Repair Manual Home

Introduction

Guiding Principles

Setting up the Area

Toolbox

Parts of a book

Practical Guidelines

Identifying Repairable Materials

Glossary

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Your Comments

Self-Closing Wrapper

Cleaning

Torn pages

Tip in a Page

Hinge Repair

Corner Repair

Sewing a Single Signature

Spine Repair

Air Dry Method

Hinge Tightening

FAQs

 

Binding A Single Signature Pamphlet

Suggested Equipment & Supplies:

• Knife for removing staples
• Board shear or heavy duty paper cutter
• Scissors
• Bone folder
• Acid free paper for end sheets
• Acid free pamphlet binder (available from a variety of vendors)
• Thin needle-sized awls
• Sewing needle with large eye
• Unbleached linen thread

Procedures:

1. Open the pamphlet to its center most fold, and prepare to remove staples or thread. If the pamphlet is stapled, bend the legs of each staple out straight using an instrument with a dull blade.

2. Slip the blade under each staple along the outside of the spine of the pamphlet, and using a back-and-forth rocking motion, remove the staple

3. Use the board shear or a heavy duty cutter and trim the binder to size leaving a 1/4" square on the top, bottom, and fore edge. Optional: trim the corners for a smooth, rounded edge.

4. Fold a large sheet of acid free paper and trim to the exact height of the pamphlet and slightly wider allowing a wider width for thick pamphlets.

5. Fit the pamphlet inside the folded endsheet and center it into a pre-made acid free binder positioning it either equidistant from the head and tail of the boards. Trim the head, tail, and fore edge if necessary to create a 1/4 " square.

6. Open the pamphlet to its center most fold. With the boards open 45 degrees or less, drive 5 awls through the fold in the pamphlet, acid free endsheet and its pamphlet binder. It is important to open the pamphlet only part way, so that the awls will pierce it through the fold and not travel off-center. The holes at the head and tail should be no more than 1" from top and bottom. The middle hole should be in the center of the pamphlet.

7. Cut a length of unbleached linen thread, 2-1/2 times the height of the pamphlet binder. Thread the newly cut end into a needle, but do not tie a knot. Leave the ends free.
8. With the pamphlet open only part way, begin sewing from the inside of the signature out, through hole #3. (Sewing will proceed more precisely if the tendency to open the pamphlet flat is resisted. Awls should be removed one by one, just before sewing through each hole.) Leave a 3" tail of thread, which can be pulled shorter later.

9. sew back into the pamphlet through hole #2 and out again at #1. Thread should always be tightened in the direction in which the pamphlet is being sewn, pulling parallel to the spine of the pamphlet (not perpendicular). This minimizes the possibility of tearing the folds of the paper.

10. Pull the sewing thread gently so that the tail protruding from the middle hole is only about 1-1/2" long. Next re-enter hole #2, be careful not to pierce the thread that already passes through that hole. This will make it difficult or impossible to tighten the sewing.

11. Next, skip #3, go out #4, back in #5, out #4, and back in #3, always pulling the thread snugly in the direction of the sewing after passing through a hole.

12. When the sewing is complete, tighten the thread carefully by drawing outermost stitches toward the center of the binder, and pulling up on the ends of the thread. With one thread-end on each side of the sewing stitch that passes along the fold of the pamphlet (i.e. the long stitch), and tie a square knot . Cut the thread-ends to approximately 1/4" to 1/2".

Note: For very small pamphlets, 3 sewing holes can be used rather than 5; for very tall ones, 7 or 9 holes can be used. In all cases the sewing pattern is the same, with the needle passing in and out through every hole--from the middle to the head, to the tail, and to the middle of the pamphlet again--but skipping the middle hole on the way from head to tail.

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by Preservation Services.