This was the state of the book when I received it. It was published in the 1790s, so it's over 200 years old and rather the worse for wear. The spine was non existent and some of the leather had worn away from the boards. What isn't visible in this picture are the worm holes in the leather. Luckily they were confined to the book's boards and the pages escaped unscathed.

The first step is to strip it down. In this instance, the glue had completely crumbled away, so the book practically fell apart by itself. When a previous bookbinder has been over-generous with the glue brush, it can be a long job trying to remove it all without damaging the sections of the book. (I can also confirm here, from bitter experience, that old animal or fish glue retains its smell indefinitely!)

When pages have been damaged, it's possible to repair them. Like most craft binders, I hoard all the old paper that I can't re-use on the book it came from. When I'm repairing holes in paper, I try to find the best match from what I have available. I'm not adept enough to make the repair completely invisible, but it looks a lot less obtrusive than the gap that was there before!

Click on either of the images to see the full page as it now looks.

Sewing is done using a special frame. Mine is a very basic one, but still does the job although I cannot fix the cords as tautly as would be possible with a professionally made sewing frame. (It's on my wish list!) The cords are attached to the frame and the sections are sewn onto them.

The close up shows how the cords rest in the saw cuts.

Over the last 100 years, it has become the custom to sew the sections onto tapes rather than cords. You can see some tapes at the top right hand corner of the sewing frame.

Rounding and jointing a book creates support for the boards and makes the finished book stronger. Traditionally, jointing is done using a large cast iron jointing press. For those of us who don't have dedicated workshops with reinforced concrete floors, backing boards inserted into a laying press are a perfectly acceptable alternative. When the book is in place, the joint is made by carefully hammering the spine with a bookbinding hammer. This is a hammer with an especially large surface area on the head.

Once the book has been jointed, the boards can be cut to size. It's important that the grain runs down the board. The thickness of the board used depends on the size of the book and the depth of the joint. The edges of the boards are sanded to remove the sharpness and stop them from cutting into the leather or cloth which will cover them and the inside corners are mitred for the same reason.

The boards are positioned and hollows are made into which the cords sink when the boards are laced in. Once the lacing in has been done, the book has been pressed and the paste which has been rubbed into the cords has dried, the book is finally ready to be covered.

The lace holes in the original board are clearly visible in the final picture. Judging by the lump where the cord was, the binder preferred to use the brute force of a nipping press to sink the cords, rather than carving out a groove!

Bindings were not uniform 200 years ago. The purchaser could buy a book ready sewn, but unbound and then have it finished in the way that most suited his pocket. The cheapest bindings were plain paper covered boards - the Georgian equivalent of a paperback? At the other end of the scale, full leather with elaborately tooled gold spines were available for the more affluent booklover. Bookcloth was not invented until 1824, so a cloth cover would not have been an option in the 1790s.

The book in all of these photos is "The Universal Letter-Writer" by Thomas Cooke. At the bottom of the title page is a line saying "Price Two Shillings Bound", although there is no description of the type of binding the customer would receive for his money.

Paring the turn ins (the bits of the leather that will be folded over the boards), reduces the bulk and gives a neater finish. This piece of leather was less than 1mm thick already, but I still managed to take quite a few extra layers off. There are a number of gadgets that can be used to pare leather, but I stick with a very sharp craft knife (front) and occasionally a French paring knife (rear). I don't have a traditional paring stone, quite apart from anything else, I don't have the muscles required to move one! I use the underside of a marble pastry board instead.

When the leather is completely dry, it can be trimmed. On a book this size, 17cm x 11cm (6.75" x 4.25") the spine normally covers about a quarter of the board. The diameter of the corner is also a quarter of the width of the board.

The leather is scored using a ruler and the tip of a bone folder and a cutting line created. The leather is then cut at an angle of roughly 60 degrees using a very sharp blade. (This is actually not as tricky as it sounds!) The reason for the angled cut is so that an even finish will be obtained when the marbled paper is added.

When both front and back boards have been lined, the book is then left until the glue has dried thoroughly. Without the weight on top, the dampness of the glue would make the covers warp.

The front and back boards of a book are always protected with layers of greyboard when it is put into a nipping press or being weighted.

I'm finishing the binding with a piece of handmarbled paper. Styles of marbling change over the centuries and I've tried to pick one that would not look out of place in the 1790s. (At nearly £8 a sheet, it's expensive stuff and my supply is limited.) Once again, paper grain is important and runs lengthwise down the book. The first picture shows the paper cut to size, the second glued onto the book. This is not an operation where you want the phone or doorbell to ring as you're in the middle of it!

Once again, the book is placed between boards and weighted until the glue is thoroughly dry, but it's finally beginning to look like a book again!

While the glue is drying, I can work on the labels which will go on the spine. I have a small hot foil printer which I use for this and numerous sets of type. Asbestos fingertips would also be a definite advantage for this procedure!

Below are the labels, hot from the press. They now need to be trimmed to size and the edges pared. Not only will the pared edges make for a neater finish, but also a stronger bond with the leather beneath. Click on them to see them trimmed and pared.

The labels are printed on skiver, which is made from a layer of the underside of a leather skin which is taken off at the tannery during the thinning process. It is much finer than the leather used for the actual binding and ideal for labels.

(Click on the picture on the left to see a shot of the complete printer.)

If you're still with me, well done! The book's nearly finished.

Adding layers to the front of the boards pulls them outwards, and could result in them warping with time. To counteract this, an extra layer is added to the inside of the board to equal out the strain.

First of all the edges of the turn ins are trimmed and then paper, the same thickness as the marbled paper, is cut to size and pasted onto the board. The dampness of the paste acts on the boards and pulls them inwards. Once again the book is protected with greyboard and weighted whilst the paste dries.

A further advantage to lining the book is that when the endpaper is glued onto the board, the finished effect will be an even one and the leather and marbled paper turn ins will be much less conspicuous through the paste down.

All that's left to do now is to glue down the endpapers. The book will then sit in the nipping press for at least 24 hours and that's it!