like my Talas width gauges and they don't come in metric, so a quarter of an inch it is.
Now, I'll trim the fore edge of the boards by fitting the text block in the case and then marking the boards about 3
millimetres away from the fore edge.
I have to start keeping track of the front and the back of the book.
So I've marked the front of the book.
It is common to make the fore edge square slightly larger than the head and tail square.
And thus why I went for 3 millimetres instead of the 2 millimetres I used for the head and tail square.
Now I'll cover the case.
The colour of the cloth that you cover the case with depends on whether you want to match the colour of the
original covers, or you want a contrasting colour.
I normally match the colours, but in this case, I've decided to go with a sort of a contrasting colour.
I've picked a colour that sort of matches the title on the front board and the spine.
I'll glue out the cloth to the size of the case, but when I attach the case, I'll start with one board and then I'll
flip the cover over and force the cloth down into the joints, over the spine, into the second joint, and then
finally onto the second board.
It is really important to follow this process.
If I was just to put the case down onto the cloth and then force the cloth down into the joints, it would pull the
boards in, and the case wouldn't be wide enough.
Now I'll trim the turn ins.
I'm using the 3/4 inch gauge in the Talas set.
Anything between 15 and 20 millimetres would be fine for this.
And I'll cut the corners at 45 degrees, one and a half board thicknesses away from the corner, which is 3
millimetres in this case.
I should have mentioned that I'm using 1.6 millimeter grey board.
So it's not exactly 3 millimetres away from the corner.
But because I'm doing it by eye, it's close enough.
As always, I turn in the head and tail first.
I pinch down the little flap at the corners.
And then I turn in the fore edges.
In winter, I would glue out all four turn ins and then turn them in.
But in summer the glue dries too fast, so I'll do the head and tail, and then the fore edges.
The bookcloth that I'm using is my favorite Arbelave.
If you have a book press, now is a good time to nip the case and it'll just crisp it up nicely.
If you don't, then that'll be fine.
It'll look great anyway.
Now I'm going to glue the original covers to the case.
The height isn't going to be an issue because of the squares on the new book, but the width of the original
covers is slightly too wide.
I'm going to leave about a 1 millimetre gap between the fore edge and the joint.
I'll trim each of the original covers at the spine edge, which was pretty ragged anyway, so it was a good idea to
trim them up. I've also marked the front and the back and up on the new case.
Don't ask me why I do that.
If after trimming the spine edge of the original covers the one really sharp edge compared to the other three edges
bothers you, you can soften that edge with a little bit of sandpaper.
It is possible to make a slight recess in the new case for the old covers to sit inside.
This does look really good, but it is a lot of mucking about.
I'll cut the original spine that's now on a backing paper to slightly narrower than the spine board.
I'm going to use straight PVA to attach the original covers to the new case, and I can do that because the Arbelave is
quite forgiving.
If the new case was covered in paper, I would use mix, so that there was a bit of slip to allow me to reposition the
original covers - if I didn't get them just right first time.
The final step is casing in.
Once I've cased in the book, I'm going to put it in the press with the pressing boards that have knitting needles
taped to the edges.
I show how to make these boards in the video on the rounded and backed Bradel binding, and there'll be a link in the
description below.
The joints on this book aren't as deep as the book that I made these boards for.
So I just need to build up the surface a little bit so that the knitting needles don't press too deeply into the joint.
I'll position the text block within the case so that the squares are all equal or even.
And then I'll glue out the outside of the paste down with methyl cellulose/PVA mix, and then I'll close the book.
I'll flip the book over on the edge of the bench, on my pretend edger bench.
And if I find that the squares aren't as I like them because I've used mix, I would be able to lift the paste
down and reposition it.
If I used straight PVA, then I probably wouldn't be able to do that.
Once I've flipped the book and checked it and smoothed down any undulations in the paste down, I'll flip it over and do
the other side. Be very careful to make sure that you don't get any adhesive on the spine of the book.
If you do, make sure you wipe it off.
You don't want to glue the spine of the book onto the spine of the case.
Put moisture barriers or tins - if you have them - inside the boards of the book.
And using your special pressing boards with the knitting needles, give the book a really solid press for about an
hour. Then you can leave the book dry open on the bench.
So that's the end of the project.
I hope you found it interesting and useful.
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Take care. And until next time, cheerio.