ABSTRACT
The “cutting boards” are wedge-shaped and similar to the backing boards, only the base has equal angles with the sides. The head and tail are similarly treated but minus the cutting boards, and without interfering with the round of the back. As a precautionary measure against cutting into the board, a waste piece of thin board is placed between the book and the left-hanp board. A considerable number of books are taken together, placed to two gauges on the guillotine, when with a touch of a lever the knife comes down cutting the fore-edge, and as it returns two parallel knives come down at right angles and cut head and tail. The decoration of the cut edge has occupied the attention of the binder in many different ways for centuries past. The most generally adopted method is the plain gilt edge.
