Complete Restoration Experiments

[Hero Restoration]

I am glad that I posted to book post grade. Seeing the responses to the results has been most enlightening. I decided to call CGC today and get the graders notes on the book. Listed notes were non-color break crease and stains on cover. I think with those defects in mind if the book didn’t have either of those then it could have graded in the 6.0-7.0 range so it makes sense as a result of those defects it received a 4.0. The book was very rough all the way around; I think it was borderline .5 since I have seen 1.0 books in better shape than this one, so although I would have liked it to grade higher I am not too disappointed considering what I had to work with.

 

The book is going up for sale with a calculated price based on a apparent 4.0 so if the potential buyer is buying the book and not the grade selling it shouldn’t be too hard since many have mentioned the book presents better than a 4.0.

 

 

Since Chrisco was curious about how the inside of the front cover looked I have added a larger pic of it but in all fairness it looks a little better in the pic than in hand.

 

[Mr. 10%]

have they ever even attempted to explain why they undergrade restored books so badly?

 

 

Attempted to explain ... ?

Are you kidding me?

They dont explain - they define the order of the nest. Period.

[FFB]

have they ever even attempted to explain why they undergrade restored books so badly?

 

 

Attempted to explain ... ?

Are you kidding me?

They dont explain - they define the order of the nest. Period.

 

They don't have to explain it. If you've seen enough Extensive P books in hand (as opposed to scans) you understand why they grade restored books the way they do. They almost always look better in pictures than in hand.

 

I've seen several restored books in scans or pictures where I couldn't believe the grade the book got, then I saw it out of the slab in hand and completely agreed with the grade. The bottom line is that you just can't grade a restored book just from a shot of the cover, even the interior of the cover. There will always be stuff you can't see in the pictures, and remember, they factor in interior damage also.

 

The way I see it, the book went up eight grade levels (from 0.5 to 4.0) and the restoration was considered professional. That's a win-win. Could it be done better? I'm sure it could. But I think that the way CGC looks at books nowadays is being skewed by what has become possible with restoration in the past few years. It's like when the Edgar Church books came out and redefined what "mint" meant. It's an entirely new paradigm.

 

The bottom line is that the book looks great in the pictures and has excellent eye appeal. To get that torn POS from 0.5 to a solid VG is no small feat. I think people underestimate how hard it is to restore a book that started out in such beat-up shape and even get it up to apparent mid-grade.

[trmoore54]

Nice job on the Action 17 Michael! Keep up the good work. Love this post/thread!

[FoomMember]

That book looks great! Excellent work!

 

outstanding work!!!

[Hero Restoration]

Book #26 Sub-Mariner #19

 

Not a whole lot new to add with this book, I had some tape to remove but it had not done to much damage yet so it wasn’t too bad other than the fact it was taped on the inside as well as the outside.

 

The cover did have some pencil writing in the colored area I had to patiently remove. Washing the cover and doing the leaf casting was mild by comparison to AC #17. I had to recreate some of the art and text which eat up some hours. I only gave the pages a mild wash just to work out a little wear and tear.

 

That’s about it, I will have the usual likes and dislikes at the bottom of the post.

Next book (All-Star #3) will be another .5 starter which should be interesting to show as it needs a ton of work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I like:

95% of the color touch went as I hoped it would, gloss seems to be a perfect match to the original. Spine came out looking good even though the spine had a lot of wear and wasn’t replaced.

 

 

What I didn’t like:

The other 5% of color touch. I don’t know if the skin tone equals 5% but that is what I would have liked to come out better than it did.

The text recreation on the interior would have been better if the scan I had was of better resolution, not really my fault but still it would be nice if I could have found a better scan to work with.

The last thing that bugs me seems to be a recurring problem where I ended up with an unwanted black smudge on the back cover which resulted from not being careful enough, I really need to watch what I am doing so that I don’t end up with unwanted results that could be easily avoided.

 

[chrisco37]

Nice work!!! :applause:

 

I love this thread.

[ForlornOutcast]

Man ,your results continue to impress. I can see what you say about the skin tone on the BC. But really, thats the only thing that I noticed and overall it looks great!

