So, your family Bible is a dry crumbling ruin kept in a box, but at last you decide to do something about it. A family Bible repair is something many people become faced with at some stage, and I thought it might be a good idea to give you some insight into what can be involved in such a Bible repair. Of course Bibles come in all sorts of sizes, but here I am talking about the large format, Victorian period family Bible. Now when we think of a family Bible repair, it is easier to imagine if we divide the book up into relevant parts. The Family History Pages. At the start of any family bible repair, the first thing I do, if I have not already received instructions from the family, is to check the family history pages, so often these pages are of huge importance to the family. If these pages are damaged or badly damp stained, they are removed from the book for conservation treatment and replaced later. The Brass Fittings. (If any) Often a family Bible repair will involve working with brass plated fittings, such as decorative corners, brass edging and book clasps. When carrying out a family Bible repair which involves the use of protective brass edging, one will often find that it is coming away, as usually it is attached by only two small nails. Also it may well be bent and distorted. When faced with this aspect of a family Bible repair, I made a wooden form with the same profile as the board edge, if bent or distorted, the edging could be placed onto the form and gently hammered back into shape. Sometimes through wear, the brass plating gets rubbed off in parts. When this happens, the owner of the Bible may decide to have the parts cleaned and re-plated; this is not an expensive process. The new brass may look a little too new, if that is the case there are many ways to patinate brass quite simply, after which one can give a protective coat of varnish. Covers. Then let us consider the front and back covers, plus the leather spine of the book. It is very common in a family Bible repair, to find that the front board has become completely or partially detached from the rest of the cover, if this is the case, the spine leather and back board are also removed. Eventually, a new leather spine will be incorporated into the cover, and when the cover is back on the book, the old spine leather is laid on top of the new and glued firmly in place. Incorporating this new leather spine effectively renews the joints of the cover which had broken down. Cosmetic damage is made good, and the leather stained where needed, so that the whole of the cover is a roughly uniform colour. It is to be expected in a family Bible repair that the original cover will darken considerably when a leather dressing is applied to it. Text Block. After the covers we think of the â€text block†that is to say all the pages that make up the bible, including the end papers at the beginning and end of the book. Firstly the sewing of the book must be sound; it is the internal sewing of the book which holds all the pages together. It is normal in a family Bible repair to have to re-enforce the sewing at the beginning of the book, as this is where the book works hardest. It is customary to do the same at the back of the book. Damage to sewing may occur at the front of the book, in part due to the weight of the boards causing drag. The sewing is critically important, one common method of dealing with loose pages, or sections of pages at the front of the book, is to use overcast sewing. This involves sewing through the shoulder of the book using a blanket stitch. It is common when handling a family Bible repair, that the client will want to keep as much of the original binding as possible, in which case a somewhat complicated system of end-papers is adopted which involves keeping the original flyleaves and including a cloth joint which can be hidden or exposed, which adds great extra strength where the book hinges. So this is the sort of treatment your book may receive when you consider undertaking a family Bible repair. What has been said may help you to understand what the bookbinder will talk about. By R.Norman
Please Rate this Article 5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
