Hello there, I`m Mihai Vârtejaru, from the "Arta Cărții" Bookbindery.
Welcome to the fourth episode of our series,
today we will dealing with the tools of the finisher from the bookbinding workshop.
Fist of all, what is a finisher
or who exactly is this finisher.
There is a difference in the terminology of the old style bookbinding
between the forwarders, who did the actual binding of the books
and the finishers.
These are two separate stages,
the finishing is done only after the cover has been completed
and the finisher was a rather specialised worksman,
usually paid much more than a regular bookbinder,
that would add all the decorative elements and ornaments
in gold leaf or other precious alloy.
We will deal with the materials,
with the tools used for decoration,
both in modern and in traditional bookbinding.
Here we have
the most precious metal used for this process,
namely gold, beaten down to a leaf.
It`s very sensitive as you can see,
the smallest touch can tear it,
so we must work with it with the uttmost care.
This is a piece of hotstamping foil, used in modern bookbinding.
It`s not gold, but it can also be produced using a layer of genuine gold.
As opposed to the gold leaf, we don`t have to work with low temperatures,
we can also apply higher temperatures,
but the principles are the same.
The bookbinder`s knife...
excuse me, the gilder`s knife,
it`s used for cutting the gold leaf.
The gold must be laid upon a leather cushion,
slightly rubbed with fine chalk or powdered pumice,
and the knife is used to cut up the gold
in smaller pieces so it can be laid upon the book and tooled in.
This is an agate stone,
a straight one.
This is not used in the binding of the book or in decoration of the leather
but it is used to put gold on the edges,
that is, gilding the edges with Armenian Bole.
A layer of Armenian Bole is put on,
its mixed with egg glair or hide glue
or isinglass
then it`s left to dry,
the gold is put on
and then we come with this tool and burnish the surface,
meaning we polish it very well,
after all the humilidy in the bole evaporated.
This is just one example of an agate burnisher,
there are many more models out there,
depending on the surface we need to burnish:
it can be straight, it can be curved, it can be extremely small, etc.
Now, we will be talking about what we call in bookbinding the finishing tools or irons.
Usually (in Romania) they are collectively (and erroneously) called Fillets (Pallets),
although the fillets are just part of the finishing tools.
The most basic tool from this category is the creaser,
it`s used to press in lines in blind
or to fix certain mistakes by pressing.
It`s heated on the fire
(and as we can see we have a little burn on the metal)
and it is then firmly pressed
on the part that needs to be decorated with a line in blind.
It can be single lined,
double- or triple-lined
but it will never have a decorated face
its meant to be drawn straight, once heated.
The decorative tools are a bit more complex than the creaser.
The creaser can also be used by the forwarder or the apprentice,
but the finishing tools made of brass
are a bit more special and they`re destined only for the finisher`s use.
Here we have two tools of the same type,
that is, stamps or simple irons/ hand tools.
Usually they have a body made of brass
whose shaft is fitted in a wooden handle
and it has a face or a flower at its end.
This one is an example of an old finishing tool,
about 120 years old, it used to belong to the Chivers Bindery in Great Britain
and we can also see the name of the cutter,
because the brass engravers usually had their own trademark that they would punch into the tool
by means of another steel stamp,
in this case as it seems, Mister Beard, according to the mark.
Why are they made out of brass and not other materials?
Because brass it a good heat conductor,
it retains the heat in the shaft
and when we work with the tool,
the face cools slightly but the heat from the shaft dissipates
into the face again and therefore we can have a constant temperature at the tip.
When the heat warms up the face of the tool once again,
then it`s ready to be pressed in and leave an impression.
This is an example of a modern tool,
made by Kevin Noakes in the UK.
I like this tool especially
because it was cut by Kevin
after my design and was copied from 16th century French bindings
of a bookbinder named Picard.
I tried to replicate the model as faithfully as I could,
I processed the design a bit in Adobe Photoshop
and sent the symmetric model to mister Kevin Noakes
who in turn made this beautiful tool from it.
It`s a type of tool that is a bit more complex,
as opposed to the simpler ones,
-there are different categories of hand tools even:
small tools, continuous tools,
tools that can be combined with one another to create more elaborate designs-
this tool can be used by itself
or you can create a decorative band
with a recurring module by repeatedly pressing it.
The following two tools are called fillets or pallets.
The older generation of Romanian bookbinders
uses the term Fillets to designate all these finishing tools,
but strictly speaking,
this is not a fillet
these two are not fillets,
only these two are proper fillets.
These are two distinct kinds of pallets.
It`s still made of brass,
the heat is kept as well in the shaft
and is slowly radiated in the face of the tool.
Pallets can be simple,
double or single-lined,
thicker or thinner
or, as we can see here, decorated.
This used to belong to a bindery in Constanța
and before it was used there, 20 or 30 years before that,
it was used in a school for the blind.
It seems there was a school for blind people in Pitești
that used similar tools,
I don`t know how but I guess the sense of touch was vital.
