It is not always necessary that the finishing be done in blind first. I have explained it, and advocate its being so worked first as easier for a learner. One who is accustomed to finishing finds that a few lines marked previously with a folding-stick is all that is required. When working the title, a thread of silk drawn tightly across the gold produces a line sufficient, and is the only guide that an experienced workman requires.
To finish a side, make a mark with the folder and straight edge as a guide for any rolls or fillets. Prepare the leather as before described where the ornamentation is to come; but if the pattern is elaborate it must be worked first in blind. As a greater facility, take a piece of paper of good quality and well sized. Draw the pattern you wish to produce on the paper, and if any tools are to be used, hold them over the flame of gas; this will smoke them so that |132| they may be worked on the paper in black. When the pattern is complete in every detail, tip the four corners of the paper with a little paste, then work the pattern through the paper on to the leather, using the various sized gouges as the scrolls require, and a single line fillet where there are lines. Work thus the complete pattern in blind. This being done completely, take the paper off from the four corners, place it on the other side, and work it in the same way. Prepare the leather with vinegar, and pencil out with glaire the whole of the pattern. If the whole side be glaired with a sponge it will leave a glossy appearance that is very undesirable. The whole of the side is now to be laid on with gold, and the pattern worked again with the warm tools, in the previous or blind impressions.
The inside of a book is generally finished before the outside. This should be done as neatly as possible, carefully mitreing the corners when any lines are used. Most frequently a roll is used, thus saving a great deal of time. A style was introduced in France called “doublé,” the inside of the board being covered with a coloured morocco different to the outside, instead of having board papers. This inside leather was very elaborately finished; generally with a “dentelle” border, while the outside had only a line or two in blind. It is a style which, although very good in itself, is not now in great request, many prefer to have the finishing outside rather than to have it covered up and not seen when the book is shut.
