How to Restore Color to Clothbound Books | Book Repair and Care 101
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- čas přidán 25. 07. 2024
- Do you have any clothbound books that have become faded or spotty in color? Here's how to fix - or at least improve - them!
DISCLAIMER: If you have particularly valuable, collectible, or sentimental books, I highly recommend taking them to a professional bookbinder for restoration rather than attempting any of these techniques yourself. Not every technique will be appropriate for every book, and I am not an expert in book conservation or restoration, although I do use these techniques myself frequently and have been taught by people with decades of experience in the secondhand book industry. These tutorials are aimed at helping out with average books which aren’t worth the cost of being taken to a specialist, and as such, I hope you find them useful. That said, by all means check out the comments for others’ results, experience, and criticism before deciding whether to try a repair technique yourself.
Introduction to Book Care and Repair 101: • An Introduction (and D...
For more tips on book repair and restoration, see the full playlist here: • Book Care and Repair 101
INDEX
I. Intro 00:00
BLACK EXAMPLES 00:27
II. Black Cloth (Easy Fix) 01:18
III. Black Cloth (Shiny Cloth) 03:02
IV. Black Cloth (Very Faded) 04:16
COLORED EXAMPLES 07:30
V. Red Cloth (Faded Spine) 08:09
VI. Red Cloth (Spotty Mildew Stains) 08:56
VII. Oxblood Cloth (Browned Spine & Mildew Stains) 09:55
VIII. Oxblood Cloth (Patchy Wear) 10:40
IX. Green Cloth 11:11
X. Blue Cloth 12:40
XI. Navy Blue Spines 13:02
XII. Final Steps 13:45
XIII. Final Results 15:36
CREDITS
Music by Daniel Hines
www.danielhines.co.uk
CONTACT JESS
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DISCLAIMER: If you have particularly valuable, collectible, or sentimental books, I highly recommend taking them to a professional bookbinder for restoration rather than attempting any of these techniques yourself. Not every technique will be appropriate for every book, and I am not an expert in book conservation or restoration, although I do use these techniques myself frequently and have been taught by people with decades of experience in the secondhand book industry. These tutorials are aimed at helping out with average books which aren’t worth the cost of being taken to a specialist, and as such, I hope you find them useful. That said, by all means check out the comments for others’ results, experience, and criticism before deciding whether to try a repair technique yourself.
If you like my content and would like to support me with a small tip, please use this link (1% of all donations are being donated to help the environment): ko-fi.com/squirrellynerdyjess
Wow, thank you for this--your video is informative and well-edited. My great-grandfather was a bookbinder and my grandmother worked for Appleton-Century Publishing in Manhattan. I recently found an Appleton-Century dictionary set on eBay that looks faded, and I can't wait to restore it!
This is so timely, I've been searching and waiting for years on how to address this issue without having to use new book cloth which doesn't allow you to transfer the original art work or embedded art work.I have a box of family books ranging from the 1930's through 50's I have just set aside in the interim I have a local book store that saves back similar books that I call " book mules", to experiment with. I would not have thought of this technique You are correct about finding shoe polish since most shoes today are not made for polishing, so Amazon was a great recommendation Ironically when I was in the military in the 60's you had to " spit shine " your shows. We used black shoe polish which we put lighter fluid on , lit the fluid and polish mix and poured out the melted liquid on the shoes. Let it dry and buffed like crazy. This technique filled the pores in the leather and using a soft cloth really rub hard. I never would have thought after all these years I'd be using almost the same technique. I'm anxious to try it.
There is a caveat to cloth books I'm sure you are aware of. I believe it is related to book cloth used in books in the 19th century. They were colored by using arsenic and are still toxic. Sometimes antique shops may still have them. There is a process to handle them , unfortunately they can't be salvaged, they have a blue green color..
Thanks for the post
I have restored books for over 20 years for my rare book store, and have never heard of this method. I can't wait to try it out! I had used heavy pigment watercolor paint, but it's very expensive (over $100 for a small set), and never really came out that great.
