Trying to Repair an Old Book (never again 😅)

My first attempt (maybe last) at antique book repair 🙈
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CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
1:05 What Should I Do?
2:04 Spine Cleaning
4:04 Book Cloth & End Bands
5:07 Text Block Repair
7:25 New Book Cover
10:45 Casing In
VIDEOS MENTIONED
• @SouthernBookAndPaper: • Step 2: Spine Cleaning...
• DIY Book Cloth: • DIY Book Cloth for Boo...
• @AnnesiBindings: • How to Make an Oxford ...
• @DASBookbinding: • Case Bound Book
• Testing Case Binding Kit: • Testing an Etsy Case B...
• More Book Projects Playlist: bit.ly/BookProjects
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• DIY Bookpress: • DIY Book Press Tips fo...
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• Bone folder*: amzn.to/2VzLD7S
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• Yarn (for end bands)
• Lineco Super*: amzn.to/3rRc7lZ
• Cardstock Paper*: amzn.to/32vNhzk
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[@ofrainandotherthings]

as a book restorer, i hesitated watching this video. i was positively surprised, you did a good job! :) i wished you kept the old covers though! all those "flaws" they had are such an important part of the book's story, that's why we try to preserve as much of it as possible. i love how you mentionned your struggles and how long it took! it's all handmade and with expensive high-quality materials. this is the reason, book restorations are so expensive...

[@KingKatura]

How did you become a book restorer?

[@ofrainandotherthings]

@@KingKatura it's a bit different in each country, i got a degree in conservation and restoration at university. you also go through a lot of practical training during internships!

[@juliebelmonte6289]

Yes when you are making a gift for someone else you tend to get a lot of stress. You want the gift to come out perfect 🥰 and it did. Congratulations the book is beautiful.

[@daveturnbull7221]

All in all I'd say you did a pretty top class job there. Maybe not up to professional standards but I'd certainly be proud as punch if I managed to do something that good. About the only thing I might have tried is to see if I could remove the end-paper remains from the inside of the cover and then paste them onto the insides of the new one. The stuff they used to clean the spine looks like some form of bookbinding paste ( wheat paste or methyl cellulose) but rather than messing around making a load of that you could just use some walpaper paste. The main function of it is to soften and re-activate any remaining original glue thus letting you remove it. One final tip for case bound books is to put a knitting needle along the hinges when you put it in the book press - it helps to define the hinge and gives a more proffesional look. I'd certainly be very interested in seeing you have a go at some more restoration projects - your friendly chatty explanations and willingness to show us when things go wrong tend to help me understand stuff fairly quickly.

[@SeaLemonDIY]

I didn't mention this, but I did try to remove the inside cover pages. They were still glued on pretty well to the board and ripped when I tried removing 😅

[@daveturnbull7221]

@@SeaLemonDIY I think it is something that even the professional restorers would have a lot of trouble with and will also depend on the original method of gluing them on. I think it was worth a try so more kudos to you for giving it a go 👍💕

[@kittyneko7]

I remember reading you can restore the yellow pages with an aqueous bath, but man that sounded tiresome. Also, in my experience, water just makes it worse. I can’t touch books that old. I worked in a library and my boss wanted me to make lists of hymns printed in extremely old hymnals. I had it propped open at my desk between my monitor and my keyboard. While I was typing, the book slammed shut on its own and I could feel the mold spores hit my eyes. So someone had Benadryl in their desk, so I took some of that because my eyes were watering, my nose was running. I took the Benadryl and started falling asleep, so I had to go home. My boss did hire a man who would give old books insanely beautiful new covers. Molded colorful leather with gold leaf writing. We all piled into a conference room where he explained his process and materials. Afterwards, as we were filing out, he picked some more books to restore. As he walked out the door, he handed my boss an invoice and left. Her eyes got really wide. The sticker shock showed all over her face. But they were really beautiful covers.

[@SeaLemonDIY]

😂 thanks for sharing your experience! I would be the same way with that old book on your desk. I have sneezing fits around dusty things 🤧

[@kittyneko7]

Thanks for reading! Your channel reminds me of my library days. I always wanted to know how to sew bind books like the book repairer. I sewed single signature music scores into hard covers using needle and thread, but I never knew how to sew multiple signatures together until I watched your channel. I’ve made two beautiful notebooks with your tutorials. Thanks for sharing your beautiful work and how-to videos!

