Secret Belgian Binding

The Secret Belgian Binding was rediscovered by Hedi Kyle. I came across a copy of the instruction manual at Syracuse and decided to try the binding style. This is my Belgian:

 

The sewing was a little difficult. The hardest part was the getting the signatures attached to the spine sewing. I was using a pre-cut  text block, and cut my boards to fit that. My book was shorter and more square than the instructions size, and I wonder if my text block would have slipped less if I used the taller, rectangular dimensions.

The book cloth I chose caused the most problems. If I covered the boards too soon after applying the PVA, the glue caused the cloth to darken in several spots. I had to wait to for the glue to be almost entirely dry, then cover the board and reactive the PVA using a tacking iron. I also mistakenly tried to cut the corners at a 45 degree angle, and fold them over. This fabric frayed excessively after I folded the corners, and I had to apply some glue to keep the fibers down. If I was to use this book cloth again I would try lining it with Japanese tissue or even a different style of corners (Fall 2009).