How To Properly Care for Your Genuine Leather Bible
If you’ve just purchased a leather-bound edition of the King James Bible, congratulations on making an investment that not only places a valuable spiritual resource in your home but makes you part of a centuries-long legacy of readers. The King James Version was first published in 1611, and for years, it’s been read from genuine leather Bibles that were built to last just as long as the text within them.
Leather-bound books require special care that traditional paperbacks and hardcovers do not, but most instructions for that care are about what not to do. Here is how to properly care for your genuine leather Bible. It’s easier than you think.
Keep It Out of the Sun
Understanding how to protect your Bible begins with the proper storage. You may not notice until you pull an old favorite from the shelf that years of daily ultraviolet light have degraded the inks of your favorite paperback books. Perhaps The Catcher in the Rye has faded from a vivid scarlet to a pale peach, or the rich black of Anna Karenina has become an unpleasant warm grey. Leather is even more sensitive to natural sunlight than printed paper. Not only will UV rays fade a leather spine as they would any other book, but they can also cause the leather to degrade over time. You wouldn’t want your skin in direct sunlight all day long. The same should go for your leather Bible.
Read It!
Yes, reading a leather-wrapped Bible will help preserve it! Your first impulse upon receiving your genuine leather Bible may be to leave it on a shelf or the coffee table, never to be touched, so that it may remain in mint condition. However, leather-bound books aren’t just made to withstand heavy reading—they rely on it. If you buy a Bible just to be an accessory or a conversation piece, the leather cover will grow dry and cracked from lack of handling. By spending quality time with your KJV, the natural oils in your hands will treat the leather, keeping it soft and allowing it to develop an attractive and natural wear. After all, a book this good is meant to be read.
Skip the Protective Extra Cover
Another seemingly good intention may be to wrap a cover around your new purchase. After all, you probably spent a whole day in middle school preparing covers for your textbooks out of vinyl or paper. Then again, your guide to 8th grade science was probably not bound in leather. But a leather-wrap Bible doesn’t need a cover, and in fact, can be detrimental. A synthetic material such as vinyl or mylar impedes necessary airflow and traps dirt, dust, and moisture between the covering and the book, allowing mold or mildew to consume your copy.
Go the Extra Mile With Special Products
Think about the interior of your car. For the most part, you do a fine job keeping it clean in everyday usage, but perhaps once a year, you take it in for detailing to keep it almost good as new. Think of how to care for your genuine leather Bible much the same way. Good habits of regular use and smart storage will do the vast majority of upkeep, but if you want a book that will last so long that you can pass it down to your children’s children, a special restoration cream for leather books, used very sparingly, can make this leather last lifetimes. Rub this cream into the leather of your King James Bible every one or two years, and again, remember: a little goes a long way. To learn about caring for your genuine leather Bible, explore more of our blogs at the KJV Store.