IT is often the case that in households where even several magazines are taken, that little money can be afforded for the purpose of binding them; and it follows that they are soon destroyed, or else stored away and never looked at. The pretty covers provided for most magazines by the publishers are of course preferable; but they also, of course, cost something. Therefore I have concluded to tell you of a durable, cheaper, and on the whole, pretty way of binding your yearly, or half-yearly volumes.
For several years we have made it a business to bind up our magazines every spring before cleaning house time; and we proudly exhibit to our friends our collections of neat, strong books which would look well in any library. We usually turn a corner of the living-room into a bindery, as we have no workshop.
We bring in the work-bench with vise attached, pile our magazines on it, sort them into volumes, remove the covers and advertising leaves, put the engravings in their proper places if they are not there, place each volume according to date or page, lay the title page and table of contents at the top of each pile, and there are our magazines ready to bind. We have meantime a little pot of good glue in readiness on the stove, which, after it is dissolved thoroughly, is better to be kept only warm. A little good twine, a few strips of strong cloth, about an inch wide, a handsaw, a pair of shears, and some of the old covers and leaves are also at hand on the bench. Also we have two bars of wood an inch thick, two or three inches wide, and about two feet long, fastened together at one or both ends (one end only is necessary if a vise is used) by a bolt five or six inches long—this is the press.
Now we take a volume of the magazines, lay an old cover on each side. Making sure that the numbers are perfectly even at the back and upper ends, we place them in the press with the backs projecting a quarter of an inch at least, placing them in the vise with the backs in a horizontal position (see fig. 1) and screw up pretty tightly. Then we saw into the backs as far as they project in three places (fig. 1). Next we dip a piece of cord into the glue, and wind it back and forth once or twice in the grooves made by the saw. This, as you will see, binds the volume firmly together.
Now we take as many strips of cloth as there are grooves, each about six inches long, and gluing them in the middle, place one in each groove (see fig. 2). Then we cut a strip of strong paper, and glue it on the back of the volume.
The book may be taken immediately from the press, though it is better to not handle it for a little while, and another set of numbers be put in. Several volumes may be bound in a short time, and if these directions are followed the binding is altogether as durable as that done at a bindery would be.
The next thing in order is to smooth the edges; this we do by placing each book in the vise again—the tighter the better now—front edges up at first, and projecting far enough to allow them to be made even. Now we rasp them off even with the press, with a coarse furniture rasp, or the side of a saw. Sometimes we leave it thus, and sometimes we spatter-work it by dipping an old toothbrush in ink and drawing it across a sharp edge of wood, allowing the spatters to fall on the book before it is taken from the vise. The ends we treated in the same manner.
Now we have a pile of books, without covers, to be sure, but even at this stage they are more available than if they are not bound at all. However, we provide covers without expense. We use old paste-board boxes for this purpose, cutting them a little larger than the volume they are intended for. We lay these covers in place, cover and fasten them by gluing the edges of the strips of cloth upon the outside smoothly; the cover goes as far back as the cloth will permit. Then we make a cover of cloth for the back, usually using black or brown cambric, or selesia. The back cloth is always at best an inch longer than the covers, and about three inches wider than the back; we cut coarse twine into bits a trifle longer than the book is thick, using as many as we may choose.
We dip these twines in paste, one at a time, and lay them crosswise of the cloth, one at each end, at least, and just as far apart as the covers are long (fig. 3.), laying the others between. Then we cut a strip of strong paper as wide as the cords are long, and just as long as the covers, and paste it over the cords, and then we paste the cloth down on the paper at the ends, and pin the completed back tightly around a stick—a broom handle is good—and let it remain there to dry. When we take it off we slip it over the back corners of the covers and fasten it strongly down with glue.
After this the covers may be finished as elaborately as you may choose; we bind the edges of most of ours with cloth, and then trim off the edges of some of the front covers of the magazines and paste them on. We make a pretty inside finish by laying in a double leaf of manilla paper, one half pasted to the inside of the cover the other being left as fly-leaf.
The freshly bound books should be piled with plenty of paper between them to absorb the moisture, with weights atop, until they are wholly dry. Shabby books may be made almost as good as new by smoothing the leaves, rebinding and recovering; and it is surprising to see how pretty bits of wrapping paper, and bits of brown, black, or gray cloth can be made to serve in this work; bits of leather may be used on the corners of covers. Sabbath-school papers, Lesson Quarterlies, etc., may thus be made into pretty volumes very easily. Five cents’ worth of glue will bind a great many volumes, and the gluing is a much easier and better way than sewing.