AY Honors/Bookbinding/Answer Key

Bookbinding

Skill Level 3

Much of the material in this book was drawn from Wikipedia, the Free Encylopedia.

Be able to identify the following terms:

1. Foredge: the fore edge of a book, that is, the edge opposite the spine.
2. Gutter: the inner margin of a pair of facing pages. This would be the right margin of an even-numbered page (which is always found on the left side) and the left margin of an odd-numbered page (which is always found on the right).
3. Endsheet: a piece of often decorative paper glued to the inside cover of a book. Its purpose is to hide the raw edge of the cloth covering.
4. Flysheet: the pages at the beginning and end of a book, not glued to the covers.
5. Signature: a large sheet printed with several pages, intended to form four or more leaves in the finished book. The pages are arranged on the sheet so that all of the pages orient the same way and are in proper sequence after the sheet is folded.
6. Mull: a coarse fabric uses for lining the spine of a book.
7. Backbone: the spine of a book. This is the edge of a book that shows when a book is placed on a shelf.
8. Head: the top margin of a page.
9. Foot: the bottom margin of a page.
10. Deckle edge: the uncut and slightly irregular edge of a piece of paper.
11. Guarding sheets: pieces of paper placed in a book in front of a plate (picture) to prevent ink from the picture from bleeding onto the facing page.
12. Headbanding: a strip of material between a book's spine and the pages. It usually protrudes slightly above the top edge of the spine.
13. Casing-in: the process of attaching the bound pages of a book to the cover by gluing the endsheets to the inside covers.
14. Buchram: the cloth used on the outside of a book cover.

Describe the difference between the following binding methods:

1. Perfect binding A paperback or soft cover book consists of a number of signatures or individual leaves between covers of much heavier paper, glued together at the spine with a strong flexible glue; this is sometimes called perfect binding. Mass market paperbacks and pulp paperbacks are small (16mo size), cheaply made and often fall apart after much handling or several years.
2. Hard bound A hardbound or hard cover book has rigid covers and is stitched in the spine. Looking from the top of the spine, the book can be seen to consist of a number of signatures bound together. When the book is opened in the middle of a signature, the binding threads are visible. Modern hardcover books are typically of octavo size, though they are often smaller or larger.
3. Single signature A single signature binding is one in which only one signature and the cover are sewn together at the spine.
4. Spiral (metal and plastic) A spiral-bound book is made of individual sheets, each with a line of holes punched near the bound edge. A metal or plastic spiral wire is fed through the holes to hold the sheets together. Spiral binding allows a book to be disassembled and reassembled by hand without damage.
5. Saddle stitch Stapling through the center fold, also called saddle-stitching, joins a set of nested folios into a single magazine issue. Most American comic books fall into this category.

Identify and describe the uses for the following binder's tools:

1. A Bone folder is a tool for folding and creasing paper. They are traditionally made from the leg bone of a cow or deer, but synthetic bone folders are also available. Bone folders resemble letter openers.
2. Kick press:
3. Folding needle: a steel needle with a wooden handle sometimes used for working in tight spaces on book covers, such as on decorative corners made of metal (miters). It is sometimes also used for scoring.
4. Awls are tools with a sharp point at the end of a long shaft mounted in a handle. They are used for making holes in various materials such as leather (used for book covers) and multiple layers of paper (as in a signature).
5. Sewing frame: a structure upon which books are held while they are being hand-sewn.
6. Squared card: a sheet of heavy stock with two cut edges which together make a 90° angle. These are used in the same way a carpenter's square is used, that is, in making right angles.
7. Punch: a device for punching holes in material. These are like sharp tubes driven into the material and removing a usually circular portion. The waste material goes inside the tube and is sometimes ejected out the top when completely filled.

Define the difference of paper weight in relationship to a ream of paper.

A ream of paper is 500 sheets. The "weight" of a sheet of paper is really how much a full ream weighs. Thus, a sheet of 50 pound paper comes from a ream weighing 50 pounds.

Describe the color and properties of three types of adhesives using in the binding process and where they are used:

1. Hot melt animal glue
2. Casing-in paste
3. Resin glues