It's a nice old hardcover, but it seems the edge of the book was not cut right in production, so many of the pages were not separated.
How do I separate them with minimal damage?
I've noticed when opening envelopes that contrary to expectation, using a sharp knife is worse than using a dull one.
19 comments:
Really sharp might do it, but Hell, you're on your own. There is a difference in what most think of as sharp, and really sharp. Really sharp is almost painless when mistakes are made.
I am glad to know that there are others out there who think Loomis is one of the great teachers. His books are wonderful.
Bron
I have had the same problem with another book.
First I tried it with a cuttter, a cutting matte and a ruler. I did'nt get a clear line ...
Then I went to my favorite book binder shop. They have there a guillotine shears!
With a smile now I can read my book :-)
I used to use old punch cards to cut paper. Those go straight by the fold and leave very clean edge, cleaner than a dull knife. They worked even on a high quality perforated sheets for mainframe line printers. Razor-sharp knife can produce even cleaner edge but does not like to follow the fold. It is generally a bad idea but you can try ceramic Kyocera for that.
The best solution is to bring the book to the print shop and ask to cut the whole edge with an industrial cutter: the one that weighs over 1000 kg and holds the whole book making a one-pass cut. This way you loose a couple of mm from the whole edge but it will be perfect.
One more: the BIGGER the knife the better it follows the fold.
Yeah, we've had a few uncut books, mostly just the corners. Last one was Lion Amongst Men, full edges like yours. I was surprised to see my wife had just torn it open. That's life.
I'd try cutting the fold off, rather than cutting the fold. guillotine sounds like a great idea.
At least all your pages are printed. I got a text book, and before I got to the blank pages (several months studying) I'd lost the receipt, and couldn't remember the store where I'd bought it.
I have some books with "hand cut pages", they look very nice, and feel quite different.
The only print shop I know of in this town is a Prontaprint. I wonder if they can do it.
We also have a good frame maker shop.
I'm wondering if sanding the edge, if there are a lot of uncut pages, might not be a better solution.
Have you considered holding this one as is as a curio, and buying another copy for reading?
Is this not analogous to an unperforated sheet of stamps?
Eolake,
Fold some paper, and try some of your diffrent knives. A medium chefs knife, freshly "steeled". I just tryed with my pocket knife, very sharp, and it cuts right at the fold quite easily.
Bron
It's unlikely that prontaprint will have a suitable guillotine, but it's worth a try. Look in the business directory for a printer near you (yellow pages etc) - phone and ask if they have a guillotine machine suitable for trimming books. The machines I'm thinking of can be the size of a desk - if you do a search on google images for [paper guillotine machine] you will see what I mean...
This is not such a super rare book that you couldn't find another. If you didn't know about the pages being that way before you bought it, if the seller didn't tell you, get your money back and buy another one. It's no use messing around. The best idea for getting it to look good is to have the book rebound, where they can cut all the pages to be slightly smaller.
It would be easier by far to just get a new copy.
Kent McManigal said, "Sand the edges" and I think that's probably the easiest, rather than going page by page with a knife.
Hardware stores and building supply stores have sanding blocks made of foam with a surface of various sizes of grit. These are waterproof, can be washed off when clogged with dust,
and are quite reasonably priced.
Just clamp the edges of the book securely, so all the pages stay together tightly, and then sand it down enough to take off the edges.
It shouldn't take long at all, and you will save a lot of chasing around, not to mention $$$.
Thanks to all.
(I'll try Bron's suggestion first.)
Alex, I doubt this will increase its value, I think it's a book sought not so much by collectors/investors, as by artists who want to read it. Also it was $275, and I'm not likely to find it much cheaper.
But: as it turns out I already had it!!
So I guess now I have a reading copy.
I'm not sure how it happened. Maybe I forgot to cancel the eBay keyword search emails thingy.
Like Bronislaus said: experiment first with a useless sheet of paper. Or several ones folded together. That way you'll know exactly what you're doing.
My own experience with this problem meets yours: too sharp is as bad as too dull. "Razor-sharp knife can produce even cleaner edge but does not like to follow the fold." Indeed! Dang things.
An envelope opener is perhaps one of the best options. Personally, I use a pocket knife which I once received as a promotional gift: excellent quality (the famous French Laguiole), but is was unsharpened. Turns out to be perfect. I also use it to cut the plastic of blister-wrapped items when I don't want to ruin the cardboard.
I prefer to cut the fold rather than to cut it off. THESE pages will never give you a paper cut!
Depends on how many problem pages you have, too. If you don't have the patience... to the scaffolds with it, and vive la Révolution!
Alex reminisced...
"I was surprised to see my wife had just torn it open."
And you thought, after all these years, that there wouldn't be payback for that first time when you forgot to "be gentle"...
What payback, it was her book.
Hers??? Well, women do have excellent memory, but I never said they were very observing.
:-)
Apologies, ladies an' missies, I know it's stereotypes, but still I find stereotype humour funny.
Maybe because there's always a tiny part of truth in legends? ;-)
And a guy who doesn't laugh at women's mistakes, now THAT would be a blatant violation of stereotype law 721, section B3, paragraph alpha1.
"I want a guillotine!" - "One moment please."
The shop assistant secretly goes and dials 112, or 110, or 999.
(:-)))
An interesting article about this can be found here.
And this tidbit from
The Ephemera Society of America
"Pagemarkers are another name for bookmarks; typically referring to those made of metal with pierced blades and manufactured in England. These markers were crafted in novel shapes and often had ornate handles many bearing the monograms of their owners. During the Victorian era, publishers commonly bound books with the pages uncut. Book buyers had to slit their own pages, and it did not take long for combination bookmark-page cutters to appear on the market.
Some of these bookmarks were made of heavy paper but were not very effective. Bookmark-page cutters, or pagemarkers, began appearing in other materials such as tortoise shell, wood, sterling silver, gold, brass, copper, and ivory. In addition to slitting book pages, they were used as letter openers. When book pages no longer needed to be individually sliced, separate letter openers were manufactured that were distinguishable from pagemarkers. "
Kool, thank you.
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