Friday, January 28, 2022

...1.28...Antique Book Repair...

...remember when I broke the binding on my 1817 Cookbook...like...right after I got it...
...well...Beth...gave me some good advice...and I decided to go ahead and 'fix it'...this is the back cover...and I can easily pry off the 200+ year old leather...I know...eeeuuuwww leather...I would not buy a leather bound book now...but this poor cow died over 200 years ago...
...and this is the spine...also fairly easy to pry away...but I don't want to do any more 'damage' during the 'repair'...
...so I raided the stash for some appropriate patching material...I got a few nice sturdy cottons out and some of the leftover naugehyde from Our (small) Airman's chaps/Cowboy Costume all those years ago...I had quite a bit of the brown left...but none of the black...
...this light coloured cotton...
...and this thinner and a bit shinier one...
...and a sturdy brown cotton...
...but I was actually surprised as I thought the naugehyde would be too thick...but it's really quite thin...and I'm going to go with that...I think it will hold up better than a cloth repair...
...I cut two thin strips of naugehyde...and applied some glue...
...then I lifted up the cover...and slipped it inside...
...and left it to dry...
...and did the same again for the front...
...and then once that was dry...I gently pried the spine away...and applied some glue to the other edge of the patch strip and slipped that inside the between the spine covering and the book proper...
...I know it's kind of hard to see...
...and that was it...I left it to dry...
...and you can see the little patch peeking through...
...but the book now opens easily...front...
...and back...I'll be as careful as I can with it though...
...because I definitely plan to use it...along with my Read Harder Challenge...I've set a goal to read just 10 pages a day...I've finished the interesting introduction...and I'm reading through all of the gruesome meat section...the 1800's diet must have relied pretty heavily on dead animals...and I know I could skip those parts...but I often get some good ideas about how to make tofu and seitan dishes...just like from Julia...haha...
...and this is looking down at the top of the repair...
...all in all I'm really happy with it...

~Have a lovely day!
Posted by affectioknit at 8:15 AM
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8 comments:

  1. Joyful10:54 PM

    You did a great job with the repair. I'm always impressed with the repairs you do. Happy reading.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. affectioknit1:44 PM

      Awwww Thanks Penny!
      ~Have a lovely day!

      Delete
  2. Karen7:00 AM

    Amazing repair of very cool book!

    Love, K

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. affectioknit1:45 PM

      Hey K,
      ...yeah...I'm really pleased with how it turned out...and now I'm still careful with it...but I don't have to treat it quite so gingerly...
      Love,
      T

      Delete
  3. karen8:09 AM

    now that is a repair to document! I have some really old books where the spine is failing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. affectioknit1:45 PM

      Thanks Karen,
      ...I'm really pleased with how it turned out...and now I'm still careful with it...but I don't have to treat it quite so gingerly...
      ~Have a lovely day!

      Delete
  4. BLD in MT5:47 PM

    Well done, Teresa. That book has so much life in it yet! I'm glad you were so successful in your book mending.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. affectioknit1:46 PM

      Thanks so much Beth!
      ...I'm really pleased with how it turned out...and now I'll still be pretty careful with it...but I don't have to treat it quite so gingerly...
      ~Have a lovely day!

      Delete

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