[@vincentferrari]

Okay hear me out for a second. I know you said you weren’t likely to do more of these, but in the many years I’ve been watching your videos this is my favorite video you’ve ever done. I enjoyed it start to finish and it put a huge smile on my face to see the end result. I know it was stressful, and the pressure, and the technical skill and all that but I just loved this video so much and thought you should hear that and hopefully it would influence your decision about doing them in the future 😊

[@SchuylerB]

Agreed! Always love the bookbinding videos but this one specifically was enjoyable, I hope there will be more.

[@butth3ad]

I hear a lot of self doubt in this video, but I just want to reassure that you are a very talented and competent book binder. You are literally the reason I even know how to book bind, I don't think I would have been able to learn it without your easy to follow videos and you were able to teach me how when I was 13 and now I'm 22 and still into it

[@disgustof-riley8338]

She has self doubt in this video BECAUSE she's not book binding. She's restoring

[@addisonkhanh]

I'm honestly blown away by the end results, watching this whole process and how you were so meticulous with every step made me really want to get back into book binding again! I used to watch your tutorials back in middle school to make my friends sketchbooks. It's like I've forgotten beautiful books like that can actually be made by hand so I'm so happy that I clicked on this video

[@greengohm]

Never again? Are you joking? I expect... no, I demand more of those restorations on this channel! The end results are absolutely amazing! I have similar project in the works now, but I've been lacking the confidence to continue. Thanks to you I might just get back to it! Again, this restoration came out fantastic - thank you for sharing it with us!

[@SchuylerB]

Agreed, we would love more book restoration and bookbinding videos please Jennifer :)

[@wintersdream2341]

You did a great job. I've done a few restorations but from my own collection. I suggest to anyone that esnts to try this go to a thrift shop and find a couple you dont care about for practice.

[@SeaLemonDIY]

Agreed! A practice book would have helped me work out some things and maybe give me more confidence for the next one.

[@BettyAlexandriaPride]

This was beautiful and I'm in tears. I was in a car accident in 2016 and lost my father. Coming up on year 6, I want to make archives of his music that may not be in the best condition. While I'm not a book maker at all (followed in his footsteps and became a musician/ music educator), I was really inspired by this. I found your channel last night/ this morning while cleaning and doing work for my classes. I've been binge-watching and probably bought a few too many packs of paper off of Amazon. 😅 I love it, keep up the amazing work.

[@linamoses3513]

I always appreciate how you reference the videos you’re working from. Shows humility and respect for other’s content. I hope people do the same for you. I’ve learned so much from your content

[@jillc2700]

My Mom has an old Betty Crocker cookbook I’ve considered repairing. It’s being held together by rubber bands so I don’t think I could make it worse…. 🤣🙃 but I’ve also never tried this before. 😟

[@casacan77]

i'd recomend making a few sketchbooks or notebooks first to practice puting a book together but that sounds like an awesome project!

[@jillc2700]

@@casacan77 yes, I've done sketchbookmaking for quite a while already, although I haven't picked it up for a few years.

[@mcuna42]

I really enjoyed this. If you decide to do more book restoration videos, that would be great. I love what you already do, but I am interested in both topics, and I like how you explain things. Thanks for another wonderful video. 😊

[@katyahum9826]

I also absolutely love the DAS bookbinding videos

[@CadetRedShirt]

Needing some tips for a similar situation, hopefully there is some good news in fixing this book! 💕

[@generallylevel-headed9671]

That red is absolutely perfect and this book is simply radiant! Love it 😍

[@OkiePeg411]

I'm also kinda learning g as I go. I've now repaired 3 100+ year old books. I wanted to keep as much of the original cover as I could. I mainly just wanted to put the books back together so you could turn the pages. Ine book is a 100 year old college yearbook. It had a leather cover/spine. The cover and spine was extremely important to the history of the book. My restoration may not have been as perfect, but I'm very happy with it as is my father. It was his father's university yearbook from 1924. He originally took it to a book repairer. They wanted to just use leather to recover the book, but my father wanted the original cover because of the beautiful Buffalo imprinted on the front. And it would have been several hundred dollars to not get the result he wanted. So I've restored it for him and he's thrilled with the results. It's now strong. All the pages can be turned and the original cover and spine are intact.

