What are some tips for organized collating?

I will be interested to hear Sophia's response, but here is mine. I am an avid follower of this site, totally self-taught with almost 5 years of ever evolving learning and experience. I have several projects "in process" that fall in this category, most are casebound, over or nearly 100 years old. Sophia's hierarchy is what I follow, but to more detail, here's what I've resorted to. I take an inventory of the book, starting at the front cover, working through the "big" things: boards, spine, corners, hinges, endsheets. Then I literally go through one page at a time, and document losses, tears, loose pages, broken threads, etc. I find my first goal is to repair losses and tears, tip in/hinge loose pages, etc. working to have all the pieces for the text block. Once all that is done, if need be the spine then may need attention which can involve scraping/cleaning, PVA and new mull, new spine liner, new endsheets/sewing as needed. So build the text block back and make it as solid as I can. Then I would proceed to address boards/spine/corners and, if necessary, recase. For me, trying to work with the text block in any way without addressing all the miscellaneous "little" things doesn't make sense...just me maybe. Will be interested to see Sophia's response. Good luck.

Well said Gaylen. Sometimes I literally go page by page after I have applied new mull to the text-spine but before I do the new lining. That way, if I have to sew any signatures back in I can just sew through the mull. Also the book opens really nicely without falling apart. This will not be the solution for every book, but for sewn case-bound books it is usually good. There is no one answer. You must ask the book what it needs. I frequently go back and forth between working on the text-block then the case and back again. Many times I will go through and only repair the worst of the tears and then after it is cased-in again I will repair more tears. I know this seems a bit all over the place as an answer, but every book is a bit different and sometimes so is the client and what they expect.

Another thought: I think what you mean is more how to triage? Collating is literally going through and making sure all the pages are present and accounted for in the correct order including blanks.

Thank you both! This is very helpful. And yes, you're right Sophia, I meant triage!