Restoration of books by their own hands according to all rules

Paper books and albums with photographs or reproductions of paintings are available in any home. As soon as we bring any printed edition into the house, it smells of printing inks and freshness. But it is worthwhile to read the book several times - there are bends in the pages and a variety of pollution. And if you look at your parents' library, you will probably find that almost all copies are needed for repair and maintenance. Without panic, the restoration of books can be performed at home.

Materials and preparatory work

How do you begin the revival of the book? Carefully inspect the selected specimen and try to outline an approximate work plan. In fact, this is a very fascinating activity - the restoration of books. With your own hands, you can create the most real miracles without having special equipment and experience.

If you need to fix or replace the binding, first of all, take care of the pages. For work, prepare in advance:

• Sharp clerical knife ;
• scissors;
• PVA glue;
• Paper of various densities (for example, for a printer and a Whatman paper);
• cardboard.

Most likely, these materials will be enough for you, but everything depends on the initial state of the book, sometimes you may need some additional tools and tools.

Restoration of books: a master-class on drying after rain

From early childhood we are told that most of all books are afraid of dirt and moisture. And indeed, the wetted pages are deformed, and if the print was not of high quality, then ink may be completely smeared. How to save a wet book at home?

Take the filtered paper and shift the wet pages, sprinkling it with talc or chalk. In this form, the book should be placed under the press (a stack of heavy books or boards) and left to dry. After a while, remove the filter paper and put the book, opening it like a fan.

Finally, iron the pages with the iron (heating in the "synthetics" position), also shifting them with paper. Attention: you can not dry books near heaters or central heating batteries, but you can carefully blow the pages with a hair dryer.

How to remove complex spots

If the cover of the book is dirty during the reading process, it should be washed. Very good, if it is intertwined with skin, its substitute or other material, not afraid of water. Take a wet napkin or prepare a soap solution and moisten a cotton swab in it.

If you need to clean the binding corners or cropped pages, rub them with a soft eraser or a slice of white bread. In case the contamination is too strong, you can try to get rid of it with the help of fine sandpaper.

Restoration of books should be carried out with a full cleaning of the pages. Before you start removing stains, you need to understand what exactly they came from:

• Gasoline, specialized solvents or ordinary chalk will help to cope with fatty contamination;
• Stearin is easiest to remove with cologne or other alcohol-containing solution;
• The blood is removed by a weak solution of hydrogen peroxide, rust - citric acid;
• To remove complex stains, for example, traces of ink, cosmetics and foods that have a bright color, it is best to use special household chemicals, following the instructions exactly.

Deformation of pages

Restoration of books, albums, notebooks can also include straightening pages. If they are crumpled or were not properly dried, a normal iron will fix the situation. Move the pages with clean sheets of paper and iron over the medium.

If you still can not fix it, there is another method. Dampen the filter paper with water with a cotton swab and put on a dry sheet. Such sheets should be placed on both sides of the damaged sheet and ironed. If necessary, repeat the procedure several times, changing the filter paper.

Binding work

The greatest concern for library owners is the damage to the covers, endpapers and the binding itself. But do not worry, even in this case, the restoration of books can be done at home:

1. Carefully dismantle the book - remove the binding.
2. Cut the book end from special paper or a normal one, for the printer.
3. Prepare 2 sheets for decorating the inside of the cover.
4. Stick the fly-ends into place, and you can tackle.
5. If there are dropped blocks, they must be sewn or glued in place.
6. On the spine of the book we glue starched gauze.
7. The finished structure is dried with a press.

The next stage is assembly. Glue the binding and the cover to its rightful place. At the end, you can put the book under the press again. But the restoration of books can include a complete replacement of all external elements - the binding, the cover and the flyleaf, if necessary.