That week I tried to rebind an old family Bible and everything went wrong

I got this 1920s family Bible from my aunt last month and thought I'd fix it up. On Tuesday the leather was so brittle it just cracked when I tried to flatten it. Then my thread snapped three times on the first signature. I spent Thursday just trying to match the gold leaf for the edges and gave up. Has anyone else dealt with old leather that's too far gone to save?

2 comments

2 Comments

garcia.wren7d ago

Did you ever try yelling at it like I do with my car when nothing's going right?

paige_bell818d ago

Well, have you tried just telling the leather it's not that old and to pull itself together? That's about how well my attempts at anything delicate go too. Your thread snapping three times sounds like a Tuesday I had last month trying to fix a strap on an old toolbox - at some point you just have to admit the material is done. For the gold leaf, I've heard people use a really fine paint marker instead, but your mileage may vary with how that looks up close. If the leather is truly crumbling, sometimes it's better to just keep the covers as display pieces and bind the pages in something new.