This type of tool is of course heated in fire
It can used on the foil as well as on gold leaf
or without them, just be pressing on the dampened leather
these are two types of decoration
Blinding in uses only the surface of the leather
sometimes with a bit of fat or humidity
and gilding, either in gold leaf or foil
The third type of finishing tool
is the rolette (wheel).
Now, there`s a number of preferences in the bookbinding world
I`ve come across wheels with longer handles
wheels with shorter handles
and even with extremely short handles.
This is an example of a medium sized handle
which can be used by any avereged-arm-sized bookbinder
It`s gripped firmly by the front part
while the back side is guided by the forearm
and the pressure is shouldered-in.
There are also smaller handles, for smaller wheels,
which can be guided through only by the use of the arm strenghth
and there are also very large handled rolettes
which are placed upon the shoulder, they`re guided from the mid section
and are then pressed into the leather.
This is a perfect example of a simple rolette
This is left blank, there are also many types of rollets
just the way there are many types of fillets
and can reach high degrees of complexity when it comes to their decoration.
We can see it`s a modern wheel because it has this small opening in its face
so it is not a truely circular endless tool.
Why do we have this kind of a break?
Because when we start or finish putting in a line
it must come to an end or start with an angle of 45 degrees
so two can join together nicely in a 90 degrees angle.
The same: it`s heated on the hotplate or on the finisher`s stove
and pressed in foil or leaf.
Among the more modern tools used in the art of bookbinding
(although the concept is not modern)
are the dies or plaques
The die is an object meant to impress a model in a single strike
In the old days, the finishers would use, for more complex models,
for coats of arms or similar devices
a group of separate tools.
For instance, we can have more of these simple irons
which are called in the business "petit fers"(fers petites)
from French, meaning Small Irons,
and every line, every letter, every curve
was struck with a different tool,
But once the right cutting technology developed
they went on to use this kind of dies.
Modern dies are made from a magnesium alloy, such as this one,
or from a zinc alloy,
but I have to confess I do not make much use of the zinc ones
because they tend to melt, magnesium does not melt as easily
and it`s pretty light, you can use any shape
any model,
It`s considered to be a very lazy type of finishing work
because you`re not using separate tools
but it is somewhat more accessible for most books
if they`re not luxury bindings or an extremely expensive print.
Is this invention a modern thing? Yes and no.
Dies were used even in the 16th century
Here we have a very beautiful die
cut in brass
from the beggining of the 20th century
The decorations are called "entrelacs"
all these labyrinths of lines that cross eachother and overlap
along with the plant motifs
are inspired by the kind of bindings
made famous by the collector Jean Grolier, a great patron of the arts.
This kind of die has been used quite a lot
beggining with the 18th century, with lots of models
They could be hand cut or machine cut
even by the same workmen who made these tools
it was oftentimes the same workshop.
It seems like they have been in use since the 16th century
by the Italian bookbinders as well as the French
they were much more less refined in their cut than this kind of die
but they were indeed used, and they could have been a more complex model
placed and struck only once.
German bookbinding used dies extensivelly
especially when it came to religious scenes
iconographical motifs and so forth.
It would seem like even before Italian and French bookbinding
there were dies used in Islamic bookbinding
made out of wood - lyno types-
my mistake, Xylo-types, forgive me,
or really tough camel raw hide
engraved just they do lynotypes today.
The last tool,
-because I do not have the full range of tools destined to the finisher`s use,
such as handle letters-
This is a typeholder or a letter case.
It looks like a sort of small vice
meant to hold lead or brass letters.
These are monotype-cast letters
each one with its face and species, in numerous sizes,
We have a self-centring screw that can grip them tight,
the letters go inside
the vice is tightened
This is one type of a type holder.
There are many more models: Russian, German, French, English...
This I presume is a Romanian-made type-holder
from a Soviet model,
pretty heavy and robust,
but tha allows for a very precise handling.
When it is heated
we have to be very careful as to not melt the letters, if we`re using lead alloy
We have to reach the optimal temperature
and we test that by using a few drops of water or saliva
Usually, in all temperature gauging
old bookbinders would have used saliva.
It may well be an unpleasent thing to hear
for the modern reader or viewer
but many substances used in the bookbinder`s workshop
had to be immediately accesible to the bookbinder
When he made a blind impression
he could have used the excess sebuum
or sweat from his face or forehead or chin
When he would pick up the gold leaf
the special fine gilder`s brush would have been touched aganst his hair
in order t pick up a small quantity of sebuum
to permit the gold to stick slightly to the brush,
Saliva was used to test the temperature
but many times there would have been some tools with sacred symbols
with icons or words pertaining to the religious,
and here it seems that the finisher was quite superstitious or pious
so he would not spit on the cross
or spit on a holy icon
but tested it separately with a dop of water.
This has been the fourth episode in our series,
I`ll be waiting for your comments and questions if any,
until next time, in two weeks`time. Thank you very much!
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