This is a revelation. I had no idea this was possible. Thanks for the demonstration.
I have had good results using acrylic paint to improve book covers.
Organic chemist here, that you say green books fade the hardest might be a correct observation which could have something to do with the fact that plants evolved to be green to take the highest section of energy out of the spectrum of sunlight.
Since this fading is due to light exposure breaking the double bonds in the pigment apart due to UV light. That's not that crazy an observation I would say.
Alltough that's just my back of an envelope pondering while I was listening to this making coffee. The beautiful edition of the pillowbook I received by mail yesterday has a strongly faded spine, but because it had a box sleeve the cover is beautifully black. I think it would take well to some shoeshine pigment. But I want to read it first c:
Used this technique to restore a faded old book I purchased for my MA research (had to use a cream as it was a navy blue, but it worked very well). Thanks for the tutorial!
Pretty awesome technique! Thanks for sharing.
The repair to The Fountainhead was crazy! Thanks for the great tips!
Thank you so much for this video! I can't wait to try this technique on my vintage Edith Wharton novels. ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
Wow! What a great way to improve the perfectly fine and beautiful but worn reading copies that can be found everywhere! As your Fountainhead example showed; one is left with a very nice hardcover copy with lovely spine. A nice way for anyone to begin to create a beautiful "everyman" library. Thanks for sharing!
This was very interesting and fun to watch. I'm not sure I have the guts to try this but it is a very cool process.
Wow!! Love this, just finished my first color restoration, the result is fantastic! Thanks for this great video.
Great video and very well done not missing any steps. I will now get my own collection looking youthful again.
Thank you so much!! Exactly what I was looking for! And such a pleasant video. Subscribed!
hey I left a list of bookish books in your bookish book video but I don't know if you saw it. well I just finished another book to add to that list of recomendations.
The Magpie's Library by Kate Blair. the main character follows a magpie through a magic door into a library where she gets to live in the books inside. But everytime she reads a book apiece of her soul is stolen into the magpies collection. its a short whimsical read that I enjoyed and has a very pretty cover.
I just tried this on a black book (specifically the slip-case). Worked great!
That was very informative, I would never have thought of using shoe polish!
I think i shall have a go at a few of my Dickens books cracked spine covers nothing major yet, new sub keep them coming.
I can’t believe this! Wow!
Excellent, thanks!
Oh my goodness - what a fantastic idea! I can hardly wait to give this a try... it’s going to revolutionise my bookshelves!
Update - I've given it a try with a couple of books, and the results are fantastic! Two red-ish books looks almost brand new, and the blue/grey one looks a heck of a lot better, if not as goood as the others. I'm off to find more books...
Cool! Thank you very much ❤
What a game changer! Unbelievable! Thanks for the demo. I wish I could show you one red title to get your expert opinion on what color polish to get
Send me photos! jess.trainedsquirrels@gmail.com
The idea of using lighter fluid on books is a bit mind blowing! I'm happy to see it working for you but I'm not sure i could bring myself to do it!
Awesome! 😎
Thank you for this lesson, Jess. It is really helpful. I have a suggestion/request for a video on bookcare, if I may?
One of the books you featured, you mentioned it had been damp-affected and was very mildew-stained, and it was fine to keep if there was no mould in the books. We see spotting of all kinds in books. So it would be great to see a video on how to tell the difference between three things: Mildew-stain vs Mould vs Foxing?
I live in the subtropics (Brisbane, Australia), a very humid place. Last year was particularly bad, with residents of half the city cleaning mould everywhere in our houses - on furniture, walls, clothes, and of course, bookshelves. All the stores were sold out of vinegar.
My priority was of course my books. The worst affected bookcase was a more rustic wooden one without any kind of varnish on the surfaces, so it was more porous and susceptible to mould. I do know that although wood is so aesthetically pleasing and homely and old-timey, it isn't an ideal surface for books. I do need another bookcase or two (I already have six, overstuffed) and I'll likely just go for some dark ikea billy bookcases.
