Bookbinding - Paper Repairs 

I buy my paste pre-prepared from a bookbinding supplier in the UK - usually Hewits. But it is basically a wheat starch paste. You can also get very good rice starch pastes. Some are in powder form, some you have to cook, some already made up and it is down mainly to personal preference which you would use.

Glad you liked it! If it's your own book then of course it is up to you, but were I doing this for a customer I would either leave it blank or find a copy of the original book on line (The internet Archive is a good resource) and print off a copy of that page on suitable paper to use for the repair.

Thanks Glenn. The same method is used on this second-hand 1800ce Lutheran bible I have but, unfortunately, someone used Scotch Tape instead of soluble resin like in your video. How would a professional like yourself remove Scotch tape from a Bible leaf? Pages resemble the same quality as in your video here.

I'll take your word for that!! :-)

I would never recommend using tape. In the video I am using strips of Japanese paper secured using wheat starch paste. And yes, sometimes the tear does lend itself to re-securing using paste without the need for additional support.

Hi Jay - well spotted - Derbyshire it is, Chesterfield in fact (with influences from a few other places!). Yes, I do re-bind and repair books but leads time is quite long at the moment given other work in hand. You can always e-mail me some images (details on my signaturebindings.co.uk website) and I'll be happy to take a look. Otherwise there are a few binders in the south west - maybe contact the western region of the Society of Bookbinders for recommendations.

You are welcome Ernesto!

Depends where in the world you are. Here in the UK there are only a few suppliers, but possibly the best choice is available at Shepherds bookbinding supplies in London. The Paper Foundation is also entering the market with a range of UK made hand-made papers.

Hi and thank you. You should never use a standard sticky tape (such as Scotch tape or Sellotape) to repair pages because it will fail over time, the plastic carrier may lift and the adhesive browns and can soak irepairably into the paper. There is a conservation tape called Filmoplast P paper repair tape which is much better in the long term and not too expensive, though using good quality Japanese tissue and past as I have shown in my video is by far the best solution in most cases. Hope that helps!

@@bookbindingtips Hi ! Thank you very much for your kind help. I will put the Filmoplast P paper repair tape in my Amazon cart !! I look forward to watching more of your repair videos.

Thanks for watching! Those tweezers sound great - probably quite stable to use I would think. And yes, the thin light box is great for this kind of work and quite inexpensive too.

Hi Gregg. That is one of the difficult things with paper repair unfortunately, as it depends of course on the paper used in the book. Ideally it needs to be the same thickness, colour and finish as the original, but sometimes you have to compromise. I don't know where you are based but in the UK we have Shepherds bookbinding suppliers in London who hold hundreds of different papers in stock including hand made and Japanese papers. Realistically though you need to go and feel the samples in order to choose what you need. I also keep loose end pages and scraps that have come out of other books I have worked on because you can sometimes find a match that way.

Hi Vanessa - drop me an e-mail at glenn@signaturebindings.co.uk and I will see if I can point you in the right direction.

Hi! Sorry, I'm not sure which blue tape you are referring to? Perhaps you mean the silicon release paper used to protect the pages beneath when pasting. This is just a waterproof paper which won't stick to the pages, but you can also use acetate or other materials for this.

@@bookbindingtips hi, I mean the blue roll from which the back covering of the book is obtained and on which the title of the book is then applied..!

@@mariomoretti9059 I think you must be looking at a different video - there is no blue roll here and we don't look at the covering or titling of the book at all. . .