The Handicraft of Bookbinding [Article I] 1

In the handicraft process, they are either not cut at all, except the "heads", to even the top, if re-folding has been necessary, and to keep out dust; or they are cut by hand, section by section, the least possible and never down to the shortest sheets which are left as "proof" that the book has not been unnecessarily mutilated. The commercial process of sewing differs from the handicraft method at the expense of the book. In both commercial and handicraft sewing, the sections which form the book are attached together by threads which run longitudinally through the center of the sections, and to cords which run transversely across the back of the book. In handicraft sewing, these cords are on the outside of the book. One of the beneficial effects of handicraft binding upon commercial binding is the tendency to abandon this sort of cheap and unreasonable imitation, and to omit processes when dispensable rather than do them badly.