A Springback Album? No, apparently not.

A project I have been working on over the winter and coming into the spring is a set (pair?) of books, one a sketchbook and one an album. The pieces are part of a trade I set up with a good friend and master carpenter in exchange for a proper bench in which to bind books on. The idea at first to was have a twin set matching in style and decoration. The two were worked in almost parallel but the sketchbook was the first to be ready for covering material and besides a necessary modification of the spring, you can see it here. It caused no issues and functioned pretty close to what I expected.

The album is made from the same one hundred percent cotton paper as the sketchbook. Its construction features the use of loose guards sewn alternating with the full folios in a ratio of 3:2. The intention to create a spring back led me to sew the pages to four stations of double 1/2" linen tapes. Once the sewing was complete the levers were formed with card stock, paper and the sewing supports.



The leather 'clowthings' are attached to the spine after the end bands are sewn in. Then a spring was made, shaped, the cloth lining attached and tackets made from parchment were attached as well.

I attached the spring to the levers and the levers to the split board covers and let them dry thoroughly before attempting to open the book and check that everything was springing correctly.
It wasn't.
It didn't spring at all.
The block, built up to full thickness with guards at the spine, tapered quickly towards the fore edge. The spring was positioned correctly to grip the very edge of the book but when the cover opened and the pressure was removed the block would stay still. With the cover open the only way to make the spine flip from a concave to convex shape was to manually guide the spine into position with the fingers by pressing on it in the space between the spine and the spring.

The spring didn't work on theses pages so I decided to continue it with it another style that could use the same sewing and shaping of the spine. By far the greatest strength of bookbinding, when done correctly, is its almost completely reversible nature.



The split boards were re-glued and pressed for re-use




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