I started bookbinding as a hobby more than 40 years ago. I took evening classes at Leicester Polytechnic (which had recently taken over the Leicester School of Printing, along with its specialist bookbinding staff) in 1976 and continued for five years. Trevor Hickman was the tutor – sadly he died a couple of years ago – very highly respected by all his students. Over the next 25 years I gradually acquired all the tools, equipment and materials necessary to tackle any repair or new binding job, and I joined the UK-based Designer Bookbinders, and later the Society of Bookbinders. Their weekend courses and conferences were important to developing my skills. Initially I bound or repaired just my own books, but people began to ask me to do repairs at which , with practice, I became quite proficient. When I retired from full-time work I took on more repair work and now, fifteen years later, my work book has over 2000 entries, including some new bindings for clients. Now I would like to share some of the techniques and methods I have developed with other binders, however new they may be to the craft, and that is the chief aim of this Blog.
In the past year I have ‘re-covered’, in both senses of the word, about 100 reject hardbacks in a combination of reclaimed parchment and rescued old pages with some decorative feature. The parchment is from old deeds, mainly land conveyances, which have no other value. Here are some examples.
The Rebindery 
But the secret seems to be though, and this is my problem, how do you paste or glue the Vellum onto the boards. Every time I try the vellum curls up before I have chance to put the paste brush down on the table. Should I paste the board only and then place the vellum onto it or should I “drum it on” i.e. just glue the turn ins? I have plenty of old vellum conveyance documents that I could use I just don’t know the right technique. any tips Chris? Many thanks. paul
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Thanks for the question, Paul. The vellum (or parchment) has to be backed with plain white paper cut to the same size. Damp the vellum on both sides, paste the paper only, lay the vellum on top and smooth out any wrinkles, put the book in a lying press, glue the book spine and sides to be covered, lay the vellum down on the book in the press and tie down the bands with string (I have tacks in the sides of the press to wind the string round), leave to dry. Works every time.
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Thanks Chris
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