Some of you are old enough to remember leather-bound books like say antique Bibles, but the decades, kids with crayons, mice, and moths tend to wreck them at times. repairing such treasured heirlooms or upgrading a favored volume can be a rewarding and profitable hobby, you can even modify this method to replace covers IF you can still find pasteboard. Fortunately, the Goodwill stores and libraries have them for pennies to practice on! This takes some easy-to-get but specialized Items:
A drying jig made of plywood as big or bigger as the book you're repairing.
A vice or large spring clamps, or C-clamps will likely work as well.
A board planer, one of the old hand-powered ones, OR a belt sander.
Elmer's wood glue and a hot melt kit.
An exacto knife, hobby knife, or scalpel.
Waxed paper, dry silicon spray, wide cloth tape, and blue painter's tape.
thin leather scraps as big as the book you're repairing.
Leather dye, wax, a steam iron, and buffing cloth.
Step 1:
Clamp the pages of the book between the pieces of plywood with the back exposed and carefully remove the cover exposing the spine. cut some wax paper to go around the two inches or so of the pages tightly to protect them from the glue and bind them in place with the blue painter's tape over the wax paper and clamp it in a vice.
Step 2:
Using the planer or sander, GENTLY remove the glue, you need not remove all of it, just enough to make it smooth, try not to cut into the pages too much, and make sure it's even and level.
Step 3:
Using hot melt, make lines across the spine and smooth them down with a folded piece of wax paper, make sure there is at least a 1" gap between the lines, this is for the wood glue to bind the spine to the cover later on.
Step:4
Dye your cover and add any embellishments you might want like stamping the title on it or painting it on with dye., wax it heavily with paraffin on the outer side, place a towel over it and using your steam iron, go over it a few times in only ONE direction until the leather is both saturated and smooth, let it cool and buff it with toilet paper.
Making the cover! If you have the original, you've got it made, if not, measure the book +3/4ths of an inch on each side and mark out the area where the book will be fixed with chalk on your pasteboard cover and using Elmer's wood glue cover the pasteboard evenly and attach the split leather cover and let dry on a flat table with a piece of plywood and a weight on top of it a couple of days. after it dries, find where the spine fits and bend the cover back over itself using a board as a guide and press it to make a permanent crease. clamp it down and repeat. Unclamp your book carefully, making sure your wax paper is still tight and in place, and fit it to the cover. smear the spine in wood glue and press it in place tightly, then put the entire book between your plywood jig and clamp it down. let it cure a week, spine down, propped up between a couple of bricks or in your vice. Once it's dry, check the corners of the edges, you might have to reinforce them with a spot of hot melt or crazy glue. If all is as should be, take your cloth tape and do the final attachment of the spine to the cover by laying a strip vertically from edge to edge of the book on the inside of the cover, trim it perfectly with your scalpel, and reinforce the edges with drops of crazy glue.
Lightly spray the inside of the book with the dry silicon to prevent sticking and fold your book up.
A drying jig made of plywood as big or bigger as the book you're repairing.
A vice or large spring clamps, or C-clamps will likely work as well.
A board planer, one of the old hand-powered ones, OR a belt sander.
Elmer's wood glue and a hot melt kit.
An exacto knife, hobby knife, or scalpel.
Waxed paper, dry silicon spray, wide cloth tape, and blue painter's tape.
thin leather scraps as big as the book you're repairing.
Leather dye, wax, a steam iron, and buffing cloth.
Step 1:
Clamp the pages of the book between the pieces of plywood with the back exposed and carefully remove the cover exposing the spine. cut some wax paper to go around the two inches or so of the pages tightly to protect them from the glue and bind them in place with the blue painter's tape over the wax paper and clamp it in a vice.
Step 2:
Using the planer or sander, GENTLY remove the glue, you need not remove all of it, just enough to make it smooth, try not to cut into the pages too much, and make sure it's even and level.
Step 3:
Using hot melt, make lines across the spine and smooth them down with a folded piece of wax paper, make sure there is at least a 1" gap between the lines, this is for the wood glue to bind the spine to the cover later on.
Step:4
Dye your cover and add any embellishments you might want like stamping the title on it or painting it on with dye., wax it heavily with paraffin on the outer side, place a towel over it and using your steam iron, go over it a few times in only ONE direction until the leather is both saturated and smooth, let it cool and buff it with toilet paper.
Making the cover! If you have the original, you've got it made, if not, measure the book +3/4ths of an inch on each side and mark out the area where the book will be fixed with chalk on your pasteboard cover and using Elmer's wood glue cover the pasteboard evenly and attach the split leather cover and let dry on a flat table with a piece of plywood and a weight on top of it a couple of days. after it dries, find where the spine fits and bend the cover back over itself using a board as a guide and press it to make a permanent crease. clamp it down and repeat. Unclamp your book carefully, making sure your wax paper is still tight and in place, and fit it to the cover. smear the spine in wood glue and press it in place tightly, then put the entire book between your plywood jig and clamp it down. let it cure a week, spine down, propped up between a couple of bricks or in your vice. Once it's dry, check the corners of the edges, you might have to reinforce them with a spot of hot melt or crazy glue. If all is as should be, take your cloth tape and do the final attachment of the spine to the cover by laying a strip vertically from edge to edge of the book on the inside of the cover, trim it perfectly with your scalpel, and reinforce the edges with drops of crazy glue.
Lightly spray the inside of the book with the dry silicon to prevent sticking and fold your book up.