If you were to do a video on how to tell the difference between mildew-stain vs mould vs foxing, it would be great to hear of any preventative tips you have as well (if at all possible). Also if you ever actively throw out books that definitely have mould, and how to decide that if they're special/valuable books. Is an alternative to keep them away from the other books so it doesn't spread?
I’m starting to work on a general book care video with best practices, so I’ll make sure this is included. Thanks for the suggestion!
@@SquirrellyNerdyJess Thank you so much! We appreciate any acorns of widom our resident squirrel can share with us 🙂
Foxing vs. Mould! czcams.com/users/shortsw_KdBP_fM4Q?si=VTA2VgqdZ2DFfOXr
Hi! Thank you for this fantastic video as usual! 😍
I was wondering if you could do a video on how to repair a book title. I inherited a book with faded gold lettering from my grandma who passed away last year and I really want to give it back its former glory...
That’s not something I’ve done yet. It’s something I have on my radar and want to experiment with, but I don’t think I’ll be able to make a video any time soon as I’ll want to have more experience with a process before putting out a tutorial. That said, if you want to experiment yourself, I believe what you’ll need is called “shell gold” and you can basically paint it in with a fine detail brush (and a steady hand!)
I've tried using gold paints it didn't work well, however, using dilute pva and good quality imitation gold leaf can work but it tends to be very bright, also lettering will never be as straight as printed lettering.
Wow so smart
Great video! Do you have any tips on how to restore the gold lettering that is printed on the fabric hardcover book spine like on the first book?
Nothing easy. I’ve been wanting to try using shell gold with a very fine detail brush, but it would not only take a very steady hand but it would also never be a perfect match. Not cheap either. Sorry!
Any polishes to keep away from? I tried one from Moneysworth & Best (MB) and it had some sort of oil in it that had the most sickly sweet smell ... and it left a stickiness on the book after. The stickiness seems to have dispersed after a week, but the smell still lingers. As an interesting side note, I did recolour a book darker (tan to brown), it had a stain and though "why not try?" It came out fairly well, though I think another coat might help. I just don't want to open the stinky polish again. I'd like to avoid other overly perfumed smells.
Kiwi is awesome and smells like it should, but apparently SC Johnsons is stopping making it, so it's getting harder to find.
The results look amazing! Thanks for the video, very interesting. I was wondering if you have any experience or knowledge about how the treatment affect books in the long term? I would be very concerned about the used products deteriorating the books over time. I'm a museologist and hard wired to think about the conservation aspects so I probably wouldn't have the guts to add lighter fluid or shoe polish on books.
That’s completely fair! I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for particularly rare or valuable books just because I’m not an expert on conservation in the long term, but the owners of my shop have been in the secondhand book business for over 20 years and have used these techniques. I have books in my own collection that have had this treatment 5+ years ago and haven’t shown any deterioration, and I haven’t seen any evidence in our shop of books that have been on the shelf for up to 15-20 years that have had this treatment showing any ill signs. I would love to learn more about museum conservation, actually!
Excellent video, thanks! Have you ever tried acrylic paint instead of shoe polish? Also curious about your approach to recoloring lettering in cases where the color has disappeared?
I don’t use acrylic paint, no. Haven’t done lettering yet, but I want to give it a try someday, particularly with gilt lettering. Basically a fine brush, a steady hand, and some shell gold.
Love watching your YT vids especially as we both share a passion for rl magic and hp magic ❤ btw do u use the same method for leather fully bound books? I have one thats badly faded on one side but don’t want to ruin the book experimenting!
Thanks! I only use this method for cloth, but shoe polish is designed for leather shoes, so it can potentially be applicable, but it depends on the level of wear I’d say. What I do use on leather books - not for colour but for protection - is leather polish, like for saddles.
@@SquirrellyNerdyJess The leather is light faded on one side and only a quarter of the side is faded… presumably this was close to the end of an open shelf by the window… it’s a navy blue so I’m going to give your method a try ❤ thanks
Perhaps in lieu of Lighter Fluid, one could use Pure Gum Turpentine Spirits, e.g. Sunnyside. I know pure turps is an excellent solvent for shoe polish and when it evaporates, will not leave a petroleum-based smell.
