Missing Board

This particular book was leather bound and missing its back board.

Normally, my first response would be to rebind the book. If the book had any important book plates, I would soak that board in a warm water bath, until the book plates floated off. Then I would reattach them to the new board when dry. However, this book had a nice book plate that was painted with fugitive inks. A water bath would have destroyed it. I  had to find another way to replace the board.

Since the front board was not attached, I used it as a guide to cut a new piece of board (make sure to account for the added thickness of materials at the squares). I sanded and back cornered the new board so it would tight against the shoulder. Then I cut new endpapers for the back cover, and attached them to the text block with paste.
I toned a piece of PC4 paper using and acrylics/methyl cellulose mix, to match the original leather. While that dried, I built up the corners on the remaining board.
I took the new board and covered it with the PC4 paper and put it in the press, between blotters, to dry flat. Since this paper is relatively thick, I also infilled the board with a 10 pt card (after pressing).
Because the original spine was a tight back and was still intact, I couldn't bring the new material around the spine. Therefore, I attached the new board as I would the originals, with Japanese tissue at the hinge and joint.
I attached the boards at the inner hinge first, using a strip of Japanese tissue and wheat starch paste. (This has to be done one at a time. Make sure the paste has ample time to dry). I reinforced this by adding additional tissue to the joint with PVA. I also reconstructed the head caps. I glued out a piece of tissue, overlapping on to both boards, and wrapped it around a piece of cord, the width of the spine and the height of the squares.
Finally, I toned all the tissue to match. This is the end result. (Middle: original leather board, Bottom: new PC4 board).

Encapsulation and Screw Post Binding (2)

This book required a lot of attention. The original binding was two industrial staples, which had rusted and broken away from several pages. The pages had secured in their original positions using pressure sensitive tape (scotch tape). The pages were also terribly brittle. It would have been impossible to touch this book without causing more damage to the pages.

My first step was to remove all the pressure sensitive tape. Luckily, most of the original adhesive had deteriorated, and it came off easily. Next, I collated and pulled the book. Once I had all the pages separated, I placed them between Reemay and washed them. Twice in a warm water bath, and once with magnesium bicarbonate to act as a buffer.
Even after washing/deacidifying, the paper was still to brittle to guard and resew. So, I opted for encapsulation. This would enable the pages to be handled, and help prevent further damage. I encapsulated each page in Mylar, and bound them as a screw post binding.
These are pictures of the end result.

Adhesive Skills

This is somewhat unrelated, but I got this sweater and thought my Pod Post patch would make a nice accessory.

Corrugated Clamshell Box

A corrugated box is used to rehouse documents or books for additional support and protection. This differs from a phase box, not only in materials used but in design. While a phase box provides support for standing materials, corrugated boxes are meant to lie flat.
This particular box was constructed for a scrapbook of sorts. The object was a series of newspaper and magazine articles, glued to thin board and bound together with a metal ring.
I used a Syracuse University manual to construct the box.
This is an image of the end result, open, with the object.

Building Up Corners

This was a leather bound book that I did Japanese tissue repair for. A couple of the corners were seriously damaged and misshaped.

To infill the corners, I cut small squares of board. These should be small enough to handle, but extend past the book's board edge so they can be trimmed to size later. I parred these squares of board at one corner, until they were thin enough to fit between the existing board. It is important not to par too far out. Remember the thickness of the square should be flush with the book's covers at the board edge. I attached these squares with PVA. Then I covered the new material with Japanese tissue, overlapping on to the original leather.

When all the corners were repaired, I toned them to match, and applied SC 6000 wax. This is the end result.

Tissue Repair on Leather

This particular book's joint was broken and the spine was loose. It also had damage to both end caps. I repaired these areas with Japanese tissue. Unfortunately, I was working on a group of seven tissue repairs and did not take "before" pictures. Because the leather was also deteriorating, I coated the entire book with Klucel G. This picture shows the book before toning.

I was very lucky because the color of this leather was easy to match. For this reason, I decided to tone the areas of deteriorated leather between the gold stamping. After doing this, I applied SC 6000 wax to the areas treated with tissue, to add shine and create the appearance of leather. This is the end result.