Linen spine linings, and why the third attempt held
· job 197 · a 1931 poetry volume, 19 × 12.5 cm, cloth case with a detached spine strip
Three attempts. Same linen, same paste, same board. The attempt that held was the one where I applied almost no pressure while the lining dried, then one cold press afterwards. Two sentences, if you want only the result.
The book as it arrived
| Casing | Blue cloth, sun-faded on the spine only. Spine strip detached along both joints but present. |
|---|---|
| Text block | Sewn in eights, four stations, thread sound. One broken section at gathering G, previously repaired with a pressure-sensitive tape by someone else. |
| Spine lining | Old paper lining already gone. Backing boards loose at the head, tight at the tail. |
| Damage to the spine itself | A crease across the middle third, and the cloth thin enough to see the board through at two points. |
Attempt one (22 September)
Wheat paste, cooked, brushed on both faces of a 30 gsm Irish linen strip. The strip was cut 4 mm longer than the spine at head and tail. I pressed the whole thing under a board with two weights, roughly 3 kg spread over the spine, and left it overnight.
Result the next morning: the linen had taken a set that was too hard. The spine would not open past about 60 degrees without the lining resisting and lifting at the tail joint. I had made a plate, not a joint.
Attempt two (24 September)
Same strip, washed out and dried flat first. Less paste. Still pressed, but only one weight (about 900 g) and a sheet of release paper. Better. But after two hours of opening and closing the volume on the bench, the lining began to tent at the head, over the crease.
Attempt three (26–27 September)
I changed one thing instead of three. The strip was laid down with paste and tacked only at the head and tail with narrow strips of blotter, no weight at all over the middle third. It dried for nineteen hours with nothing pressing it. After that, one cold press: a flat board, one weight, forty minutes.
The opening behaviour is what I wanted: the lining flexes with the spine, and the crease is bridged rather than flattened. At the tail joint there is a slight ridge which I can feel with a fingernail and which I am not going to chase.
What I got wrong twice
- Pressure while damp is what makes a lining stiff. I had assumed the opposite because pressing is what makes almost everything else in this work behave.
- I used the same linen both times and blamed the linen the first time. It was not the linen.
- On attempt two, the release paper was the wrong kind — too slick, so the paste beaded in one spot instead of spreading.
Six-month check
I will look at this volume again in late March. What I am checking for is the ridge at the tail joint and whether the tenting over the crease returns. I have failed this check fourteen times out of eighty-eight, and two of those fourteen were linings.
Written at the bench, on the evening of the third day. Job number 197.