Re: [BKARTS] non-flattness in leather covers

[Peter Krantz <restore@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings,

Here is an example from our experience to show how "climatic" changes very 
much affect the stability of the covers.

Some years ago, we did a half leather quarto binding of an organisation's 
Minutes.  We reproduced the style of the previous years' Minutes' bindings, 
done by the previous binder, who, if memory serves, was my teacher, who had 
passed over to bookbinding heaven.  The boards were three sixteenths of an 
inch thick (nearly 5 mm).  The binding was completed, and allowed to settle 
before being collected and placed on the customer's shelves in a building in 
the city.

About a year later, we visited their premises to collect other material for 
binding.  We noticed that the boards of the binding of the abovementioned 
book had warped.  I suspect that the client hadn't noticed it, but we 
certainly did.  After a little reflection, it became clear as to why this 
had happened - the volume was housed in an air conditioned building.  It had 
been made at our workshop which certainly is not air conditioned, but 
undergoes all the vicissitudes of the natural climate changes, which, in 
this part of the world (Sydney), is temperate, with few extremes.

We leant from this:  to always note where the volume will be housed, and to 
take appropriate measures during the binding process.  In our experience, 
boards are less likely to flex if they are strong and rigid - well lined, 
often twice on each side.


Peter Krantz
Book Restorations
Sydney 

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