I purchased a 150-year-old book at last weekend’s Ottawa Antiquarian Book Show. It had never been read. How do I know? Most of the pages were “unopened”, meaning pages were still connected at the edge.
I’ve had previous experience botching the job of cutting the edge, so I sought advice from the ever-helpful Kyla Ubbink, of Ubbink Book & Paper Conservation. She said I needed a very sharp knife, then offered to do it for me. I was delighted to take advantage of her professional expertise. The knife is at the lower left of the image.