Endpapers and cover

Gluing endpapers

Although it would be fun to use fancy endpapers, we tend to use 80 lb cover stock, folded as for a signature, on the front and back of the book. The endpapers are attached with hotglue, making sure to fully cover the stitching.

We like to think it lends an appealing element of "handwork" to leave the tail of the stitching showing, so, although the photo above does not show this, we are careful to leave them at 90° to the spine.

Lay the endpaper down on the bead of glue. It's okay to lay down a healthy bead -- any that squeezes out the top and bottom will be cut off when the book is trimmed, and any that works its way out from the spine simply makes the book a little more substantial.

Folding the cover board

For cover stock, we often use the same material as for the endpapers. Any heavy card stock will do. The cover is folded with very sharp creases to make a spine the width of the book. If anything, the width should be a little narrower than the spine -- to test if the width is the right dimension, place the folded cover board on the book and squeeze the book between two fingers placed astride a stitching hole. If the cover compresses and bows out at the spine, the cover spine is too wide. This is the second of the three key steps -- a cover folded too wide or too narrow will produce a spine that is rounded instead of square.

Gluing the cover board

There is no such thing as using too much glue at this point. The photo shows the absolute minimum -- five times this amount would be fine! Working quickly, so the glue doesn't set before you finish, pump great globs of glue up and down the inside of the cover's spine. Then place the stitched spine into the cover and work the outside of the spine with your fingers, driving the glue down into the book, squaring up the corners of the book with your fingers, working the glue out both the top and bottom of the book. The glue can be uncomfortably hot even through thick cover stock, but grin and bear it -- getting the glue to take the shape you want before it cools is the third key step to a professional-looking perfect binding.

The photo to the left shows how a full spine of glue looks after the book has been trimmed.