What the heck is Bookcloth?
There are quite a few
materials used to cover books.
Traditionally, leather has been used.
Paper has always been a candidate and the modern cover paper will likely
have some sort of film to provide extra protection. There is a whole range of synthetic materials
now available, often mimicking leather or other textures.
Cloth has been used
for centuries as a less expensive option to leather. So, what is bookcloth…
Bookcloth is some sort
of cloth that has been either laminated with a film or impregnated/coated with
a solution. These alterations provide
two benefits:
2. Provides a barrier to the adhesive.
Cloth by itself would
be difficult to apply to a cover of the book due to its flexibility…it would be
hard to keep the warp/weft lines straight.
By applying either, a film or stiffening coating to the cloth, these warp/weft
lines are locked into place and make handling the cut piece much easier. The stiffeners also allow straight square
folds around the book cover edges or in joints.
The most common film adhered to the back of bookcloth is thin
paper. Common coatings applied to cloth
include starches, aqueous acrylic, or latex.
On some clothes an additional top-coat is applied to improve the
wearability of the cloth.
The last thing you
want is the adhesive to soak through the cloth, leaving visible stains. These films and coatings provide a barrier
that keeps the adhesive contained on the backside of the cloth.
For the
do-it-yourselfer, any cloth be it cotton, silk or synthetic can be turned into
a bookcloth with some preparation methods.
Cloth can be filled with starch solutions or paper can be adhered to the
backside. There are some special
techniques that can keep the resulting bookcloth flat during the drying
process.