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Old August 31st 04, 08:29 PM
Jon Meyers
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"paghat" wrote...
Andy Dingley wrote:
gr wrote:

What is the best procedure to separate these pages so they become
readable again?


Time. You _really_ can't rush this process. Be patient. It's
particularly difficult for manuals, advertising and magazine paper,
because of the extra sizing on glossy papers.

I wouldn't use steam myself - I'd go for cold humidity, from an
ultrasonic mister.


If the stuck pages are coated paper, it is solmetimes best to risk
separating the pages when first wetted to insert wax paper between every
page, because nothing will separate them once they have dried & fused
permanently, & re-wetting won't help. "Once stuck together, no amount of
rewetting will separate them" notes David Tremain of the Canadian
Conservation Institute...


I hate to disagree with someone who I admit must know a lot more than I do
about this, but it isn't true that fused coated pages won't separate. I
used the steaming technique on a gardening book--one of the Taylor's
guides--which had approximately 80 leaves stuck together in an area about
two inches square at the fore edge. Of the 160 affected pages, only four
had notable damage or paper separation when I was done--the first four I
worked on, because I was going too quickly. All the other pages came apart
fairly easily and dried without any mildew problems or lingering odors. The
most siginificant damage done was the remaining waviness.

Perhaps, though, the pages I worked on weren't completely fused, or perhaps
there are differences depending on the type or quality of the coating
material, or on the original source of the moisture. (Would coffee create a
weaker bond between the pages than plain water?)

As I said earlier, I would *never* recommend steaming for books that ought
to be preserved for posterity--it's something to be done only to restore an
ordinary but unreadable book to a reading copy--but the technique has worked
for me.


--
Jon Meyers
(To reply, lose
your way)


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