Instead of being lost to memory, an old, tattered 1,000-page English-Japanese dictionary was given new life when its owner handed it over to Nobuo Okano, a Japanese master craftsman who has spent 30 years perfecting the art of restoring old books.
His process was detailed on a Japanese show called Fascinating Craftsman (Shuri, Bakaseru). The most painstaking part is probably when he individually unfolds every page’s corners with a tweezer and irons them! Read on for more about the process.
(h/t: rocketnews)
Nobuo Okano has been restoring books for 30 years
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A guy brought an old, 1,000-page English-Japanese dictionary
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He used it in his youth and now wants to restore it and give it to his daughter
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Nobuo begins by shaving the old glue from the spine
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The book had some maps of English-speaking countries. They suffered greatly, so Nobuo glued them to new sheets of paper
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The color doesn’t match perfectly, but he can prevent them from degrading further
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The most monotonous part is straightening out every page corner with tweezers…
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…and then wetting and ironing the corners straight!
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He even has a special tiny iron for the job
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The owner wrote his high school sweetheart’s initials on the book in ink
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Using a heavy-duty paper cutter, Okano removes the color from the edges
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New, minty-fresh pages!
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Last but not least, the cover, with the original title on a brand-new background
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