Thanks for the tip! Let me know how it goes if you decide to try it out.
In my experience, the petrol smell doesn’t stay on the book, though. I’ve given a good solid sniff to books I’ve treated in the past and they don’t retain the smell.
Sometimes when i buy an art book that was published in the 70s, 80s,or even the 90s the edges of the cloth binding not protected by the dust jacket have faded so i use a flip chart marker pen [ water based ] thus restoring the original colour, only a few colours available but it does a good job with the appropriate books . Can i suggest when you are colouring the inside edges near the white paper you could use a cotton bud for more precision and maybe weakened masking tape to shield parts.
Great tips! Thank you.
I have a suggestion I was hoping for in a future video (I don't think you've done this yet) .. I have a couple older mass market paper backs that I like collecting. I've noticed what I assume is mold on the top pages of a couple that are otherwise in great condition. Basically, there are a bunch of dark spots on the top of the book. I'd love to see a video with your thoughts on this, if it's fixable. I was thinking Q-tips and alcohol or really fine sand paper. Ideally, I'd like to get rid of the spots, but as I'm never going to sell them- my main concern is not infecting my other books on the shelf. I love this series of videos, and I hope you keep making them! (Even if this suggestion doesn't make it in one, no worries)
Thanks for the suggestion! What you're seeing is called foxing and is very common and harmless. It's not mold, but it's a stain from environmental factors such as mold. Unfortunately, it's not the easiest thing to get out and generally doesn't get treated except in very specialist circumstances. If it's only on the page edges, it is possible to use sandpaper to finely sand it away, but I probably won't do a video on this because it's very easy to go wrong and damage your book further. I have only tried it a few times myself; it's not something I necessarily recommend. Sorry I can't be of more help!
That's really helpful, thanks! I was pretty worried it was mold. I'll just leave it then since it's safe to read/keep with my other books
@@Andre-vq7zo Yep! I'd just keep your books dusted and preferably in a low-humidity environment to prevent further foxing. (Depending on where you live, a dehumidifier can help preserve your books!)
For anyone else wondering about this, I now have a short called 'Is my book dangerous?' which talks about foxing and mold and the difference between the two: czcams.com/users/shortsw_KdBP_fM4Q
I have so many questions ❤😅
Dont you think that this wax will make the binding soft or break it?
And why do you use lighter fluid? Couldn't that be something else?
Do you use that only on leatherbooks or also on normal books?
And last question...😅 Does the color comes in any way off?
It's a bit of an unconventional solution: using shoe polish on books may create a subtle sheen and color, but it causes more issues than benefits because the pigmented paraffin doesn't adhere well to the cover. When you read or handle the books, the warmth from your hands can reactivate the wax, increasing the risk of smudging the pages. The covers of books from the last century, made with a mix of glue and fabric, lose color due to time and exposure to light; unfortunately, this is an irreversible process. The recommended solution is rebinding, preferably preserving the distinctive features of the books. However, the final decision is yours, as the books belong to you.
Thank you for the feedback. I would never recommend this for a particularly collectable or valuable book - a professional rebind is of course the best solution.
How well would fabric markers work on book cloth? I ask cause I have a book with a faded ribbon that I am considering taking a fabric marker to but not sure yet.
I haven’t tried to be honest!
Do you have any recommendations for a cream white clothbound book that's developed discolouration? Please 😢
Ooh, I can’t say that I do. There is a book cleaner solution, but I don’t think that would help in that situation. Sorry!
i have a question, do you think oilpaints + mineralspirit/turpentine can work for these repairs? it would also give the option of mixing the correct colour but i odnt know if the solvents are too harsh
I wouldn’t, no. I haven’t tried, but those aren’t chemicals I would want to even attempt on a book personally.
What about for light colored cloth books that have tanned darker? I assume the show polish method only works when going darker, rather than lighter?
