Strong Arm Bindery

Japanese Tissue Hinge Repair

I've been doing a lot of hinge repair on old leather books this week.  The joint where the book opens is one of the weaker spots on most bindings and it's not a rare event to find boards broken or detached along the hinge area.  A lot of fine 19th century bindings have particularly weak joints, as the leather was pared very thin for the sake of aesthetics.  A quick, non-invasive repair for these bindings uses toned Japanese tissue to hinge the board back to the spine at the joint.

When I make a Japanese tissue match for leather, I mix acrylics with methyl cellulose and water.  If I was making the same repair on a paper or cloth binding, I'd probably use acrylics with just water.  You'll see images of the two different sets of books I've been working on this week.

So I diddle around and make color swatches with the Japanese tissue, dry them with a blow dryer and check the color against the leather.  I should probably also point out here that before any diddling with the color begins, I usually consolidate the leather with a mix of Klu-cel G and SC-6000.  This is important because both can darken the leather substantially.  (Klu-cel G is a consolidant for dry leather and red rot.  SC-6000 is a leather dressing, originally formulated as a shoe cream.  S...C...get it?)

Once I get the right match, I brush out the color on the Japanese tissue with a piece of mylar or wax paper underneath.  I usually let that air-dry, but there's no crime in getting the blow dryer out again.  I cut the hinges to the width of the joint, and include a small flare at either end for where the tissue will wrap around the board edge.

I use straight PVA to glue out the hinge.  I've also used Lascaux, another acrylic-based adhesive with slightly more reversible qualities.  Wheat paste just won't work here.  The hinge goes down, and is pressed lightly along the joint and around the turn-ins.

Japanese tissue is particularly well-suited to this repair.  It's very strong, and because it's so thin it picks up the contours and surface texture of the leather below.

So finally, when it's dry, the hinge, along with the leather, is dressed with SC-6000 and buffed with a soft cloth.

Not a good day at the shop if your name is Tape

A gentleman dropped off his wife's cookbook last week -- once it's cleaned up it will to be a gift for their daughter-in-law.  As with many beloved, well-used books, this one got taped; and it got taped over and over again.  There's masking tape over pressure-sensitive tape on the spine and joints, and there's some kind of paper tape with a mucilage adhesive on the inside hinge.

But there's good news: it means I got to bust out the heat spatula.  This a very handy tool.  It's best to use it with a rheostat as the temperature should be regulated according to the type of tape being lifted.  No matter what you're working on, the lowest effective temperature possible should be used to avoid burning surfaces, liquefying adhesive, etc.

 

The heat spatula is inserted under the tape; it lifts the tape carrier, and if your lucky the adhesive as well.  Alot of times, as in this case, it leaves some of the adhesive on the book cover---it's sticky to the touch.  This time around the adhesive residue was removed with a crepe square, or rubber cement pick-up (another very handy item).  On other occasions it might be necessary to use mild solvents.

About an hour later, and no worse the wear for whatever I inhaled courtesy of the 3M Corporation, I'm now looking at a straight-forward reback.  The tape did it's job---I still have the spine piece to work with, and all original boards, paste downs, etc.  I thank the tape for a job well done.