I was going to make the second part of this series of blog posts about both the making of the endpapers and the rounding and backing phase of the bindings. However, whilst going through and editing all the photographs of these stages (there are many!) I decided to concentrate just in the creation of the endpapers for this edition as there were quite a few steps involved, plus it will be useful for me to have a “go-to” post on my website to explain this process alone.
A “made endpaper” is a type of endpaper in bookbinding where a decorative paper, like marbled paper, is combined with a plain paper to create a stronger, more functional endpaper, essentially “making” a new endpaper by attaching the decorative layer to a bi-folded backing sheet. These are often used when the decorative paper is too delicate on its own as it it allows for the use of beautiful papers without compromising the structural integrity of the binding. In the case of my made endpaper, the green paper is effectively where the “decorative paper” would be. I would like to add here that this is by no means the only way to make endpapers, and I have seen them being done in many other ways, but it is my preferred method and the one I used for the edition run.
The colour of the papers was chosen to compliment the cover design: a single green sheet laminated to a pale pink bi-folded sheet with a dark green leather joint to match the cover of the binding. The paper I chose to use was 165gsm Canson Mi-Teintes in “Rose Pink” and “Ocean Green”. This is a fairly heavyweight and versatile pastel paper that I thought would withstand the rounding and backing of a thick book, and the range of colours available is quite broad with 29 to choose from. The paper features a ‘rough’ honeycombed texture on one side and a fine grain on the other, so I was careful to make sure that each piece used had the correct face upright so all the endpapers looked the same.
The first step was to cut multiple pieces of the long grain green paper to 225mm tall by 150mm wide: slightly larger than the text block at approximately 218mm in height by 140mm in width. I calculated two per book plus I cut some extras just to be safe as this paper can be easily marked. As I didn’t want a cut edge of the paper visible against the leather joint I planned to turn in an edge of the paper on one of the long sides. I first edge-pared along one long edge using my French paring knife (below left image), taking off just a sliver of paper, bevelled about 2-3mm from the cut edge.
I then used a scoring tool, in this case an old bone-handled butter knife – perfect due to the unperforated, flexible and slim blade, to run a line down the edge of the paper along a metal ruler, about 3mm in from the cut edge (below right image).
The paper was folded up against the edge of the ruler where it had been scored using the butter knife (below left image), and then was glued with PVA and rubbed down to ensure adhesion with a Teflon folder. Once dry I then drew a pencil line onto the backside of the paper which would be a reference line for where to stick the leather joint down to (below right image).
I next started to prepare the leather for the board joints. I had already cut the sections of leather I needed for the covers, it was important to do this first to make sure I had enough large pieces before using the leftovers for these strips. Each book required two strips of leather for the two endpapers, which I had pre-cut to approximately the width of one of my standard metal rulers – 2.5cm wide. This is also a good width to pass through the blade of my Brockman paring machine as the cutting edge of the blades are about 3.5cm wide, so the whole width of the strip is cut by the blade on one pass.
A leather paring machine, works by using a sharp, double-edged razor blade positioned above an anvil or roller, where the leather is pulled through, allowing the blade to shave off thin slices of leather, effectively thinning it down to the desired thickness in a controlled manner creating a smooth, even finish.
I pared the strips down to around 0.4mm thick and used a thickness gauge to test them (below right image). A thickness gauge with a dial works by using a spring-loaded spindle with contact points that press against the material being measured, causing a connected dial to rotate based on the distance between the contact points, therefore displaying the thickness of the material on a calibrated scale. I changed the blade on the paring machine regularly to ensure that the cutting edge remained sharp. With experience you can sense when it needs to be changed as the leather becomes more resistant to being pulled through and can then be prone to tearing.
I then edge pared one straight edge on each of the strips of leather using my French paring knife (below centre image). Edge paring them prevents too much excess material building up in the endpaper at this point, which might be unsightly in the finished book. They were then ready to glue to the prepped edge of the green paper, for the first step in physically joining the materials to make up the endpapers. I put the piece of green paper face down onto a piece of waste paper (with the folded and glued strip prepared earlier in the process facing up). I then placed a strip of waste paper on top of this to leave exposed the folded over edge of the green paper. I applied PVA glue to this area using a brush and stuck the skin side of the leather strip, the side with the pared edge, down onto the glue and rubbed it down with my Telfon folder.
In the below left image you can see a stack of green papers with the leather joints attached. Once they are flipped over after gluing, the skin side of the leather is visible facing upwards, which is the correct positioning. I folded the leather joint tightly around the edge of the paper and creased it to establish the fold (below central image). The last stage at this point was to trim off the excess leather to the height of the green paper (below right image).
I was then able to prepare the pink paper that was going to make up the rest of the endpaper. I cut paper strips to the same height of the green paper: 225mm. I made a jig using the square grid on my cutting mat, along with a sturdy ruler and some masking tape markers. I butted the pink paper strip up against the weighted ruler, and used another metal rule to score a line at a width of 150mm from the edge. The paper was folded, ensuring the edges of the paper were aligned, before crisping up the crease with a Teflon folder. I then cut the excess paper off leaving me with a bi-folded sheet of pink paper measuring 225mm in height by 150mm in width. NB. It is sometimes desirable to add a second bi-folded sheet into the endpaper, slotted inside the outer one so you have more sheets to your endpaper, but it wasn’t necessary for this book.