[@bookbindinggeek]

That book looks great and I believe that it will last for many years to come. I really enjoy seeing how you learn new things and try new things with book binding, and in turn inspire your viewers to try them as well. I'm also really enjoying how book binders are forming their own community, book binding tube, on KZbin (and other platforms) and sharing knowledge. I used to work at an archive, which had a room where a couple of conservators worked to restore and protect old paper documents, books and so forth. I especially loved these huge old leather bound books which were handwritten. My love for book binding started there. I don't know how to restore or conserve old books, but I know how to repair old books. You just have to judge each book separately on weather or not they have enough monetary or sentimental value to someone, that they'd need to be restored by a professional book conserver, or if it's enough to repair them and give the book a second life that way, and not worry so much that part of the books history is lost in the repair and it might not be conserved perfectly. I own some old books in need of repair, but some of them are beyond my skills to restore so I'd rather take them to a professional book conserver, so that they'd look as close to how they were supposed to be. But some of those books don't have any monetary value and only hold sentimental value to me, and those I would repair myself using modern materials.

[@mjpete27]

I have enjoyed watching your videos for quite some time, I am a recent subscriber, once I was told how important it is to a channels prosperity and I can honestly say that I enjoy watching your videos listening to you explaining your processes is very reassuring and encouraging as well! Thank you for sharing all of your amazing expertise with your viewers. I know that you have so much more to show and share. Thank you.

[@davidlove236]

This was awesome! I’d be a nervous wreck working on that book. You did a great job! Thank you for pointing out all the things that you learned through this process, too (we’re all still learning), as well as the channels that you learned from.

[@Zadlmond]

Ive been trying to learn bookbinding, and its been hard to find good resources to start with. Thank you so much for including the chanels that helped you in this project!

[@BrotherSkodidi]

I love DAS Bookbinding's channel. Thank you for taking us on this journey with you!

[@LaurenFairwx]

This was amazing! You did a beautiful job. It was so cool that you included information about your research too!

[@BilbosOreo]

Bravo to you!!! Beautifully done!!! And that you did it for your mother-in-law is a testament to your sweet character as well! I adored my M-I-L, so it warms my heart to see you do this!

[@susanmessenger9052]

Fantastic! Less is more and you did a great job. The only thing to add is to make a 10 minute from matching coloured card. Keep up the great work.

[@hiddenshadow2105]

This is so nice when you repair the old book instead of tearing it down into pieces like so many channels do.

[@Jackjonesis]

I watched this when you first posted it and found it helpful. I have repaired many an old book since then and rescued them from the trash. I think the difference for me is that they have all been books that have a sentimental meaning to me or others which makes the task go better. Thanks for all the help you have been over the years.

[@tgarza521]

Thanks for this awesome video! I’ve been looking for a book repairing video for a book my mom has. It’s a copy of Arabian Nights from the 1920’s from Spain that belonged to my great grandfather.

[@katemarlor1816]

This is absolutely beautiful! I'm starting to learn how to become a sewiest, and I used your kettle stitch, end bands, and case bound tutorials to make a hard cover sketch book. Once that one is filled up, I'm coming back here and going to (try) to make another one just like this.

[@deerafl1979]

Turned out great! You should try repairing more old book like this. At least it will gives you another things to learn. Next maybe you could try repairing a perfect bound book or adding gold lettering for the cover

[@Dextrositylight]

Ty for all the useful links, having to learn so much to preserve an old book I can't afford the professional rebinding for

[@alvaromarcoperes8273]

I was stunned to learn that you had never heard of the hollow tube! My favorite YT channels are yours, DAS and Annesi.

[@thornshar]

Great job! Ok maybe you don't have to do another if you don't want to, but if you should ever decide to, I'd be very interested! Frankly, some of the professional channels you mentioned are impressive to watch, but kind of too intimidating and unapproachable. You're way more experienced than I am in bookbinding, but your narrative style and your background make it way more relatable for me, precisely because you find it somewhat intimidating. I have a few old books that I have bought at used bookstores over the years, which probably should be rebound, but I haven't gotten the nerve to try it yet. When I do, I won't start with something that's important to a family member. :) Great job again, glad it worked out!