 

Keep up the good work

[Mio]

That's really nice work! I can see why the skin tone would bother you a bit; but overall that's a very slight drawback to an otherwise very nice job resurrecting a beater.

[blue808]

Great work!

[Hero Restoration]

Thanks all for taking the time to post your thoughts.

 

The skin tone issue continues to haunt me. This book was the first one where I had to do a large area and in IMO is one of the toughest matching challenges. I already redid it once and every time you redo something you risk making it worse and plus the hours just tick away like crazy and at some point you just have to let it be.

 

It wouldn't be so bad if the original ink was a solid color but they are using an off-white background and different concentrate of red dots which makes it hard to match the area with solid acrylic paint. At least I am always learning from each experience and applying that knowledge to the next book.

Can’t wait to show you all the project I am currently working on.

 

[ForlornOutcast]

keep up the good work man, can't wait to see what you have in store. As always its great so see your progress.

[Hero Restoration]

Book #27 Time lapse restoration

 

No this isn’t the project I have been talking about coming next, that one is a big project and is taking its sweet time.

 

This book is one of my books that I started way back in Jan of 2011. As most of you know from following my progress a year is a long time for me, a lot has changed since then. The structural work is from back then but most of the color touch is in the last 4 months. I got so busy with other people’s books I just haven’t had much time to work on it. Every now and then I find myself waiting on the book I am working on and that is when I can get a little bit done on my books.

 

This book wasn’t in to bad of shape but was a good book to experiment and practice on. The main reason I wanted to show you all this book was because I am happy with how the color touch went on all the color break creases it had going through dot halftone areas, the hardest to work on. I didn’t spend too much time on the edges except leaf casting the ends of the spine and repairing the tears.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mikenyc]

Great work! I always check to see if you've added another book.

 

Close ups would be awesome as well, so we can see the detail work.

[TC33]

Good color touch, much improved from your early work, especially the front cover! On the back cover, I think you should go back and touch up the slightly darker area at the top around the wording, boys, girls, men, women, so it matches/blends in with the rest of the outside edges you touched up. I know it must be a lot of work to color around those letters and not cross the lines etc., but probably worth it since that section does stand out a little more.

 

Keep it up! What is the next book/work you will be showing off?

[chrisco37]

Good color touch, much improved from your early work, especially the front cover!

 

Without a doubt! The improvement Mike has shown is dramatic. He's gotten very, very good at this. That he is "self-taught" makes it all the better.

 

What is the next book/work you will be showing off?

 

Inquiring minds want to know! Can't wait for the next one.

 

I wish I had a book or two that I could send to him to play around with. I really only have one book that could use some major resto work.

[Hero Restoration]

Great work! I always check to see if you've added another book.

 

Close ups would be awesome as well, so we can see the detail work.

 

Thanks for the compliment Mike.

 

Good color touch, much improved from your early work, especially the front cover! On the back cover, I think you should go back and touch up the slightly darker area at the top around the wording, boys, girls, men, women, so it matches/blends in with the rest of the outside edges you touched up. I know it must be a lot of work to color around those letters and not cross the lines etc., but probably worth it since that section does stand out a little more.

 

Keep it up! What is the next book/work you will be showing off?

 

 

I see what you mean about around the lettering at the top, it would look better if that was filled in as well.

 

 

 

Good color touch, much improved from your early work, especially the front cover!

 

Without a doubt! The improvement Mike has shown is dramatic. He's gotten very, very good at this. That he is "self-taught" makes it all the better.

 

What is the next book/work you will be showing off?

 

Inquiring minds want to know! Can't wait for the next one.

 

I wish I had a book or two that I could send to him to play around with. I really only have one book that could use some major resto work.

 

Thanks bud, you have been following me since the very beginning and the encouragement from you and others here has been a driving force in my progress.

 

So what is in store for the near future? I got a couple of things going on. I will have an extensive book to post soon and I have a minor job I might post here in a few days. I will be working on a badly water damaged book next with some bad water stains and the art is damaged really bad, so it will be interesting to see what I can do for it. Beyond that I have two books with some major missing paper. One book is missing almost half of a page and another book is missing the top 1/3 of the cover and the 1st wrap, maybe 2nd wrap too, I can’t remember.

