Thanks for linking me to the standford.edu site as I was not aware of it. It
looks like I will find useful inofrmation there.
As to what I am involved with now, I have a leatherbound set of four volumes in
varying states of decomposition. I have started work on the most seriously
flawed volume which requires replacement of the end/fly papers, replacing the
spine (which I want to do by using as much of the title on the current spine as
I can "lift") and putting on new leather covered boards. I understand that much
of what I am attempting to do should be handled by the pros, but after studying
in depth many "how to" manuals and after a couple of hours of work so far, I
have been able, without any problems at all, to seperate the spine and boards,
remove the old end paper/pastedowns, and prepare the boards to receive the new
treatments. My may concerns now are making sure I have completed all prepatory
work before starting the rebinding, and then working with leather to do the
rebinding itself.
I do have an initial question: I would like to keep, on the front and back
boards, at least some of the original leather binding so that I can still enjoy
what it "used" to look like. I am considering applying new leather as a type of
border, about 1-2" wide, around the edges of the board, leaving the centers in
the original leather. There is some red rot which I believe I have removed. Am
I taking a chance of a reoccurance of this, which mught also affect the new
leather, i.e., am I better off just recovering the entire boards in new
leather?
Thanks again for giving me another resource. I wouldn't mind doing some more
posting here as things progress, so people with your experience can offer
feedback. Just don't want to offend folks who, like me, visit this group on the
topic of actual collecting.
Les

Yes, I've done some restoration and binding work, as have many others.
What are you trying to do, and have you read
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu yet ?


--
Smert' spamionam