Request: Advice on book spine repair
Does anyone here have any advice on repairing a book spine? I have a hard back that an excited puppy chewed off the outer part of the spine. Now that said puppy is well out of her "chewing on random stuff" stage I'm trying to figure out how to repair/reinforce the binding since it's otherwise a brand new book. I'm a crafty person so I'm trying to embrace the accident and treat it as a book with a bit more character.
Most of the glue is intact, so my current thought is to add additional glue (book binding glue I'd assume?) and then use a tape or fabric to reinforce the spine.
I'm not expecting a repair that looks like new. I'm looking for something functional and durable that will keep the book from falling apart with use. If there's a good tape for this application that would probably be sufficient. Just soliciting some additional feedback in case someone has done something similar before I take a stab at the project.
Here's some pictures of the book and of course puppy tax: https://postimg.cc/gallery/wyskQn1
Coming from my wife (who has repaired several books as a librarian): Your best bet is to search Youtube for book binding repair (or rebinding). They'll be able to demonstrate far better for your book than any written summary we could give.
Also, if it's a glued (and not stitched) book, the options are not-great unless you're willing to hand stitch it back together. If it's not sentimental or rare, odds are to do it justice you'll need to spend exponentially more on supplies and time than you would a new book.
Otherwise, you could go to your local library to see if they'd be willing to help you out. They are much more likely to have the needed supplies.
Fortunately most of the glue is almost fully in tact and there's very little damage to the actual paper or glue binding. My puppy pretty much just ripped off the rigid part of the spine cover.
This is some great direction for research though. I think the hardest part with stuff like this is knowing the right words to use for research, so this is helpful! Thanks to both you and your wife!
Damn that's a lot of damage. There's a lot to unpack here.
First off, I agree with everything /u/vord said. Look for videos online since it's hard to explain a lot of this stuff via text. Try asking at your local library to see if they have some experience in this (odds are someone there does, especially if it's a large library system like in a major city). And yeah unless that book has sentimental value, then possibly consider getting a new one, but it seems like you just want something to be able to hold the pages together enough, regardless of looks.
I do a bunch of conservation work as part of my job, everything from metals to brick to wood to whatever else needs it. Sometimes that involves papers and books, but for those it's usually more of the 'prevent future damage' type rather than 'fix this badly damaged item'. The few times we needed something really fixed, we took it to a professional book conservator who did an incredible job, but her services are not cheap at all. But it doesn't sound like that's what you want. Seems like you just want something passable to get the book stable and readable. In that case then you mostly need something to replace the spine (since it seems like most of it is completely gone), and then some tape and/or adhesive to hold it together. Seems doable, though I agree that the end result is gonna have a lot of character, to put it mildly. Make sure both the spine replacement and any tape you use is acid-free if you want it to last.
As for specific materials, I recommend starting your search here. That should answer some of your questions about tape and adhesives and stuff like that. You don't actually need to buy if from there, but the stuff you find there is all made specifically for conservation and museum professionals. But what I usually do to save money is I find the stuff there that I need, then look elsewhere (like amazon) for cheaper versions of the things I might need. Often times it's literally the exact same product/brand but for a lower price and free 2-day shipping. For example, this kit has a bunch of book repair stuff included, so I went to amazon and found cheaper versions of the same paper tape or the 'book repair wings' which both seem like they might be useful in your situation.
Good luck! That's one guilty looking puppy.
Edit: Oh and one final thing. If you do end up buying from Gaylord, look for coupon codes online. They always have some. I'm pretty sure GA20 gets you 20% off your whole order, then there are others for free shipping or whatever.
Thanks so much! This is really helpful research direction. I could definitely just buy a new book for the cost of supplies to make it really nice, but I'm primarily aiming for a functional repair at a lower cost. I'd hate to throw the book away since the content is all in tact.
Thanks for a sharing a bit of your restoration expertise.
My pleasure! Yeah in that case I definitely wouldn't fret the materials too much. I would get a thick piece of cardstock to serve as a replacement spine, cut it to size, then attach it to the binding with some book glue ($10), and then maybe put some tape around it to really hold the covers to the spine. Looking at the tapes, I found this cheaper book tape ($7) that should get the job done but for a little more you could do this linen tape ($16) which seems like it would hold better and look cleaner. Will look pretty janky but the book will at least be readable. And you'd have a lot of left-over supplies for when the puppy eventually shreds another book, lol.
I don't know enough about book binding to give actual advice, but I do appreciate the puppy task.