[@BenanIncognitus]

As a book lover with no experience in bookbinding, you did an amazing job! suscribed

[@DaxCraft]

This was done so well! And as a side note, I highly recommend you give the Oxford hollow a try. I came across it recently myself and tried it on one of my own book projects and absolutely fell in love with it.

[@lennymac5915]

Such a lovely job. I'm sure your MIL was very happy.

[@toodymouse]

Wow! I’m impressed! I think you did a fantastic job.

[@Jenna1814]

You did a great job & the fact that she loves it is a testament that you did a great job. Thank you for showing us. I really like this video.

[@melanieruddy399]

Omg awesome! I've been wanting to try this for a while. My sister has an old music dictionary that wants repairing 🤔

[@Sarah-vo2qu]

I was looking for a quick tutorial and found one of your earlier videos. This is my second video, and I am very excited to see more of your content. Adore your energy and the way you show your process. Thanks for sharing!

[@lindadechow3703]

This is a big project, I am so impressed with your talent. You did a beautiful job, I am sure your mother in law was pleased.

[@aureal.almeydadomenech6960]

I had learned so much from you. You had inspired me to try and repair my grandmother's cookbook from 1930, but hers is in bad condition because she used her a lot, and pass from hand to hand. So wish me luck with this project.

[@aileenfernandez7848]

This is awesome! Great work!!

[@Nanakinsz]

What a wonderful work of love and rebirth! It turned out wonderful, Miss Jennifer!

[@albertine2169]

You made a really beautiful job of recovering this book. Not an easy task. Thank you for sharing. ⭐⭐⭐

[@danavanhoeven3023]

This looks sooo beautiful! 😍.

[@hannahpatriciaorozco]

This video gave me inspiration and motivation that I can be artistic ad creative. I love that you were patient and careful. I think that it is definitely the key in creating something perfect.

[@sm-65datlas23]

It's a good journey, you don't try to be perfect or sound perfect in doing this. You were very aware of what you know and don't know. If we were your mother-in-law, we would approve too! It's so beautiful! I'm glad your mother-in-law trusted you on this one.

[@engjds]

Wow, you did a brilliant job!, I didn't know it was so intensive.

[@MelanaC]

What a fabulous video! It turned out really beautifully and you have inspired me to look through my grama’s old nursing books for one i can restore Thank you for your soothing non stressful commentary as always 🥰🥰

[@RosyRosie42]

It looks beautiful! 📕♥️

[@cziegle3794]

I have several old books that fit perfectly into this category, so thank you so much for the video. I will probably try to repair some of the books myself in the future, since they are also from around the same time frame as your mother-in-law's book, give or take a decade. They are school books from when my great aunt was in school, and for me, just seeing them on the shelf is nice because they are the oldest books we own.

[@thomassmith5596]

Hello there

[@robertoservadei4766]

i think this type of video is of more practical use. I loved it.

[@zed8861]

You made a nice restoration and a nice video. Thank you.

[@TheMer1122]

Great job, wonderfully done.

[@chaos4654]

This will probably be very helpful when I eventually try making a new cover to a text block I came across. The old cover is missing so pretty much anything goes, but I'm keen on trying to make a new cover.

[@mimijester]

This was so satisfying to watch! I love it

[@_vanearaujo]

You always work with so much care, it's very inspiring and nice to watch. :)

[@CreativePhenomenonArt]

Great job. It looks great Funny how pressure works. 😂 I love DAS bookbinding, besides you they are who I watch for book binding help. 🥰🤗

[@aineemacaraeg6194]

It's lovely! 💖

[@erikamarie5535]

It is beautiful, well done!

[@YalaHernandez]

It looks beautiful!

[@liisashunn1812]

It looks *really* great!

[@Native-Kitty]

You did a fantastic job on that book! I love it!

[@sacgeekgirl]

That came out super nice!!!

