Choosing Your Materials
Obviously, material selection plays an important role in not only the construction of a box but also the micro environment it creates within the box. Good, rigid, book board manufacturing is quickly thinning out. Find the most rigid, acid-free board you can and buy a hefty supply. Outside of leather, use only acid free and low/non-lignin materials within your structures. Don’t use poor quality PVAs. If you’re using really thin board, allow for a thickness of paper and cover the trays twice: once with pasted up paper, then the final covering material. This will add rigidity to your trays. Since cloth is the most widely used material in boxmaking, some points need to be made about it use. There are some very beautiful book cloths out there: silks, rayons, blends, starches, etc. A good many binderies and customers prefer them. Be aware, however, of the possible downsides of these sorts of materials:
1.
They are obviously susceptible to water or moisture damage/markings and
finger prints.
2.
The paper backed, non-filled varieties will generally fray at an exposed edge or along the board edges from shelf wear.
3.
You do not want to finish along side of them. Egg albumen
will leach by osmosis into the
cloth. Finish the spine and board leather before you cover them with
cloth.
4.
The nap from these kinds of cloth inhibits
the trays from opening. Allow
more than 0.5mm space between
the interior tray and exterior
tray.
5. Make sure your customer knows
that these cloths are
susceptible to water markings. Warn them! You
don’t want a beautiful
Islandreagh or Japanese silk-covered cloth box returned
after the owner tried
to sponge off the dust with a damp sponge. |