The Production of Colored Edges
The beautiful marbled edges have nearly driven every other kind of edges entirely out of the market.
Aside from marbled edges, colored edges are mostly used. They will keep their place on account of the simplicity of their production and their bright coloring effects.
Red-edges, especially when prettily made, give a dignified aspect to a book, so to speak, and they are therefore frequently and properly employed.
Our highly developed color industry offers to us a very great number of red colors, especially the carmine, vermilions and cinnabars, all of great value in our trade. These colors will not fade, the former carmine possesses great intensity, and cinnabar has the power to obliterate colors underlying it.
When cheap colored edges are to be produced even aniline colors can be taken into consideration. For instance, eosine is a red color, which used by itself or in combination with carmine and other red colors makes a beautiful color for edges but it will fade on exposure to the sun.
The preparation of these colors is of importance. Genuine carmine should, after the different pieces have been crushed, be ground for a short time with a little spirits of ammonia and then allowed to stand until completely dissolved. To dilute it, a thin solution of gum or water (the best is rain water) may be used. If too much spirits of ammonia has been employed the color will assume a bluish hue.
The heavy cinnabar makes a more powerful binding medium necessary, the best being a paste of starch or a solution of gum-arabic. Careful crushing and a thorough grinding of the color are essential.
Genuine carmine has a red color with a slight bluish cast whereas cinnabar approaches yellowish-red. A pleasing, pure red can be produced by using Turkish red. A bright lustrous shade is obtained by adding some red aniline color.
If edges have to be colored blue, use ultramarine blue for dark, or cobalt blue for light.
Both colors must be mixed with gum-arabic or paste by grinding, and, if necessary, be diluted with water.
To produce yellow edges, chrome yellow is mostly used. It is for sale in all different shades from the brightest greenish-yellow, to the darkest orange-yellow.
In using it, like any other mineral or earth colors, it is finely ground and mixed, for use, with paste.
Green edges are often produced by using Schweinfurt’s green or silk-green. By mixing light chrome-yellow with cobalt-blue, a beautiful rich green results.
For brown and black the well known colors umber, sepia, vegetable lamp-black, drop ivory-black and others are employed.
The color for producing violet edges can be best obtained by mixing cobalt-blue with Turkish-red or carmine.
It is always the most essential part of the process to grind the color uniformly with the paste, if it is desirable to obtain an edge of the same intensity of color.
A peeling off of the color while the edges are being burnished is due to a lack of paste, or of a too great consistency or too insufficient fineness of the color.
Recently our industry has taken this article in hand and furnishes a large number of beautiful, cheap and well prepared colors for producing edges which can be bought more profitably than they can be laboriously made.
As all colored edges, to give a beautiful effect, must be burnished after coloring, it is advisable to execute the coloring while the books are in the press, place the books after their front edges have been cut, by the aid of gilding boards into the hand-press and with a soft brush apply the color thinly. If the color does not thoroughly cover on one application, the operation must be repeated after the first coat has completely dried. When a uniform color is obtained allow the edge to dry in the press and then burnish it well with a broad burnisher.
By using a little wax you will render the burnishing more successful.
The color will sometimes enter into unsized or wood paper notwithstanding heavy pressure.
To avoid this the edges must be moistened with a thin paste to which some alum is added. It is still better to use the grounding substance manufactured by William Leo, of Stuttgart.
If beautiful edges are to be produced, then, in cutting the book it is necessary to see that the knife of the machine is free from nicks, so that the cut is clean and smooth.
At the fore-edge of the book there will always appear some small parts of the different sheets protruding slightly. If this is to be overcome, these edges are to be treated as hollow edges which means that they must be scraped hollow before coloring and must be burnished with the round-burnisher.
The use of colored edges is always left to individual taste. The following rule may be of some advantage; colored edges must have a binding of an opposite color. A red edge will appear to most advantage with a white, gray, dull-green, dark-brown or antique binding.
Bindings of a reddish-brown color would lose in their general aspect by the employment of a red edge.
If books with red edges are to be covered with red, it is then essential that the colors of both are corresponding.