The surface of the leather being damp, the brass face of the tool, however clean, will have a certain liability to stick to it, and perhaps pull off the grain. This is to be avoided, and the tool made to "come away" with facility, by the following process.
Take 1 ¼ oz. of white wax: and 1oz. of lard, and melt them

together in a glazed pipkin over the fire. Rub some of this grease on the flesh (rough) side of a piece of thick leather, and rub the tools for blind work occasionally on this greased surface while using them.

In "finishing" the sides of whole-bound antique work, the pattern must first be marked out with the end of a pointed folder, assisted by a straight-edge -and, when necessary compasses. The whole surface is then clarified and brushed, as already described. Any fillets that may be required are next worked over the lines several times until the color and depth of impression are secured. In order to give the lines a gloss, the fillet is then fixed by putting a small wooden wedge between the edge of the roll and the fork, as shown

at Fig. 139. The periphery of the fillet is now rubbed with the greased leather, and it is then "jiggered" over the lines, great care being taken not to double or blur the lines.

Tools must be worked by making them slightly warm at first and then increasing the heat at subsequent impressions. Then the leather is permitted to dry, the tool reheated, greased, and worked again for the gloss.
Antique work may be diversified and improved by working a fine gold line amidst the heavy blind tooling, as shown at Figs. 140 and 141.

The pattern shown at Fig. 142 is also an excellent and effective one for the side of an antique book.
The lettering is completed after the blind tooling is finished

Books bound in morocco flexible (which are generally devotional works) are usually finished with blind lines (a thick and thin) worked close to the bands.

There are a few favorite tools much used in " antique" finishing on the spaces of the back, &c. They are mostly modern imitations of some ancient ornaments found in the printed books of the celebrated Stephen Aldus, one of the most famous of the early printers. Hence these tools are called U Aldine." Aldus's own badge was that of a dolphin twined around an anchor, but this is not used by the bookbinder, although the anchor alone is; one of the most common of the Aldine tools is an acorn (Fig. 143, A), another is the Maltese cross (Fig. 143, B).

These tools are first worked blind; then the place is glaired with the camel's hair pencil, and the tool again worked in gold, the other ornamentation being, as already stated, blind tooling, and the leather being left dull, or not glaired, polished, or varnished.

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