The next step is as dependent on experience as all of the previous ones. The gold is to be burnished, but if the book has gotten too dry then the edge will not polish well and if the book is not dry enough the gold will rub off. The edge, if adequately dry, is rubbed with a burnisher, first through a sheet sheet of light paper and later on the leaf itself, with increasing pressure until the desired finish is acquired. This is the way that gilding is still done by the craftsman today, though in mechanized binding a gilt edge is applied by machines which work from large rolls of gold foil rather than individual leaves. Headbands Like so many elements in book binding headbands are both decorative and structural.
Headbands appear at the head and often the tail of the spine.
In years past headbands were sewn onto the book block and helped to protect the head of the spine from damage when it was pulled from the shelf. Now headbands are usually woven pieces glued onto the spine as a decorative element. Hinge and Joint Let me first say that the following definition is subject to debate. There is no real consensus on these two terms, but we are putting down the definition which we use and which is becoming more standard in the book trade. The hinge is the place on the inside of the book where the spine and the sides of the binding meet while the joint is the place on the outside of the book where the spine and the sides of the binding meet.