Book Repair Hints and Hacks

This is just being written and posted in mid-August 2024. Please pardon the bad typing. I may not be accurate, but I am fast. (In 1967 the US Army taught me to touch type in two weeks at 20 w.p.m. I didn't use it so I lost it just as fast.)

Fixing your books and improving their appearance.

Professional booksellers will always tell you, ''do not try to fix or even clean a book. Get a professional to do it.'' Yes, there are many professional bookbinders in America and in the UK especially. They can fix, attach or replace a book cover, plus lots of other magic tricks.

After many years of bookselling we make some simple, and usually not too invasive, repairs on books. Sometimes I write them down in emails when people ask us. Here are some ideas for simple repairs.

The Best Glue for Book Repair and an Easy Loose Page Repair.

When we repair books we use a white glue that is made for book repair, and is water soluble and reversible, and works really well. It stays flexible and dries clear. It is called Glue No 711, and comes in bulk containers from a company called Talas. They are available at Talasonline.com in Brooklyn NY. Their smallest bottle is 1/2 pint for $9.95.

I buy small squeeze bottles to keep the glue handy, and can apply it to books direct from the bottle sometimes. I also get old fashioned wood coffee stirrers for free at Starbucks. Even wood or plastic toothpicks are useful for applying small amounts in tight places. Simply squeeze the glue you need onto scrap paper. I pour Talas 711 onto post-it notes, and then swipe some off with my Starbucks sticks, or toothpicks.

With Glue 711, you can easily glue in a loose page or photo from a book. I usually remove the entire loose page, and apply glue to the edge of the page that came loose. While you can run a small line of glue on an edge of the loose page from the squeeze bottle directly, or by using your Starbucks stirrer, there is another easy way to apply glue.

Squeeze some in a one inch long straight line on a piece of clean paper. I often put the glue on post-it notes, so I can just throw the sticky paper away when done. Holding the page with both hands, in a vertical position, slowly and carefully draw the loose page along the line of glue. See that the glue is going onto the edge of the page that you will use to re-attach it. Do it lightly, the page weighs almost nothing, so it needs very little glue to stay in the book.

How do you keep from glueing pages together when inserting a loose page?

This is an easy one. If you simply insert the loose page correctly, and use very little glue, you still may have zome ooze out and glue two pages together. Remember wax paper? Buy a roll, or cut off a few feet from your grandmother's roll the next time you visit her. If the book is 9 inches tall, cut off a foot of wax paper. Then cut or tear it into strips 4 inches wide and 12 inches long.

Paper tears easily when you go with with the grain of the paper, just like splitting wood. We all know this about paper from tearing a piece of paper towel. Paper has grain just like wood. Take your 4 inch strip of wax paper, then fold it lenghtwise with a sharp crease. So then you have a folded paper, 2 inches wide and 12 inches long. Make two of those 2x12 pieces of folded wax paper. After you have glued the loose page into a book, slip each piece of the folded wax paper on either side of the loose page. then snug it up tight towards the spine. Any glue that squeezes out from the repair will come between the adjacent page and the wax paper. It will not stick to the wax paper, so no mess. I put a few rubber bands around the book to hold it closed. Let it dry for a few hours or overnight. Then carefully remove the 2 folded sheets of wax paper, and enjoy your fixed book. It may feel like its sticking, but tug it gently and it knows what to do.

How to fix a book spine that is torn, worn or ratty at the top and bottom.

Another easy repair is the torn and worn cloth at the top and bottom of the spine of an older book. Old books had covers and bindings of cloth glued onto stiff boards. I simply put some glue on a post-it, and pick some off onto the tip of a toothpick. Then apply a small amount of glue on the inside of the worn area of the cloth covered book. By inside I mean the part of the book's spine that is facing the book, not facing you. Lightly move the glue with the applicator or finger where it can adhere and pull two the loose or shredded cloth together. The glue itself will dry invisibly and adhere to the the worn cloth. That will keep it from looking ratty, and from getting worse.

Is there a way to add color to the book's edges when it is worn?

Yes, we have found several ways. For very small areas, under 1/8 inch, you can use a colored artists marker. At an art supply store you can buy individual felt pens in every color. Most of the time the cloth on book covers is a dark color, like blue or green. Occasionally I see browns or reds, and also grays and black. If you get felt tipped pens or markers for very small spots, it is best to get several in related colors, like 3 to 5 different blues. To apply it is obvious, but test it someplace less obvious, like the bottom edge of the book. That is the edge that gets the most wear anyway.

Sometimes a large area of a book has lost its color, like having been exposed to sunlight for several years, or has worn off. We tried using water colors, then markers. We have gotten the best results from shoe polish. The type to look for comes in small glass jars, and is much creamier than the harder stuff from the major brands. But it will dry out in the jars after a few years.

The glass jars are approx 2'' diameter and 1.5'' high. They have metal screw off caps. Clean the area you will try to color. Let it dry if you used water or alcohol. Some soiling comes off a cover most easily with a Magic Rub eraser, see below. Apply a small amount of polish with a Q-Tip and see how close the color match is. I have never mixed colors, as a few shades of blue and gray is usually enough.

The brand I used at first was Meltonian, but they have less variety than they used to. If you search for Meltonian on ebay or Amazon, all the other brands will appear. After applying the polish, let it dry over night, then rub it all over with a soft cloth.

Protecting a Dust Jacket with clear plastic covers.

How to clean a dust jacket. They all need a cleaning!

You may be thinking, my DJ's look great, why clean them. Or you have Brodart clear plastic covers on all your DJs, so the actual DJ is clean. If you put the Brodart on a New book, the DJ stays clean and will look new forever.

DJs may look clean, but they are not. If you have an older book, before 1990, the DJ is dirty. If it has a Brodart, the Brodart is dirty. Get some isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol at the supermarket or drug store. I use the 70% stuff, but the 91% and the new 50% all work. In fact, you can do this cleaning with water rather than alcohol, but alcohol is a great cleaning agent. Take the DJ off the book to do this. Simply put some alcohol (or clean water) on a tissue and wipe the wet tissue on the DJ. Then look at the tissue. Ugh. If you want to see real dirty put some alcohol on a tissue and wipe your forehead or nose. Or your hands, arms, bare legs, feet. But foreheads and noses are the worst.

Most new DJ's will not be damaged but older ones may have ink that will dissolve in alcohol. Test it on an inocuous area. If you have a Brodart that has been on a book for 20-40 years, sit down and brace yourself when you clean it. If its scratched, torn, or uncleanable, put on a new one. In quantity they are 50 cents to a dollar. On a $50 book, or a $500 book, just give it a new Brodart. If you have a book that was in a public library, and they put the Brodart on the DJ, it can be gross. On DJs that show a lot of white paper with no ink, that white section may look grimy. Alcohol may have an effect, but it can't make it white again.

Soo then I use my other tool for dirty jackets or dirty pages. Get a few Magic Rub erasers. Amazon has it for $5 for one, but the pack of six or 12 is the way to go. Give them away to your friends. It works well on soiled pages in the book. Sometimes I use one of its wider sides to cover more paper with each stroke. And always, always, erase dirt or pencil marks one way, not up and back, towards the edge of the jacket or page. If you rub a page up and back and you are near the edge of the page, you will tear it.

I have a Magic Rub Eraser everywhere I have a flat surface that might be a place where I will clean a DJ or book. Also have additional tissues and bottles of 70% rubbing alcohol. Q-Tips can also be handy in book reapir and cleaning. They still make Q-Tips with rigid wood sticks rather than from flexible paper. They are not the Q-tip brand.