Repairs

Re-backing is required when the spine of a book, a board or a cover becomes detached. Examples of how covers and boards are re-worked can be seen alongside. This work is not restricted to valuable books but may also be necessary for old reference works or heavily used titles.

Different forms of adhesive are used for different problems. For much internal repair work I will use a flour and water paste. I will use animal glue on the spines of old books that warrant it. Both of these adhesives are reversible.

Nowadays PVA glue is supposed to be reversible but this is not always easy. Certainly paste will be used with paper and archival quality PVA or animal glue for spine linings.

As with restoration work material for covers will be selected to match the original as closely as possible. See the Before and After images for examples of the changes that can be made with damaged or neglected works.