[BKARTS] Alan's bookbinding question

[james tapley <info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Alan... the advice to accept the books as they are really is  
the best. Having said that your problem does arise often in cases of  
"married" sets of books where different volumes were bound by  
different binders or one or more volumes were later rebound. This  
often is seen with say 18th century sets which are much more valuable  
when complete and "matching" than not. Most binders who work for the  
trade have no doubt encountered this situation often. Mismatched  
COOK'S VOYAGES come through my doors surprisingly often.
Are your books newish? Are the margins on the wider volume sufficient  
to allow a bit of a trim on the foredge?
You might do best by 1)trimming a tad off the foredge of the wider  
volume and then 2) making those foredge board squares a tad smaller  
than usual while 3) making the foredge board squares of the narrower  
volume a bit larger. A bit under 3/32 inch in each case will make up  
your 1/4 inch overall difference.
In cases where the book cannot be trimmed then you simply have to  
make the squares larger and smaller as needed, adjusting them to find  
the least displeasing proportions. What usually works best in this  
case is to make all the squares a bit larger than usual excepting the  
foredge square of the widest volume which is made smaller. These  
discrepancies can be somewhat camouflaged by either tooling the  
turnins with a wide loose pattern or by using a large loose patterned  
cover material. Small tight patterns will often accentuate the  
differences in square sizes. By the same token lighter materials will  
generally disguise better than dark.
Best to you and your project, hope this helps somewhat. James

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