Leaf Casted Brittle Pages

[Ze-man]

I recently sought some feedback on this privately and my initial worries that the work was not perfect was trumped by the overall opinion that it serves as a quintessential example of what leaf casting can offer to comic book restoration.

 

I know it is boring to most people but here..we...go.

 

Two brittle center wraps from an early GA book.

 

Let me preface this by saying I have never seen pages this brittle before. I mean you breath on them wrong and they fall apart. Let alone try and submerge them in water and leaf cast them.(it is a process which involves blending up paper, and pulling it through a page while submerged underwater) But the process allows the impossible, to add support and structure to that which would have been near impossible the old way.( hand gluing japan or donor paper)

 

A few things worth mentioning.

 

These are raw photos that might be hard to figure out what exactly you are looking at, but I wanted to at least show people what Classics Incorporated is trying to do.

 

The color match, this unfortunately is off because you cannot use matching tanned vintage newsprint due to it being too broken down to cast with. And if you could match it with tinted archival paper the texture would be off, if you look closely the color matches the interior portion of the page, but not the outer burnt edge. Most frustrating.

 

Normal drying, blotting and burnishing process are extremely difficult due to how fragile these pages are. Just getting them wet is an adventure, let alone positioning them to be casted.

 

The bits of pulp that stuck to the casted side normally could be wiped away, but the fragile inks on these pages did not allow me to clean it up like I would a typical GA cover. But the excess material on the casted side actually adds support to the fragile page, so it is a good trade off.

 

The wrinkling caused by having casted material all around the entire page is problematic, it shrinks when it dries because it is new paper and makes the original thin page buckle as a result. Not sure there is any way around this on interior brittle pages. Matt and I have worked hard to resolve this, and will keep at it.

 

If I were to seal and reinforce these pages with glue and japan paper, well lets just say i probably would not have even tried. And if I did it would be a quagmire of paper and glue.

 

End result, the two wraps are joined together again, and actually supple. Well as supple as these pages could get. While I am not overly thrilled with the results, I think given what the pages were I should not expect perfection.

 

 

The page before and after casting. The casted area is obviously not cleaned up or trimmed yet. And it is interesting to see how the pulp finds its way into every micro tear and fills it. This adds great strength to the torn, weak area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[*paull*]

Very interesting.... thanks for posting pics.

 

[Ze-man]

If the cover was already separated from the interior , sure. Or did you mean interiors?

 

That glued spine is the big problem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[*paull*]

I removed the wrong part of my post. I asked Kenny if this could be useful on a pulp since they tend to go brittle more easily than comics. Is it possible to take apart and reassemble a pulp with a glued spine?

[Hero Restoration]

That looks really good Kenny, I find the whole process facinating. I think thats cool how it filled everything and the outer edge is all one piece. What I am most curious about is how does the new paper come out flat and smooth like it looks in your pics? I can imagine the paper falling into place but I would think it would be lumpy and rough.

[DiceX]

Belt sander.

 

 

[BrianR]

So are the pages still as brittle as before? Not the new material of course, but the old paper.

 

I'm also curious the old paper has already started to break down due to the aging process, it will continue to do so. How does the effect the bond/ leaf casting over a period of time as the aging process continues?

[FFB]

This is nothing short of a miracle. The way the wrap flexes now is astounding. It would have snapped in half (or shattered into a million pieces) if you had done that before the leaf casting. You've raised the dead!

 

As for the aesthetics, you can always tint the filled paper after leaf casting to match the color better. The important thing, though, is not the aesthetics. The important thing is that the wrap can be handled safely now, and once reassembled, the book can be read. It's a comic book again.

[rockman2008]

The page before and after casting. The casted area is obviously not cleaned up or trimmed yet. And it is interesting to see how the pulp finds its way into every micro tear and fills it. This adds great strength to the torn, weak area.

Interesting. Your casting trial has caused paper splitting along the brittle edges. So in fact your casting process is interleaving in 2-D, new paper with brittle paper. So yeah, you did reinforce the brittle edges with new paper somewhat. However, the interstitial chemistry (acids and lignin) causing brittleness remains unchanged in your process.

 

End result, the two wraps are joined together again, and actually supple. Well as supple as these pages could get. While I am not overly thrilled with the results, I think given what the pages were I should not expect perfection.

 

I'll bet the larger areas of "original paper" mass are still brittle. Maybe not as much as before since the washing resuscitated the cellulose, but it's still brittle nevertheless.

 

You're missing at least one major step, and this might be a good opportunity to research paper chemistry and material science. You might want to consider breaking down some of the lignin that's causing the embrittlement inside the paper. Consider a bleaching process. Then possibly a surface treatment to impart strength across the brittle paper over time. Then apply your casting process.

 

[rockman2008]

I just noticed the wrinkling on the bottom of the brittle pages post-cast (last photo). WTF??

