On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 21:28:30 GMT, Rick Cook
wrote:

The other problem with traditional bookbinding texts is that the goal of
those bookbinders was to put the book together so it could be taken apart
and rebound in a couple of hundred years.

I'd disagree with that, compared to today's practice.

Craft bookbinding (i.e. no more than a handful of each title, done by
individual craftspeople not machines) today is even more of a high-end
specialisation. 100 years ago (or even 50) there was a large trade in
simply putting books together. These days craft bookbinding is pretty
rare at any level and owing to the cost of it, it's even more
restricted to just the most valuable of books. Who can pay ten times
the cost of a book to bind it, especially when it's still in print ?

One bookbinder I work with has a horror of all case binding as cheap
and shoddy work, fit only for lending libraries - all spines should be
sewn onto cords. As the books I work with when with him are typically
400 years old, he's taking a rather narrow view, but understandable.

--
Smert' spamionam