Today, I continue to rebind my journal. Today and tomorrow, I will concentrate on the text block which is the collection of pages that make up a book. The first goal of the day is to separate the text block from the covers (or in bookbinding terms--the case). This was pretty easy since the text block was separating from the case anyway. I simply took a scalpel and cut the connecting material (the mull).
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| The covers (the case) |
A text block is made up of a collection of pages normally called signatures. In mass produced books, the signatures are glued together. In better made books, they are sewn together.
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| The Text Block |
Well to my surprise, the book was hand sewn and was glued together with a mesh backing called mull. The mull keeps the signatures together should stitches break. The ends sheets are glued to the mull and then glued to the inside of the covers to keep the text block affixed to the case. So, the problem with my journal was that the end sheets were not glued very well to the text block.
Also, I didn't really realize that my journal had headbands as well. The ribbon was secured below the headbands. The purpose of the headbands is to keep the book pages from lying directly on a flat surface when stored upright.
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| Red and Yellow headband |
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| Mull and stitching |
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| Headband at the tail of the book |
The first order of business in cleaning up the text block is to remove the headbands. Rather than tear them off and threaten the sewing, I decided to heat them with a glue gun in order to loosen the glue.
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| Headbands removed |
The second order of business is to remove the ribbon. Similarly, I used the heat gun to loosen the glue and then removed the ribbon. I then ran my my bone folder across the spine of the text block to make sure that everything was flattened and ready for tomorrow.
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