Cutting pages

I just received one of the LEC Shakespeare volumes, and discovered that many of the pages are still uncut.

Poor book, around since 1940, and never read properly!

Any advice for how to go about cutting the pages in the most attractive manner? What tool would you use? I wonder if using a standard pair of scissors would result in cuts that look too clean compared to some of the other pages.

You want something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074YJCLYX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?i...

Absolutely DO NOT use scissors or a sharp knife. You want something like a letter opener with a dullish edge. A sharp knife will destroy your book. Scissors will most likely destroy your book. For the book owner the process should feel more like carefully tearing the pages apart than cutting. The printers are the only people who should be doing any "cutting" and they use machines for that.

If you don't want to pay for a letter opener type knife, you can use a firm index card, but I find the card get's floppy after a few pages so you'll need several.

You want a bookbinder's knife, like this: https://www.talasonline.com/Bookbinders-Knife

A bookbinder's knife can be too sharp. Mine is. I use an artist's pallette knife ( https://www.talasonline.com/Palette-Knife ). Some people swear by a credit card (it works, but take it slow and easy). Whatever you use, go by what >2 MobyRichard: above said: For the book owner, the process should feel more like carefully tearing the pages apart than cutting.

I'm in the same boat, I received two books with uncut pages. So, I destroyed one book with a shark knife :/
What I found is that the knife slices so quickly that it goes into the page, alas. Live and learn - it wasn't a very expensive book but still.
For the other book I will try a letter opener and taking it slowly.

>6 supercell:

I’ve tried this method on my LEC Georgics. It worked well.

https://youtu.be/VU7lqM6NfQo

>8 Stephan68: thanks for posting that video. Gave me the confidence to try the index card method, and the result turned out well!

To anyone else trying this, I'd add that the single direction pull technique, using the longest pulls permitted by the card (so avoiding any sawing motion) seems to yield the best results.

>9 abysswalker: I had this same issue. It was a collection of essays entitled "Books and Reading" and it was printed in 1908. I think I carefully cut mine open with a razor blade.

I just ruined another book. Screw this, I will never purchase an uncut book again ಠ_ಠ

Huh. I've had good success with a sharp knife. But I'll try the index card on my next Balzac read...

I might note that the index card method works very well if the paper is soft and easily cut. However, if you are dealing with a thicker, harder handmade paper, the card may not have the strength necessary to do the job. This is where my palette knife works wonders. Whatever method you use, take it slow and easy or risk ruining the book. Never force the tool!!

https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/023/977/996/954fa8685f3d33a3e40bef88ae4a34ff_or...

This shows the opening of the pages in the Thornwillow edition of The Great Gatsby (paper and cloth copies had uncut pages). In the novel, the books in Gatsby's library had uncut pages ... as they were never read.

https://thornwillow.com/the-great-gatsby-by-f-scott-fitzgerald

Hate when people sell books uncut. I really don’t understand it.

I remember in the 1960s a lot of French books were sold uncut, and my friend Martine told me she loved cutting the pages open as she read through.

Is there a difference between a coated card and a card entirely made from plastic?

Said with great jocularity and facetiousness, yeah, one is made entirely of plastic and the other is just coated with it.....

Seriously, though, you want a card that is thin and strong, so whichever gives you that combination will do the trick.

I still favor a palette knife, though.

>1 abysswalker: Poor book, around since 1940, and never read properly!

I'm having to open most of the pages of my own complete LEC Shakespeare as I go, and the latest book to require the treatment from me had sat completely unopened since 1889.

I haven't yet had occasion to regret using a very old bone-handled knife I keep for the purpose, whose blade has a serrated edge that I don't use, while the other edge is smooth and blunt.

A 'Deckle Edge Ripper' - available from specialist/ large book binding stationers including Amazon, might be useful if trying to replicate a deckle edge.