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How to press out a spine roll

Started by action242-migration,

81 posts in this topic

accessndx

accessndx

Posted
Posted
I didn't realize attempting to fix a spine roll was so far beyond the pale.

 

It's not. There just aren't alot of folks that like to be forthcoming about these sorts of things. The rest just hate on pressing for a variety of reasons.

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Bomber-Bob

Bomber-Bob

Posted
Posted
I didn't realize attempting to fix a spine roll was so far beyond the pale.

 

To be honest, fixing the spine roll isn't frowned upon, however the act of realigning the spine is questionable. As honest may be your intentions, the Boards have witnessed numerous examples of this spine realignment technique used to move spine ticks from the front cover to the apex or back cover. Obviously, this manipulation is done to deceive CGC into a higher grade. So, hopefully you can see your question was an invitation for open Board discussion about a questionable practice. The question itself appears to be in poor taste. Sorry.

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W16227

W16227

Posted
Posted

--- most accurately - would not use the term "spine realignment"

 

As BB pointed out - this phrase is associated with some attempts to alter the spine position specifically to hide defects. For a spine roll fix - people who press are really doing some manipulation to the spine, but the term has been adopted to have a VERY negative meaning here. Sort of like a "Costanza" book - which is a term for a cover shrinking due to poor pressing (SHRINKAGE!!!!!).....

 

to your other question - while there are some discussions of pressing that go on occasionally, the real experts keep their techniques fairly secret. Why? - well because they have companies that do this for a business (there are at least three that I know of that frequent the board including the top guy at CSS which is affiliated with CGC). The preservation of paper and such is somewhat an art form - and they do not want to give away knowledge that took them some time to perfect. Some may offer ideas - but the one ongoing comment I keep seeing is - if you are going to do this - you probably need a couple hundred test books to work on that you do not care about (at least).......

 

 

As for pressing itself - this is a VERY polarizing subject. Some (and they can be VERY vocal about this) - see pressing as restoration and do not want to buy any book that is pressed.

 

Some do not mind.

 

Another set - see it as something that is part of the business now. Unless it it a bad press job - it is almost impossible to detect - and many of the benefits of pressing can actually be done with only the weight of the books in a longbox.

 

Best bet action ----- if you want to experiment with pressing - go ahead but get a bunch of books to test on. IF YOU ARE GOING TO SELL HERE --- you should disclose any book that has been pressed.

 

Also - no spine realignment talk--- just the term itself is bad......

 

 

I would not expect a ton of help from the board. You can search back through for other discussions- they might help and those who know what they are doing may also chime in with some tidbits, but you will probably get as much bad information as good.

 

 

 

 

 

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action242-migration

action242-migration

Posted
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Posted

I'm not trying to move defects from the front to the back. When I am done, the first half of the pages and cover will hopefully match the test of the pages and the back cover. I'm also not trying to sell here.

 

I would think people would want to have as much information about restoration as possible, so we can all keep it above board. If you know how to do it, you may know how to spot it, for instance. Seems the adult way to deal with the issue to me, instead of reproachful emoticons.

 

I guess I'll go first with what I know. Maybe I'll be the only one. So, I had a Showcase 55 with major spine roll. The top part of the back cover was showing about 1/2 inch on the front side. I put the comic opened up in the dry mount press (between sheets of parchment paper), pressed it with heat for about 5 minutes, then let it cool under pressure for about one hour. Then, I folded it as best I could along the original factor fold line, and tried to hold it in place in the press while a friend closed the press on the comic and my fingers. The press has a rubber matt, so I could still get my fingers out and it didn't hurt.

 

The problem is that I couldn't get the comic to fold perfectly along the original line. It remembers the original line a little, but remembers the new fold line more, and really fights you trying to go back to being rolled. There's got to be a good way to make it fold that I haven't thought of yet.

 

Here's a few pics of the comic. It went from about a 1.5-2.0 to about 2.5-3.0. Half of that was fixing the spine roll, and half was just that pressing makes covers look better in a way that I don't fully understand. Something to do with how light reflects off of a flat surface vs. a not flat surface. You can see the back didn't quit go as far as needed to match the front, and how the many little creases from the spine rolling are still visible on the top left of the back cover. Sorry, I don't have a before image.

 

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152257.jpg.f81e12802055b88aec8d8c56de0584b5.jpg

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thecopperagekids

thecopperagekids

Posted
Posted

Here's my good deed for the day............

 

A humidifying chamber would be best i.e. place the book in the chamber intil the paper is pliable.While the paper is still warm/pliable, manually reconfigure the spine of the book...then press the entire book out @ around 200 degrees for 45 minutes.Let the book sit in the press for a good 2 hours before removing it, for the paper to set properly.Otherwise, paper memory will force the spine to gradually pop back into its misaligned position after a relatively short period of time

 

Alternately, you can get good enough results( especially with an older VG-ish book when causing spine tics isn't an issue) with using a hot iron (parchment paper on the book) on the spine then carefully realigned the spine to as close as where it originally was b,without causing damage to the spine/staples, and then pressing the entire book out.

 

 

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thecopperagekids

thecopperagekids

Posted
Posted

 

I would think people would want to have as much information about restoration as possible, so we can all keep it above board. If you know how to do it, you may know how to spot it, for instance. Seems the adult way to deal with the issue to me, instead of reproachful emoticons.

 

 

Bam, well said.

 

Of course, pressing is not restoration, by any stretch.

 

Restoration is when a book has been artificially manipulated to return it to its undamaged state i.e. tear seals,reglossing,pieces added using glue or chemicals of any kind to *restore* the paper to it's original state.

 

By definition and the act itself, pressing does not *restore* any part of a comic book.

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InvstmntComcSuply

InvstmntComcSuply

Posted
Posted
I didn't realize attempting to fix a spine roll was so far beyond the pale.

 

To be honest, fixing the spine roll isn't frowned upon, however the act of realigning the spine is questionable. As honest may be your intentions, the Boards have witnessed numerous examples of this spine realignment technique used to move spine ticks from the front cover to the apex or back cover. Obviously, this manipulation is done to deceive CGC into a higher grade. So, hopefully you can see your question was an invitation for open Board discussion about a questionable practice. The question itself appears to be in poor taste. Sorry.

 

OP never mentioned anything about performing a RSR. He said he wanted to "press them more in line with how the spine should be" which I take as return the spine to it's original location. This would still be spine realignment; just that he would be realigning the rolled spine back to the original location. There is nothing questionable about this (other than if you have a problem with pressing in general). In fact this is almost the exact type of circumstance where pressing shines.

 

It is probably best not to assume the worst of intentions and frankly I would rather not give newbs bad ideas.

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jsilverjanet

jsilverjanet

Posted
Posted
Here's my good deed for the day............

...then press the entire book out @ around 200 degrees for 45 minutes., then call 911 as the house will begin to catch on fire

 

Fixed

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Sqeggs

Sqeggs

Posted
Posted
I didn't realize attempting to fix a spine roll was so far beyond the pale.

 

It's not. There just aren't alot of folks that like to be forthcoming about these sorts of things. The rest just hate on pressing for a variety of reasons.

 

Right. Most of the people with knowledge consider the techniques to be trade secrets. Nothing wrong with that; I would probably feel the same if I was making my living -- or part of it -- pressing books.

 

 

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