[Ze-man]

The page before and after casting. The casted area is obviously not cleaned up or trimmed yet. And it is interesting to see how the pulp finds its way into every micro tear and fills it. This adds great strength to the torn, weak area.

Interesting. Your casting trial has caused paper splitting along the brittle edges. So in fact your casting process is interleaving in 2-D, new paper with brittle paper. So yeah, you did reinforce the brittle edges with new paper somewhat. However, the interstitial chemistry (acids and lignin) causing brittleness remains unchanged in your process.

Not necessarily, just because I didn't go into detail in my post about everything I did does not mean the pages were not de acidified, buffered or even bleached. And the micro tears at the bottom edge were not a result from leaf casting, it was from floating in a water bath. Even when handled with kid gloves these pages wanted to split and tear. Trying to position these split wraps for casting when wet was near impossible

 

End result, the two wraps are joined together again, and actually supple. Well as supple as these pages could get. While I am not overly thrilled with the results, I think given what the pages were I should not expect perfection.

 

I'll bet the larger areas of "original paper" mass are still brittle. Maybe not as much as before since the washing resuscitated the cellulose, but it's still brittle nevertheless.

 

You're missing at least one major step, and this might be a good opportunity to research paper chemistry and material science. You might want to consider breaking down some of the lignin that's causing the embrittlement inside the paper. Consider a bleaching process. Then possibly a surface treatment to impart strength across the brittle paper over time. Then apply your casting process.

Like I said, just because I didn't go into detail about what I did does not mean these things were not addressed or that I am not aware of paper chemistry. Cellulose was reintroduced as part of the casting process. How on earth do you think I am able to flex the pages like this? Magic?

 

All kidding aside, I am not claiming the pages are no longer brittle, nor how long they will last. Just that it is possible to cast, and fold a brittle wrap like this for use in a comic book again compared to layers of glue and japan/cadaver paper holding the page together. I have done both, and even an imperfect leaf cast process is preferable.

[Ze-man]

I just noticed the wrinkling on the bottom of the brittle pages post-cast (last photo). WTF??

 

You must have missed in my post where I mentioned the wrinkling was caused by having casted material surrounding the entire page. On more sturdy wraps, or covers this is not as much of an issue. But these pages were about as thin a page I have ever casted so when the new casted paper dries (even under weight) it shrinks and pulls inwardly causing wrinkling to the original page.

 

It is problematic, but I didn't want to overwork these pages trying to make them lay perfectly flat. Unfortunately not everything always goes as well as one hopes for no matter what effort is made.

 

On the positive side, it shows how strong the bonding is.

 

 

[That Ron Dude]

The application and discussion are fascinating.

[TFL-migration]

This is ground breaking work on comic book's. Over time, talent and technology will be mean the once impossible is commonplace. Kudos to anybody that taken this on.

[Silver Surfer]

Great thread and nice work Kenny. This process beats Japan paper (which I hate) by a country mile. Have you considered trimming (perhaps only the inner spine area) closer to the panels prior to leaf casting so the paper blend looks more seamless? I know normally you want to preserve as much of the original book as possible but in extreme cases like this it probably would hurt, just a thought.

 

Or maybe the next step is to develop a bleaching process that will bring more uniformity to the pages as a whole? I don't know much about resto techniques so this may sound stupid but have you experimented with different agents, laundry detergent, other chemicals to make pages brighter?

[BrianR]

Cool Stuff. Thanks for taking the time and showing us this Kenny.

[divad]

This is nothing short of a miracle. The way the wrap flexes now is astounding. It would have snapped in half (or shattered into a million pieces) if you had done that before the leaf casting. You've raised the dead!

 

As for the aesthetics, you can always tint the filled paper after leaf casting to match the color better. The important thing, though, is not the aesthetics. The important thing is that the wrap can be handled safely now, and once reassembled, the book can be read. It's a comic book again.

 

Yep, truly an amazing form of preservation for this type of media.

[Green]

This is nothing short of a miracle. The way the wrap flexes now is astounding. It would have snapped in half (or shattered into a million pieces) if you had done that before the leaf casting. You've raised the dead!

 

As for the aesthetics, you can always tint the filled paper after leaf casting to match the color better. The important thing, though, is not the aesthetics. The important thing is that the wrap can be handled safely now, and once reassembled, the book can be read. It's a comic book again.

 

Yep, truly an amazing form of preservation for this type of media.

I agree! only thing left to wonder is why it took so long to be applied to comics Anyway Great work!!!!!!!!!!

[buttock]

Every now and then a kid you grew up with does something great or hits the big time and you get to tell people, "I knew that guy when he was just getting started".

 

Some day we're all going to be saying that about Kenny.

[universal soldier]

Wow, very cool stuff.