Originally posted here.

Before I switched to Lemmy, I noticed a lot of questions on r/bookbinding about repairing books. So; I thought I’d create a list of repair guides that, to my knowledge, follow best practices.

Please note, if a book is particularly valuable or has historical significance, you should take it to a professional. Also, if your library book is damaged, you can return it as-is and the library will handle the repair. In either case, wet books should be frozen.

That said, here’s how to repair:

Loose hinges:

Cracked hinge:

Detatched hinge:

Detatched text block (recase):

Warped hard cover:

Spine replacement:

Torn paper:

Torn out piece of a page:

Loose page:

Harcover corner repair:

Wet book:

Mold:

Warped paperback spine:

Detatched paperback case:

More damage than that? Here’s some more extensive repairs:

Rebind:

Paperback rebind:

Paperback to hardcover recase:

  • punkfrog@slrpnk.net
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    1 year ago

    Oh I will look into all of these! just last week I “fixed” a pocket book my boss lent me and that unfortunately looked a little rugged after coming on vacation with me. Painted over all the little cracks in the cover and it actually looked quite decent again afterwards. It did have a Little water damage though that I didn’t know what to do about. It was a cheap book and not even a good one so I kind of hoped he’d forget about it but nope lol. So far have not received a comment on the books state so I think I did an ok enough Job. Paperback to hardcover also seems interesting, so you can design a custom cover for your favorite book. Or as a gift? So many possibilities!