Even closer now to being actual books...
As promised, today I'd talk about the other half of the book making process. This was basically all I did for the day, similar to yesterday, so there really isn't much else to talk about. So I guess let's just get to it!
After cutting the pages, since they were once kept in a roll, some of the pages tend to curl, which might be an issue later (might, because I really don't know). I tried flattening them out using a heavy encyclopedia, but it wasn't working, so I had the worst one ironed out, then I held it in place using four clothespins. The other's weren't so curled, so I decided to just proceed with the gluing process. Hopefully I won't regret this later.
Next, I'd take a cut bundle and apply glue on it's spine. I applied a generous amount of glue using a chopstick (the porous surface of the wooden chopstick makes it easy to spread the glue evenly). I make sure to get the glue to the very top and bottom edge of the pages, to ensure that the whole thing would remain bound together once the glue dries.
Next, I take the bundle and half roll it so it forms a C shape. This fans the pages out a bit, which allows me to apply glue on a small portion of the edge of the page. I again apply a generous amount of glue, but not so much as to make it drip over the sides as this would cause a problem later on (the pages might not open properly if there was glue on the top and bottom of the bundled pages). Then, I half roll the pages the other way and repeat the process. I got the idea from how paper back books were bound back in the day, when book binding was done by hand. It's a really effective way to get glue around the very edge of the page, which makes for a very tough bind later on.
I hold the bundles together using an office clamp. Apart from the grip being just tight enough to hold the pages together, I was able to use the metal wires of the clamp to further keep the pages from curling. Hopefully, this would solve the problem I mentioned earlier.
And now, I wait. Hopefully tomorrow morning, the glue would be dry and I could see the fruits of my labor. I'm really hoping all the books I made would all turn out okay, as I still have three more batches of this to make.
Have a great start of the week tomorrow!
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