Yes, only for going darker. I’m afraid I don’t have a cure for tanned books.
Does anyone know if this method would actually change the color of the book? I have one that is faded to light pink, and it's a Halloween book. I would love to dye it black...if this will work.
I've never tried, but I imagine it would tint it more than completely change it, much like the example in the video of the black book that was severely faded, some of the original color would probably show through.
How does shoe polish affect the value of a book?
Do you find the polish ever comes off with use after? Or once it dries is it set for good?
Others have asked this, and I haven’t found the polish to come off after personally, but you do have to make sure you’ve polished it enough after it’s dried so that no colour is coming off onto your rag as I mentioned.
Would you use oxblood for the will Durant story of civilization set ?
From a quick Google search of the set, yes I believe so, but can’t be 100% sure without seeing the books in person.
@@SquirrellyNerdyJessI can't find the cherry blossom oxblood for sale in the us, do you like any of the other American polishes available on Amazon?
I've got a good one for you. My son just got his hands on roughly 100 nicely made leather bound books, that were in a house fire. Soot and smoke damage, some light mold. Books are roughly 25 years old, cloth hinges, embossed leather, looks like rag paper, lots of gold leaf. How woul you clean these up
I would have to take a good look before recommending anything specifically, but without seeing them, I'd say get a nice, soft art eraser (white, rectangular rubber kind) to use on sooty and moldy areas. You can also get leather polish, which won't necessarily clean the leather but it will help conserve it.
One of my ex-partners had a house fire. They cleaned the soot from the books using eucalyptus oil.
that is dynamite. I have a repair of a faux leather prayer book from 1907 and the inside front cover has been repaird up to the leather covering which is missing. I have the paper that was used under the faux leather and I am wondering what you could recommend?
Oof. I'd recommend having a bookbinder look at it for proper restoration, if it is that valuable/sentimental to you. It's hard to say just from your description if I could recommend anything DIY.
@@SquirrellyNerdyJess on the back I could lift off the faux leather and I put, don't laugh, a cut down piece of an Old Duch potatoe chip box. It worked slick. On the front inside I did the same and it firmed up the cover. The only issue is the old paper will flake off. I thought about black book binding tape to preserve it. It is not valuable monetary wise it is simply an old prayer book that I like to give away to people.
What do you do about the fluid smell?
Once it evaporates and the book is polished, I find I don’t smell the lighter fluid. But when working on it, be sure to keep your working space well ventilated.
This was a question I had in mind too. Thank you! 💕
Some antiques are more valuable if not restored. How about books? Would this reduce the value of collector books?
Original in pristine condition is always the best, but it depends on the book. Unless it's an incredibly rare and valuable book, I think sprucing it up a little bit with these techniques can help it sell better. If it's a book I worry about devaluing, I may not.
So the colour doesn't rub off onto other books? I can't imagine the nugget not becoming active on hot days etc.
That’s not been my experience, but I do specify to thoroughly polish away any excess until there is no more colour coming off on the cloth. Our house gets quite hot and humid during a summer heat wave and I’ve never noticed any of my polished books start transferring colour to their neighbours.
why lighterfluid? is there something else i could use instead tha u know of?
It’s possible, but this is the way I was trained to do it.
Yes, things that look like lighter fluid would probably work
Like, hexanes, or petroleum based fuels that evaporate quickly like Coleman stove fuel. I'd say lighter fuel is the easiest way to over the counter get n-pentane or n-hexanes. Petroleum ethers would probably also work. I don't think spirits like Ethanol or methanol would work, they'd probably need to be 80-90 procent and methanol is quite toxic.
@@TheZabbiemaster Do you think solvent-D60 would be an option?
Do the books smell like the lighter fluid afterwards?
No, that evaporates and goes away, but the polish may leave a scent a little bit. I tend not to notice it soon after provided it has been thoroughly polished and my nose isn’t right against the book.
'Promo sm' 💖
WHAT!!!
Are you an archivist?????
Have you lost your mind???
Absolutely UNACCEPTABLE.