I was then able to begin laminating the prepared pieces together to create the made endpaper. To join the pink bi-folded sheet to the green paper I wanted to apply the glue to the pink paper: as general rule, which also applies to when I laminate the materials together for my book boards, I try and glue the surface of the material that is closest to the book block so that the “pull” is correct. When you apply glue to paper or board, it often curls because the glue contains water which is absorbed by the fibres, causing them to swell. This means that one side of the paper absorbs more moisture from the glue than the other, leading to uneven shrinkage and curling.
I put a sheet of waste paper inside the bi-folded pink paper (below left image), and then laid the whole thing down onto a larger sheet of waste. Using a foam roller I applied a thin layer of PVA glue to the surface of the paper (below centre image) and then quickly removed the waste sheets. The side of the paper with the glue applied curls quickly so it is necessary to be speedy during this process as you don’t want it to curl around on itself and transfer any glue to the inside face of the bi-folded sheet. I then lined up the folded edge of the pink paper against the folded edge of the leather joint (below right image) and rubbed this down with a Teflon folder to ensure even ahhesion.
Each endpaper in turn was then put into my nipping press in between boards, with three pieces of blotting paper (one slotted into the bi-folded sheet and one piece either side of the made endpaper). I left these overnight to dry properly.
It is necessary when making up a made endpaper to add in a piece of compensation card that is the same thickness as the leather joint, this prevents the endpaper being marked by the leather joint when being pressed during the later stages of the forwarding. I trimmed the leather joints using an 18mm wide ruler as a guide so that the edge was straight. A piece of 0.4mm thick card was cut and butted up to the leather joint, and was attached to it using some little pieces of masking tape. These pieces of masking tape were placed so that there was not too much of its sticky surface stuck to the back of the leather joint, as it can be hard to remove it from the suede side of the joint later in the process.
The two final layers added were a waste sheet on the outer side of the endpaper, stuck with some little blobs of PVA glue to the suede side of the leather joint, close to the folded edge of the endpaper (below centre image). I also added a spacer sheet, to help give a bit of extra space into the joint of the book when rounding and backing the text block. This was a piece of 165gsm paper, stuck to the compensation piece, with the cut edge of it pushed into the fold of the leather joint with about 1mm of the leather joint still visible (below right image).
I always attach my endpapers to the bookblock with paper guards, which improve the book’s overall stability and these strips are especially helpful when dealing with thicker or heavier text blocks and covers. Thin strips of paper called “guards” are glued along the spine edge of the first and last sections, essentially acting as a bridge between the endpaper and the text block, providing extra reinforcement and ensuring a smooth transition between the cover and the book’s interior. I would usually wrap the guard paper around the first and last sections, but given the text block had been sent to me pre-sewn I opted to glue then to the outer side of the first and last sections.
I folded up the guard strips using the same pink paper as in the endpapers. These were made from folding a 16mm strip of paper in half, producing a V-shaped length. One side of which was glued with PVA to the spine edges of both the front and back endpapers and rubbed down with a Teflon folder.
It was then time trim endpapers square at the top edge, remembering at this point that half were for the front and half for the back, so these had the orientation marked onto the front waste sheet of the endpaper. The endpapers were then trimmed to an overall size of 219mm in height, by 138.5mm in width.
I could then stick the endpapers onto the guard strips that had been attached to the text blocks. I used some wooden drawers that I have in my studio as a jig (you will see at a later stage in this project how useful these drawers became during the making process!), and applied PVA glue to the upper guard strip before attaching the endpaper in place, making sure it was square to the bookblock.
Once all of the endpapers were attached, I started the process of additionally tethering them onto the textblock with linen thread. I opted to buy a linen thread that matched the colour of the pink paper, so as to blend in better as the sewing thread would be visible down the gutter of the endpaper. I purchased some Goldschild non-waxed Austrian 18/3 linen thread in a colour called, “Pale Old Pink” (below left image). These threads are dyed using traditional techniques which give beautiful, natural looking results which are light and water resistant. I cut two lengths of thread for each book (below top right image) and waxed them using a block of beeswax (below right image).
I made a pricking template from card in order to mark the sewing stations on the inside gutter of the endpaper. The card template was made with a “hook” at the top, which would allow it to properly register at the top edge of the endpaper to ensure the holes were being pricked through at the right positions. I pricked the holes using a needle pricker.
I then threaded a needle with the pink linen thread and tethered the end of it to the kettle stitch on the third section down from the top using a knot (below left image). A kettle stitch is a knot used in bookbinding to secure sections of a book together and is essential because the head and tail of a multi-section sewn book are the weakest points. It’s also known as a “direction changing” technique because the sewing direction changes with each kettle.
After it was attached I then looped the thread up using further kettle stitches, to make sure it was securely affixed (below right image).
The thread was threaded onto a curved needle and passed through the back of first hole in the endpaper (below left image). The thread was then pushed back through the next hole and the thread was looped under the thread in the section directly below (below right image) before being pulled taut and pushed back through the same hole in the endpaper.
This step was repeated at all the sewing stations until I got to the other end of the spine. The leftover thread was then caught down onto three sections with further kettle stitches to secure it and then the loose thread was trimmed off.
I was then left with a textblock ready to round and back. Rounding and backing is a bookbinding technique that involves manipulating the sections of at the spine of a book into an arc. This stiffens the spine and creates a concave fore edge. I will be covering this stage of the binding process in part three of the blog post about this project, along with how I made the endbands, applied the spine linings, and constructed the boards.