Quote:
Originally Posted by kacir
Put the book between two wooden boards, so the spine that needs to be cut out is poking out, the rest of book you want to keep is between boards. Now press the boards firmly together using several heavy-duty carpenters clamps, or series of screws, whatever.
Now remove the spine with a belt sander.
This is quick & dirty alternative to the bookbinders plow.
http://temperproductions.com/Plough/plough.html
A plough is much easier to make in a small workshop at home than a guillotine.
http://www.csparks.com/Bookbinding/L...ss/index.xhtml |
Using a sander to remove the spine is a bad idea for the same reason using a saw blade is; no matter how fine the grit or fine the teeth, they will leave a friable edge that will continuously crumble, no matter how well you clean the cut edges, leaving a deposit of paper dust in the scanner that will very likely eventually ruin a scanner (found that out the hard way!). There is also the dust created during the spine removal. It is bad enough using a saw blade but it would really be horrible using a sander! Yikes!
A knife blade of some kind, be it on a guillotine, hand held, or in a plough, leaves a much smoother cut than can be obtained with an abrasive or a saw blade and, thus, will shed considerably less, if at all, depending on the quality of the paper and its age.
I was very suprised to learn book plows (or ploughs, as it used to be spelt) are still being commercially made. I'm going to keep a copy of the directions linked for making one just in case I get a feral follicle shaft up my onager and dabble in book binding again. When I played around with bookbinding in the past, I used a homemade book press (not as elegant as the one in the instructions provided here but actually more effective since the entire book could be inserted in the clamp) and, while the book was in the press with the portion to be trimmed hanging past the edges, used a large, flat gaining chisel about 2" wide as the knife edge to cut the paper. Much like a plow, I held the flat of the chisel flat against the edge of the clamp and at a slight angle from the surface of the pages to be cut and drew the chisel across the edge of the clamp, slicing off several pages per pass. It took many passes to get through an entire book and required a steady hand (something I don't have anymore in my dotage) to keep the chisel flush against the edge of the clamp, but the result was a cleaner cut than one often sees on commercially produced books. It was tiresome and time consuming, though. The chisel had to be kept razor sharp, taking care to grind and hone only on the bevel and NOT to remove any material from the flat of the chisel when sharpening.
If one has only a few books to remove the spines from, one could clamp a book between two thick boards in a vise, letting the portion to be trimmed away protrude past the edges of the boards, then use a chisel to trim away the pages. I'm guessing it would take about 10 minutes to get the book properly clamped and another 15 minutes to plough away the pages. It would take a very steady hand to keep the chisel parallel to the cut.
Ploughing used to be the only way book binders had to trim books. The technique dates back to the 15th century. Jost Amman has a wood cut of a bookbinder ploughing a book in his 16th century Book of Trades. The plough pictured is very similar to the one in the directions in the link provided.
Post Edit: I copied the book binding site for future reference, including the directions for making a plough. I would kill to have access to that guy's machine shop. Yes, I know how to operate the machinery; Daddy was a machinist, I took machine shop and welding classes in college and worked for a short while in a machine shop. I also used to be a cabinet maker.
If you click on the back button at the bottom of the plough how-to link, you will see an example of using a chisel to trim a book. The pictures and description aren't very clear but you have to use a linear slicing motion across the face of the pages being trimmed with the chisel cutting edge held a a slight angle above the face being cut (the flat is kept flush against the clamp). Also, you MUST make sure the flat of the chisel is dead flat all the way to the edge. Only the bevel should be ground and honed to sharpen it. If you take any material off the flat, the cut will gradually taper up away from the clamp. I would recommend regrinding the chisel bevel to make a longer single surface bevel. The thinner the cutting edge, the more pages you will be able to cut with each pass. They make simple hand jigs for holding chisels at the proper angle for grinding and honing. Just be careful not to overheat the chisel when grinding it. A flat grind is easier to maintain than a hollow grind.