s. This edge is covered with
red chalk, which shows all the uneven places, which are then scraped
with a steel scraper. This operation is repeated until the edge is
very smooth, and it is then treated with a sizing made of white of egg
and water, which is to hold the gold leaf to the edges of the leaves.
The gold leaf is laid on the still wet edge, and when slightly dry is
covered with a sheet of paper and rubbed down with a burnisher, and
when entirely dry is burnished again with a smooth piece of agate or
bloodstone.

The boards, pieces of strong and durable binders' "boards" made of
paper or tarred rope, are then selected and cut to fit the book,
extending about one-eighth of an inch over the head, tail, and front
edges of the leaves. Each of the cords, on which the book has been
sewed, is moistened with paste, and put through two holes which are
punched side by side in the board and within a quarter of an inch of
the inside edge. The cord is carried down through one hole, and up
through the other, and the remaining end is cut off and hammered down
smooth where it stays firmly fastened by the paste. This is called
"lacing on the boards" and when finished makes, so far as strength
is concerned, the cover-boards and the inside of the book practically
one piece. The book is then given another long pressing.

The coverer then takes the volume. He first wraps the edges with paper
to keep them clean and then puts on the headbands. These are either
sewn directly on to the book or may be bought ready-made, when they
are put on with glue.

The back is covered with a strip of coarsely woven crash lined with
several pieces of paper. This is glued to the back to make it hard and
solid and to prevent it from cracking, or "breaking," when the book is
opened.

The leather is then cut out for the corners and for the back, in the
latter case allowance being made for its extension over and on to the
boards to the proper distance. The back lining is trimmed off to the
top of the headbands, and the leather is pasted on the rough side in
position and turned in at the "head" and "tail" of the back. The five
raised bands are then "pinched up" and the whole back is polished, or
"crushed," with a hot polisher until the leather is smoothed down to
the desired surface.

In decorating the cover, or "tooling" it, as it is called, the design
is first pressed into the leather of the back with heated tools. These
designs, appearing "blank,"