in cutting out covers. One workman will be able,
by careful cutting, to get six covers out of a skin where another will
only get four. The firm part of the skin is the back and sides, and
this only should be used for the best books. The fleshy parts on the
flanks and belly will not wear sufficiently well to be suitable for
good bookbinding.

The skin should be cut out leaving about an inch all round for turning
in when the book is covered, and when cut out it must be pared. If the
leather is of European manufacture most of the paring will have been
done before it is sold, and the leather manufacturer will have shaved
it to any thickness required. This is a convenience that is partly
responsible for the unduly thin leather that is commonly used. The
better plan is to get the leather rather thick, and for the binder to
pare it down where necessary. For small books it is essential, in
order that the covers may open freely, and the boards not look clumsy,
that the leather should be very thin at the joint and round the edges
of the boards. For such books it is very important that a small,
naturally thin skin should be used that will not have to be unduly
pared down, and that the large and thicker skins should be kept for
large books.

Binders like using large skins because there is much less waste, but
if these skins are used for small books, so much of the leather
substance has to be pared away, that only the comparatively brittle
grained surface remains. By the modern process of dyeing this surface
is often to some extent injured, and its strength sometimes totally
destroyed.

When the cover has been cut to size the book is laid on it with the
boards open, and a pencil line drawn round them, a mark being made to
show where the back comes. The skin is then pared, making it thin
where the edge of the boards will come. Great care must be taken that
the thinning does not commence too abruptly, or a ridge will be
apparent when the leather is on the book.

The paring must be done quite smoothly and evenly. Every unevenness
shows when the cover is polished and pressed. Care is needed in
estimating the amount that will have to be pared off that part of the
leather that covers the back and joints. The object of the binder
should be to leave these portions as thick as he can consistently with
the free opening of the boards. The leather at the head-caps must be
pared quite thin, as the double thickness on the top of the headban