Have you ever seen a Bible with pages falling out? Sometimes it comes from much use, but usually it comes from shoddy construction. There are few things more annoying than using a Bible for 5 years, marking it up, and getting familiar with its pagination only to have it start falling apart. Quality Bible construction can last for decades and stand up to extended use and even a little mistreatment.

In a previous article cover material and page material were discussed as important to good construction. However, no cover can protect a Bible if the pages fall out, and no pages retain their value if they are lost. Bibles must have quality binding.

Books are printed with multiple pages on large sheets of paper. These sheets are folded into a signature of usually 16 or 24 pages. The signatures are stacked and bound together to make a book block, then trimmed on the top, side, and bottom of the book to make a perfect edge. The way the signatures are bound together determines the quality of the binding.

Most books are glued together. However, inexpensive glues become brittle over time and crack and break when the book is opened. Once broken, pages and even whole signatures begin to fall out, or shift in the book block and stick out at the top or bottom. Glue-bound books also do not lay flatly because the stiff glue prevents the spine from flexing enough to lay flatly.

Better bindings are sewn together through the center of the signature fold to a rigid backing like cardboard or canvas. This technique has been used for centuries and has endured the test of time and use. This method of binding is called “Smyth-sewn” or “section-sewn.” Once sewn, a flexible adhesive is used to further stabilize the book block. Smyth sewn books lay flatly and last years.

Once the book block is completed, it is married to the cover with end sheets, thicker paper glued to the inside of the cover and the outside sheets of the book block. However, better quality Bibles use tough fabric attached to the spine of the book block that extend to the cover and are glued between the end sheets. This is called the “mull” and will leave a faint impression between the cover and the end sheet. The wider the mull, the better the construction.

Open a Bible and lay it one the table. The cover should lay flatly on the surface. The spine of the book block should make a horseshoe shape, and the spine of the cover should lay flat in line with the rest of the cover. That reveals a good quality binding.