Common Repair Mistakes
- Glue the flyleaf to the paste-down. Flyleaves are typically only attached with a thin strip of glue and are not sewn in so they will just pop off and not fix the problem.
- Using tape to repair hinges
- Gluing the spine shut or gluing hinge areas
- Erasing important signatures or other marks
- Treating leather with oils rather than archival waxes
- Use of shellac or other harsh sealing products
- Using harsh cleaning products on book-cloth or leather covers
- Coloring poorly, adding halos, streaks of covering the text up.
- Leaving things in books: Post-it notes, paper clips, and other non-archival ephemera.
- Not testing things such as paste and coloring materials on an inconspicuous area of the book first such as on the rear inner turn-in.
