How to Attach Cover Boards by Lacing in Sewing Tapes

Inspect an unused offcut before preparing the ends attached to your book. Determine whether the material separates readily into usable strands or remains a woven strip with firm edges.

Bookbinder John Jameson distinguishes traditional linen tapes, which pass through angled chisel slots, from Pliester tapes, which are unravelled and passed through holes. Both arrangements finish with the ends adhered inside the boards and covered by an infill. His account makes material choice the starting point for board preparation. John Jameson, “lacing on boards”.

What your offcut shows	Appropriate route
The support readily unravels into long strands	Prepare tapered ends and use the small-hole method below.
The tape retains a woven body and firm edges	Use slots that accommodate its intact width.
The material or construction is uncertain	Make a board-and-tape sample before altering the book.

The sample is an editorial recommendation derived from these different attachment structures. It lets you establish whether the opening accepts the support and whether the finished attachment lies flat before committing both boards.

Have the sewing complete and the book block in its intended shape. If your binding includes rounding and backing, complete those operations before fitting its boards. Angela Sutton’s working guide treats sewing, rounding and backing, and board attachment as successive stages. Angela Sutton, Bookbinding in Pictures.

Gather the fitted boards, pencil, ruler, awl, needle, scissors, bone folder, paste, brush, protective release material, and flat pressing boards with weights. Keep a matching tape offcut and board scrap available for trials. For an intact-tape construction, you will also need the tools required to form its slots and recesses. Molly Brooks’s illustrated tutorial documents a recessed attachment using linen tape and bookboard. Molly Brooks, The Exposed Tape Binding in 140(ish) Easy Steps.

Label the boards front and back, inside and outside, and mark the head. These references give you a consistent orientation whenever you lift a board away to work on it.

Place each board in its intended closed position before marking the support stations. Check its relationship to the spine and the intended projection beyond the page edges. That projection is called the square. Mark from the actual supports on each side rather than assuming that reversing one board will reproduce the other side’s alignment.

For his frayed-tape construction, Roger Grech marks a line 6–7 mm from the spine edge and transfers each tape’s centre onto it. He uses holes approximately 2–3 mm across. These are dimensions for his method, so test them against your materials. Roger Grech, “5. Lacing on the Boards”.

Use three separate checks while fitting: board position establishes alignment; the tape path establishes how the attachment reaches the board; opening and closing establish usable movement. Working through them separately makes a later fault easier to locate.

Separate the free tape ends, leaving the sewing undisturbed. Grech prepares the strands down to the sewing, forms tapered tips with a little paste, and lets them dry before threading. Pass each prepared end through its corresponding hole toward the inside of the board. Papercut Bindery’s illustrated preparation.

Support the board at 90 degrees to the book, seated in the joint. Draw the ends through, then lower the board gently into its closed position. Confirm that it opens freely before fixing anything. Grech’s sequence uses this movement to establish the attachment length. Papercut Bindery’s fitting sequence.

For intact woven tape, use the slot route selected earlier. Brooks demonstrates a variation with shallow interior recesses and retained board tabs that cover the adhered ends. Its board preparation differs from the small-hole method; choose the complete arrangement before cutting. Brooks’s slot-and-recess construction.

Once the fit is correct, reopen the board onto a support without shifting the tapes. Grech leaves about 2 cm of end, applies paste beneath it, and spreads the fibres onto the inside face. He inserts acetate between board and book, then dries the attachment under weighted boards. Papercut Bindery’s attachment and drying instructions.

Jameson’s construction subsequently traps the adhered ends beneath a card infill. Include that layer when planning the finished interior surface. Jameson’s description of the interior attachment.

Treat the first attached board as another checkpoint. Verify its alignment before repeating the process on the second side; access remains easier while the other board is still free.

Brooks identifies unequal tape lengths as a cause of uneven tension and checks that the cover rests flat instead of springing upward. The following diagnostic sequence is a practical synthesis of those fitting observations. Make adjustments before adhering the ends. Brooks’s tape-adjustment instructions.

Observation during fitting	First check
One tape bows while another is taut	Compare their effective lengths with the board closed.
The board springs upward	Check whether the attachment is too tight.
The board sits crooked	Recheck board orientation and individual support alignment.
A recess produces a bump or hollow	Test the tape and retained tab together in the sample board.

Change one feature at a time, then repeat the closed-position and opening checks. This keeps a board-position adjustment from being mistaken for a tape-length correction.

Before covering or concealing the attachment, confirm that both boards sit in their intended positions, the tapes have consistent tension, the interior ends are secure, and the boards open without pulling the book block out of alignment.

A useful stopping point is a dry, aligned attachment that you have checked through its intended opening movement. Resolve any remaining fit problem while the supports are accessible, then continue with the covering and interior finishing sequence chosen for your binding.

• Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology — “lacing-in”
• Sweet Thames Run Softly — “lacing on boards,” John Jameson
• Bookbinding in Pictures: A Beginner’s Guide to Bookbinding, Angela Sutton
• The Exposed Tape Binding in 140(ish) Easy Steps, Molly Brooks
• Papercut Bindery — “5. Lacing on the Boards,” Roger Grech