Friday, March 2, 2012
This treatment should be used with single section sewn or stapled pamphlet book structures. The materials needed for this treatment are:
Tools and materials needed for pamphlet binding.
- Spine wrap pamphlet binder
- pamphlet to be bound
- 3-5 binders’ awls
- microspatula
- binders’ needle
- linen thread
- scissors
- bone folder
Preparing the pamphlet for binding
Removing the staples
1. Using either a staple remover or microspatula, remove the staples from the pamphlet.
2. Insert the pamphlet into the pamphlet binder, ensuring that it is centered properly between the head (top) and tail (bottom) and that the front cover of the pamphlet is showing through the transparent front cover of the binder.
Removing the staples
3. Fold the binder’s adhesive spine cloth so that it is out of the way.For small pamphlets, three sewing stations will be adequate. Forlarger pamphlets, additional sewing stations may be necessary. As a rule, there should be no more than 2 inches between each sewing station. For this pamphlet, 5 sewing stations are needed.
Piercing the sewing stations
4. Working from inside of the pamphlet and using the binders’ awl, pierce a hole, or sewing station, through the spine, roughly halfway between the head and tail. Leave the awl in the sewing station to keep the pages aligned. When piercing the pamphlet, it is best to work on the edge of your table or workstation.
Leaving the awls in place helps to keep the pages aligned
5. Pierce sewing stations roughly ½ inch from both the head and tail of the pamphlet. For small pamphlets, three sewing stations will be adequate. For larger pamphlets, additional sewing stations may be necessary. As a rule, there should be no more than 2 inches between each sewing station. For this pamphlet, 5 sewing stations are needed.
6. Pierce additional sewing stations roughly halfway between the center station and the head station, and about halfway between the center and the tail.
Sewing the pamphlet
Sewing Diagram for Pamphlet Stitch
Beginning the pamphlet stitch
1. In order to sew the pamphlet, you will need roughly 2½ spine lengths of linen thread.
2. Cut the required length of linen thread and thread the needle. It may be helpful to use the bone folder to flatten the end of the thread.
3. Beginning outside the pamphlet at the center sewing station (#3). Thread your needle into the sewing station leaving a 2-inch length of thread outside of the spine. This will be used to tie off the stitch in the final steps.
4. Working toward the head of the pamphlet, sew through the next station (#2) moving from the inside out.
Keep the stitching tight as you work
5. Next, sew through the head station (#1) moving from the outside in. Holding the beginning end of the thread in place, pull the stitching tight.
6. Working back toward the center now, sew through station #2, this time sewing in the opposite direction as before, from the outside in.
Beginning and ending thread lengths
7. Next, move past the center station toward the tail of the pamphlet and sew into station #4.
8. Sew through station #5 and back through station #4. Keep the stitching pulled tight as you work.
9. Next, sew through the center sewing station (#3). As you push the needle through, make sure that the beginning and ending thread lengths are on opposite sides of the thread that runs from stations #2 to #4. Using the beginning thread length and the ending thread length, tie a square knot.
10. Trim the beginning and ending thread lengths to roughly ½ inch.
11. Remove the wax paper strip from the binder’s adhesive spine cover and adhere the flap around the spine. Seal securely with the bone folder.
 Adhering the spine cover |
 Adhering the spine cover |
 The bound pamphlet |
Submitted by Brad M Ferrier
During our week at OceanTeacher Academy, we are learning the basics of book repair for circulating collectons and preservation planning. Today we learned about mending page tears and tipping in loose pages. We stressed that these mends are for circulating collections only and not for special collections or rare books. The goal of simple mends for circulating collections is to extend the life of the book so it can continue to circulate until the book wears out. We used transparent, thin, flexible mending tissue.
