Encapsulation/Screw Post Binding

Encapsulation is an excellent treatment for fragile materials which will be handled frequently. Most commonly at Syracuse, this is done for newspapers. This particular newspaper was a Japanese-American Publication during World War II. The paper was highly acidic and brittle. Most of the original folds had become splits. Some pages were still attached, and had to be split for the encapsulation.* My first step was to go through the pages and number them with pencil in an inconspicuous place. Next, I washed the pages, between Reemay, in filtered water and deacidified them using magnesium bicarbonate (Mg(HCO3)2), then dried the pages on blotting papers. When the pages were dried, I repaired any large tears with heat set tissue.
The next step was to make the Mylar sleeves which would support the pages. To do this, I measured the pages, multiplied the width by about 2.5, plus extra space needed for the spine piece (approximately 2"). I also added about 2" to the length. Then I folded the Mylar in half, using a bone folder to get a crisp edge, and put this edge in the heating press for about 4 seconds. This welds the Mylar together, and it is critical the the edges are flush. Therefore, when the first edge is sealed, the Mylar is taken to the board shear and the next edge is trimmed (using the welded edge to make a right angle) and welded. After this was done, I put a page from the newspaper inside the Mylar to determine the squares, making sure the spine edge was NOT welded. Once I was pleased with the placement of the page, I trimmed and welded the third side (with the page inside the Mylar). I repeated this process for all the pages, and then punched holes (carefully positioned to be visually pleasing) on the spine side of the Mylar.

When all the pages are encapsulated, I measured and cut board for the covers. This is two large covers and three small strips for the "U" shaped spine.  My spine pieces were 2 - height x 3/4" and 1 - h x 1/4". Covering these pieces is tricky because you need to account for the board thickness. The best way to do this is to glue one strip down (green) and then glue out the middle piece (blue), butt it against the other piece and wrap the book cloth around. This way when the middle piece sticks to the cloth, it will pull away from the other piece and leave the correct space for the board thickness. Adjust the distance slightly to account for two cloth thicknesses. Then just glue the third piece on the same distance apart.

Also the corners of the book cloth for the spine piece should be as follows:

 

When the "U" piece and covers are covered with book cloth (and end sheets on the covers), I drilled holes through them with the Dremel drill to match the holes punched in the Mylar sleeves. Finally, I attached everything with screws and posts (Fall 2009).