 

Since my current leaf casting process doesn’t accommodate such a large area very well I have recently constructed a full submersion leaf casting unit and I am currently running test on it this week. So far so good, a couple of small tweaks and I think it will be ready for those two jobs I mentioned. Rather than use color copies I am going to experiment with a combination of recreating the art by hand and some ink transfers.

 

[TC33]

Way to give up the goods on the issue title/#'s you are working on!

 

I have heard one of them could be an All Star #3.

 

 

[Hero Restoration]

Way to give up the goods on the issue title/#'s you are working on!

 

I have heard one of them could be an All Star #3.

 

 

Yes, it is true I am being vauge about the issues as I am not sure of what I will be posting and am trying not to stick my foot in my mouth if I can avoid it.

 

What you heard is true, I have been working on a .5 All Star #3 and it is done but I wanted to wait for the CGC grade before I posted the book. It has been graded and as soon as the customer recieves the book and sends me a scan I will post the results and I am very excited to do so. Hopefully I will get the scan sometime this week.

[Hero Restoration]

Book #28 First Appearance of the Justice Society of America

 

Oh man, this book needed a lot of work. Split spine with a significant amount of the spine missing, every page stained and missing paper and oh yeah, tape stains on the cover and the first wrap. Did I mention stains? This book had plenty of those.

Let’s take a look at the cover first.

 

 

 

 

Yikes, total .5 right?

 

Next I want to talk about the tape stains a little. Most of you probably have heard by now that tape is bad for paper, I wanted to show and explain in a little more detail about this so that people who still don’t know will understand and those who do know might learn something new about the subject.

 

Most tapes in general have very damaging adhesive, cellophane tape being one of them. Ever seen a book where you can tell there use to be tape on it but its gone and all that remains is a dark stain and there is one on the opposite side of the paper as well? Have you wondered what caused that to happen? Well, the adhesive migrates from the tape carrier into the paper which is called "cross linked". Once this happens the adhesive starts to break down the structure of the paper and it is this reaction which also starts the staining process. If not removed the paper will eventually disintegrate.

 

This photo shows the staining really well.

 

 

 

 

In the photo below you can see when it is in front of a light how it affects the paper, causing that area to be translucent.

 

 

 

 

Here is a photo awith the paper in front of the light after the adhesive has been removed and subsequently the stain as well.

 

 

 

So how did I do it? I don’t mind sharing with you the basic process since it is not something someone is just going to be able to just do themselves without some equipment, study and serious commitment to the work involved.

 

A device called a suction table is used, the paper is placed on the machine which then can pull a combination of air and organic solvent through the paper and pull the adhesive out. This is a time consuming process, it take many applications to remove the adhesive. You have to be patient and careful since the organic solvents are very strong and can damage the inks if used excessively.

 

Ok, enough long winded descriptions, I don’t want to lose the impatient reader.

 

Although I had to do major work to all the pages I only made the effort to get some pre and post pictures of the first wrap.

 

I did my best to match the paper color while at the same time improving the strength of the paper overall.

 

 

 

 

That little bit of stain at the top that still remains is not from the tape, it seems as though some other containment got stuck there that wouldn't remove with washing.

 

And here we are at the end of the picture show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, the book went off to CGC and it has been graded. It has not shipped out yet so I don’t have a scan of it in the slab but I do have a copy of the online invoice I can show you.

 

 

 

 

I am assuming the notes show that it has been re-glossed because I went a little too heavy on the resizing. For those of you that are unfamiliar with what resizing is, it is to replace the original sizing (an ingredient used in the paper manufacturing process) that is lost during the washing . Long story short, I think I used too much and the more you use the more it can increase the gloss of the surface and I am assuming that is why they think a re-glossing material was added.

 

I am however very happy with the grade it got, to go from a .5 to a 6.5 was more than I could hope for and the owner is super pleased.

 

My only main disappointment is the crease on the front bottom right. It looks like it didn't get color touched but it did. The paper fibers were so damaged it had a hump and makes it look like it lacks color. I didn't have any way of knowing it wasn't going to disappear during the final pressing.

If I knew it wasn’t going to come out, then I could have done other work to it before color touch that probably would have repaired it completely.