#bible repairs

The 7 Kilogrammes Behemoth

When I first laid my eyes on this book, the muscles in my arms were cowering in fright. This would mean a lot of heavy lifting and moving as gently as possible. A giant book also needs to be treated delicately. 

Even though this book only required minor repairs, there was a huge long tear in the middle of the book that was not detected during my primary observation in the presence of the client. It was only during the routine sweep down of every page that I discovered it. 

Using Japanese kozo tissue, I repaired the tear, and over the parts that had text, I used pulled kozo fibres to bridge the tear. 

The book’s front tipped on endpaper was also detached, and with that, I used a strip of Japanese kozo tissue to first support the joint, and then I tipped on the endpaper again.

There was a small damage on the leather on the front cover and I used a toned Japanese kozo tissue to hinge it back. A light polish using an agate polishing stone brought it to shine like the rest of the leather. 

Soft Flexible Covers

Everyone has a particular preference to how their books should feel in their hands. Some like the covers hard and stiff so that it supports the pages while it is held in the hand, while some like the covers to be softer so that it moulds in the hand.

The repair of this bible is for a fellow craftsperson, a new good friend, recently acquainted through the quest of a mutual material we both use. She commissioned me for her bible to be restored, and was hoping to achieve the same type of soft covers as the original covers of her bible. 

The Excitement of Experimenting With New Materials

About 2 years ago, a customer came to me, with the intention to rebind his and his wife’s bibles, but with a very specific material in mind. He knew that I was game to test out new materials and could work out a binding technique to incorporate it. 

2 years later, he brought along a cork fabric that is manufactured in Portugal. According to him, this material has been used for making bags and wall coverings. This is something new in the market, and I have not used it before. So without knowing what I am getting into, I agreed to rebind his bibles using this material. 

The front side is cork that is laid out very evenly and is backed with a felt-looking fibrous material. I decided to use a disappearing spine Bradel binding because I did not have much confidence in the material being used over the hinge and the spine. When I applied adhesives to the cork material, the fibrous backing immediately absorbed all the adhesive like a sponge, leaving almost none left on the surface. So working with this material requires the adhesive, which is 100% PVA, to be viscous and thick. Then the cork material has to be quickly and accurately put onto the board, and then put into the press and left to dry overnight. The entire process to have the front and back boards covered and turned in took four days, with each step taking an entire day to dry.

The Watermelon Bible

Some months ago, I was approached by a lovely lady who lives in Australia. She wanted to gift her friend a gift certificate to get her bible repaired and rebound. I have never considered offering gift certificates, but yes, it is now available for a binding to be done for a loved one, family and friends.

The recipient of the gift certificate, also the owner of the bible, came to me with a bible that was in a terrible state. Many of the pages were loose and dog-earred. The entire book was barely holding it together. After looking at a stock of fabric that I had, this cheerful young lady chose this watermelon fabric, paired with a matching green for the outer skin of the fruit.

Bound using the disappearing spine Bradel binding, the bible is now a cute and cheerful watermelon! It gives me a lot of satisfaction seeing how straight the pages are again, and the neat edges of the book. It is often hard to imagine how a very broken book can be revived into something that looks almost new. But it is possible.

Just a touch of Batik

Sometimes, having a burst of colours and pattern might be too much for some. That is, I believe, one of the factors why quarter bindings can be very attractive. In the past, quarter bindings were used mainly to save on precious materials like cloth and leather, and it usually covers parts of the book that takes most of the brunt of use, wear and tear. These parts are usually the spine and fore edge and fore edge corners. The rest will be covered in a slightly more affordable material like paper or cloth.

However in today’s context, quarter binding is often chosen as an accent, more than the utility of it. Since both the materials are of the same material and sometimes, even costing the same. The choice of a quarter binding is mainly for aesthetic purposes.

My customer has seen many of my previous rebindings of bibles and wanted the batik pattern on hers as well. But she felt that if it covered the entire book, it would be too loud for her. So she chose to have it on the spine as an accent, with the rest of the cover in a muted linen. The pale linen also allowed for her surname to be accented using a red book cloth that matched the batik. 

Repairing the Behemoth 

Measuring a sheer 45 x 35cm and a thickness of 10cm, this is by far the biggest book I have repaired. This behemoth belongs to my customer, who inherited it from his mother. The family bible has been with his family since 1825, as recorded in the family tree on the front pages of the bible. 

The front board was completely detached and the leather was crumbling. I consolidated the leather using Klucel-G before rehinging the front board with a similar brown goat leather. The original had a cloth joint endpaper, but I decided to give it a leather joint using the same brown goat leather. 

This is a beautiful treasure, given that it is still intact and has all its pages in extremely good condition. I was sharing with my customer that most of these books tend to get cut up, and the beautiful illustrations taken out to be framed, while the rest of the book is discarded.