[@matthewcienki8064]

I am impressed and I love it! I think you did a great job and it inspires me to try it as well. 😄

[@tassogasparini5631]

The book and the video are awesome! You did a very nice job.

[@bevrawilliams4351]

Wow! Great job 👏

[@eliagron8750]

Amazing. Thank you so much. I loved this video. So informative.

[@MammaMia]

it'd be fun to see you remake a previous bookbinding project with the things you learned from this

[@rebeccagreen2219]

Very nicely done. You should be very proud of yourself

[@LillianLouiseInNature]

Well done. I have lots of very old books, so I fine your information is very helpful.

[@baricala]

It looks amazing!

[@jeffkeith637]

This turned out fabulously. I’d love to see you do more conservation work. Just random old books for practice. Kinda sorry you lost those annotated endpages. I’d guess the lipstick was a kiss for luck. I’ve always wanted to do this kind of work. Thanks.

[@heidi3149]

Yes, more restoration content! It could even be old discarded library books or thrift store books :) I have a few of those laying around

[@relaxationsoundsambience2724]

Brilliant!:)) You sure can start a book repair shop if interested. I have some books for you. You did a phenomenal restoration.

[@SaraMGreads]

That looks amazing. Great job!

[@thomassmith5596]

Hello Sara

[@sirialilianblack1951]

Honestly it looks amazing! ❤

[@cierapaige9139]

I wild love to see you repair thrifted books. Maybe interesting ones, so Hopefully it would be less pressure

[@Alliejay-C]

You did very well with this!

[@nataliacabrerarovetta3793]

It looks beautiful. Kudos!

[@spiritedtreasureST]

I want to try doing this for my Great Aunts Bible which I have. She was born in the 1800s. So the cover and stuff is basically nonexistent. But the pages are pretty good. Thank you for sharing

[@lyllydd]

The stuff on the spine was mull. It was glued onto the text block - blued to the spine only, if I recall correctly. I think it was to keep the paper from warping due to the glue.

[@graceom6872]

I really enjoyed this!

[@sarahdavis1446]

Beautiful!

[@eileenpotts6126]

Hi Jennifer, the reason for gluing out the cloth rather than the boards is to allow the cloth to stretch and relax. The same applies to the endpapers, have a look at Kathy Abbot's video about making a leather bound book. Really enjoy your videos, keep them coming!

[@erinhallmakes777]

I do love a good case binding.

[@kfogo7459]

This turned out really great! I think that it is a really nice gift, too. My mother had a similar wish for last christmas, she wanted me to repair two of her old cookbooks that had notes from her grandma in them, too. their covers were coming off and they were in overall bad shape. Let's just say i had a lot of trouble with it Dx i have zero experience with case binding and maybe my measurements were off a bit... It still turned out okay, but i wished it would look as nice as the one here in the video

[@debbiecarter6430]

Great stuff 😊

[@carlselizabeth]

I loved this! I would've chosen end papers with a closer color to the faded pages to keep it cohesive as well as hel retain the antiquity. but that's just my personal prefernece, you did awesome!

[@rachaelm7084]

This was fantastic!

[@bnp2bnp]

Dude. This was awesome. Maybe you can buy an old book from the library or thrift store and restore those for "less pressure".

[@thike7785]

It is absolutely beautiful.

[@MeeshT]

Looks stunning! I’d love to see more similar videos - maybe not restorations since it seems to have been quite stressful for you - but perhaps your experience trying out other methods would be enlightening.

[@silviatonapetian6932]

Watched this to get some inspiration to repair my broken book from last night😓 I have no idea how exactly I’m going to tackle this project, but I’ll figure it out maybe?😅

[@gladstonefuller953]

Congratulations! Good job! Just believe in yourself and your capabilities. You can achieve success by just trying. I intend to up book binding as a hobby sooner than later. I actually repaired a dictionary replacing the cover some years ago with very little knowledge. I like your videos. They are easy to understand. Keep up the good work! I just subscribed.

[@alexandraarroyo7813]

AHHH I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!!!

[@mickyyoung4079]

Nice job!

[@ChrisSeaB]

I love that this video seem like it's basically an excuse for Sealemon to shout out a bunch of other KZbinr's book channels. 😍🥰

[@venusurbina666]

You did an amazing job 💗