I was pleasantly surprised by the positive feedback I received on the video of transferring a marble pattern to
the edge of a book using hydrochloric acid.
After all, who would be interested in one of these historical techniques that is of no practical value today?
Well, as it turns out, Joel Freehling, who is one of my viewers, did some research on it and even found some more
information on this technique.
Joel found another version of it in The Book Binder of 1891 and The International Bookbinder of 1924, where they
lay, well, they put some egg glaire down, lay the marble paper on that, and then paint muriatic acid over the paper
to transfer the edge.
Who could resist giving this another go?
Now, I don't want everyone watching this video for another five minutes and then being disappointed at the end.
So I'm just going to say now that this video doesn't have a happy ending, but I hope you find this topic interesting
enough that you'll stick around to see what happens.
The instructions in the international bookbinder say to use egg glaire, a little thicker than used for finishing.
At the time, I was thinking they meant the thickness, as in the ratio of egg white to water and vinegar, but in
hindsight, I think they meant the amount of glaire to put down on the surface.
Either way, the instructions for making egg glaire vary quite dramatically as well.
So I decided to do two versions.
One version is a 1 part egg white to 4 parts water, and in the second version, it's straight egg white and
1 teaspoon of vinegar.
So I mix those up and then let them sit overnight and then strain them the next day.
Then I prepared the edge the same as I did in the last video on the subject, so I ploughed the edge, then scraped it with
the cabinet scraper and then sanded it with some 320 grit sandpaper.
The instructions say now lay on the paper with marbled surface to the edge of the book and with the brush, apply
the muriatic acid on the back of the marble paper until the figures of the marbling are quite plainly discernible on the
back of the paper.
Then apply a damp piece of old newspaper or some soft paper and rub or pound out with your hand all the wrinkles that
may have formed in the edge paper.
Now pull off your paper and the marble will be found on the edge of the book.
So in this case I've used the straight egg white with vinegar as the glaire.
And I did this a number of times, and no matter how long I've waited, the marble pattern never showed through the
paper.
So here's the moment of truth.
Bummer. I did this a number of times, and this was the best result I got.
Before I made the first video, the first tests I did before I went near the edge of a book was just on paper, and I
tried lots of variations and that's what I decided to go back and do.
So I went back and tried the different types of glaire.
I tried doing it without glaire.
I tried just wetting the surface.
I tried the different types of marble paper again.
I tried letting the acid soak in for ages and ages.
And in every single case, it failed.
In the first video, I had extremely low expectations, and I was absolutely delighted when it worked.
Now, this time around, I had really high expectations.
And now I'm really disappointed that it hasn't worked.
Now, there mightn't be a lesson in bookbinding in this, but I think there is a lesson in life.
My working theory as to why it didn't work is that modern paper is buffered so much that it neutralizes the acid.
Until next time, cheerio.