Can staple rust & rust staining be cleaned?

[jmh722]

Hi folks,

I have a really nice silver age book that has major staple rust. The book itself is in incredible shape, but the staples are completely covered in a deep, ochre rust; and the rust has also stained some of the spine and inner center leaf page. Can this sort of thing be cleaned professionally? What is the attitude of graders toward staple replacement too? Would that be an option?

Thanks.

[buttock]

You can clean the staples, but it's easier to replace them. Getting rust out of the paper is just about impossible without damaging the paper. If you replaced the staples you would end up with a qualified book, maybe purple label. In other words, you're stuck with it.

[jmh722]

Sounds like I'm screwed either way. I wonder if it's worth it?

[joeypost]

What book is it?

[kav]

I saw a great cond slabbed Superman 1 with very rusty staples-I think it was MCS-i figured if they didn't remove em there must be a reason.