If the cover be of morocco, it should now be well wetted with a sponge and grained up either with the hand or a piece of cork. The leather is then folded together, and rubbed in all directions with the cork until the" grain" is sufficiently developed, when the cover is pasted over on the flesh side with thin paste and hung up to dry. For" straight grain," the leather should only be rubbed one way. Where it is desired to have the morocco quite smooth, to imitate some antique book, the leather should be soaked with water, and the grain quite rolled out with a rolling pin, used with good pressure or, if the cover be small, it may be beaten out by the careful use of the backing-hammer. Russia also should be moistened and well rolled with the rolling-pin.

The cover (if of morocco) should now be well pasted with good thick paste, made as before directed, applied with a small brush (what painters call a "sash tool" is best). The paste should be spread evenly, and no more should be left on than is required to make the cover adhere to the book. Any lumps or hairs from the brush should be carefully removed. The cover is then laid on a clean millboard on the bench, fore edge to the operator and pasted surface upwards, the squares at the book's head and. tail carefully adjusted, a slight touch of paste applied with the finger to each band, and then lowered down upon the cover, as at Fig. 109, in such a position that the back of the volume which is farthest from the workman will be in the middle (see B). The far part (A) is then brought over the board which is uppermost, and fastened at the fore edge. The square portion (C) is then treated in a similar manner. Care must be taken during this manipulation that the squares are not disarranged.

The volume is now placed on its fore edge and the leather tightly strained over the back with the hands and rubbed smooth with the folder. The leather is then alternately raised from each side board, drawn as tightly as it can be, turned in again at the fore edges, and smoothed down well on the sides and back with the hand and the folder. In manipulating morocco covers, care must be taken at every stage not to mark the covers with the folder. The bands (if any) should now be pinched slightly with a pair of band-nippers. The cover at the head and tail of the book must at this stage be turned in; to do so, take it by the fore edge, and place it upright on the bench with the boards slightly extended, and with the hands, one on each side, slightly pushing back the board close to the headband, and folding the cover over and into the back with the thumbs, drawing in so tightly that no wrinkle or fold is seen. If the back is an open one, the loose part of the fold previously made must be covered over with the leather, in the same way as the boards. The leather on both boards being turned in along the fore edge, and the edges rubbed well down and square, the parts of the cover are next brought together at the corners, pulled up almost perpendicularly with the board, pinched together, and nearly all above the angle of the corner cut off with the shears. The portion on the side is then turned down (Fig. 110), and the other, on the fore edge, wrapped a little over

it, the corner being set by the aid of the thumb nail, and folded as neatly as possible, and so that no raw edge of the cover is visible.

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