Tools of the trade

[Zonker]

Hello all,

 

I'm looking for sources for the following restoration tools

 

- Rice/Japanese paper

- VMP Naptha (Help, Povertyrow...)

 

And no, I'm not going into the business of selling undisclosed restored raw books on eBay.

 

My goal is to improve some truly horrid specimens currently banished from my mainstream collection:

- a 100% spine split (book is in 3 separate pieces!) issue of Crack Comics

- a Golden Age Green Lantern 18 with a 100% taped spine (probably also split)

- a Quality Spirit comic with Eisner cover & completely defacing water stain

 

Thanks in advance...

Z.

[Titan777]

......... ..........

[PovertyRow]

Hello all,

 

I'm looking for sources for the following restoration tools

 

- Rice/Japanese paper

- VMP Naptha (Help, Povertyrow...)

 

And no, I'm not going into the business of selling undisclosed restored raw books on eBay.

 

My goal is to improve some truly horrid specimens currently banished from my mainstream collection:

- a 100% spine split (book is in 3 separate pieces!) issue of Crack Comics

- a Golden Age Green Lantern 18 with a 100% taped spine (probably also split)

- a Quality Spirit comic with Eisner cover & completely defacing water stain

 

Thanks in advance...

Z.

 

Naptha is available at any decent hardware store. Again, it is flammable and fumes not healthy. Please use with care, with lots of ventilation (or even outdoors) and besides flame, please be cognizant of thinks like electric fans or anything that can potentially cause a spark or otherwise induce flames (definitely do NOT put prinouts of some of these posts near the naptha! )

 

As far as the paper - it is actually called "japan paper" as opposed to japanese. That is a bit trickier. It comes in many grades, surfaces, thickneses. What do you plan to do with it? By itself it is useless...you need an adhesive to apply it and is defnitely one of the higher skill sets to obtain. It can be obtained at large art supply houses and also from bookbinding supply houses.

 

[Zonker]

Titan777... why you, I oughta... ...

 

Pov... many thanks, I had ambitions of repairing the split spine myself-- I imagined Japan paper was something like papier mache; hoped I could just 'paint' it on the split cover, let it dry, then re-staple the restored covers to the body of the book. Of course, I was initially going to experiment on junk books, but it sounds like I need to first apprentice myself to a Jedi master, eh Obiwan?

 

Thanks again,

Z.

[PovertyRow]

Titan777... why you, I oughta

 

Pov... many thanks, I had ambitions of repairing the split spine myself-- I imagined Japan paper was something like papier mache; hoped I could just 'paint' it on the split cover, let it dry, then re-staple the restored covers to the body of the book. Of course, I was initially going to experiment on junk books, but it sounds like I need to first apprentice myself to a Jedi master, eh Obiwan?

 

Thanks again,

Z.

 

I was wondering if that was your perception. It is just plain paper, of high quality, that can be very very thin with good transparency. But it is just that: plain old paper. They do have heat set adhesive backed japan paper which requires, again, a measure of skill and some tools/supplies to use.

 

There is also "archival tape" which is essentially japan or japan-type paper with an archival adhesive. Comes on a roll. If the books are really something that bad and you have no plans to have them professionally restored, you could try that. It would certainly hold your book-in-pieces together. While it is very unobtrusive, it is pretty easy to detect. Lineco is, I believe, the most common brand available in art supply stores. Again I caution - only use this for practice so you can start getting a feel for detecting restoration and only do it on books you otherwise would keep but are in bad shape.

[rob_react]

Again, it is flammable and fumes not healthy

 

Wouldn't wearing a respirator be a good idea then?

[hammer-migration]

Now, I don't want ANY of my little pencil-necked, mouse-shouldered trolls hounding any of these fine Forum members here with nonsense about their wanting to practice restoration to defraud someone on Ebay with a sale of a restored book as unrestored. You little manure-for-brained, monothematic microencephalic trolls (HowdyDooDee, Carlito's Way, etc.) are MINE. That's MY department to be accused of doing. Some of you better report in soon with more troll posts. You may have Arch concerned, in thinking you have given up the "slander" crusade against me that he approvingly condones. Hey Arch, I thought that your own rules state, "any member that has only contributed unproductive posts with no other reason other than to create an atmosphere of non-productivity will be terminated"? Isn't 49 posts of trolling one Board member reason enough, by your own rules, or is it merely that since I'm the target of the 49 posts, you condone and encourage that bologna? It took you 65 posts by Wahoo Fury to even mention something to him about his continuous trolling posts (again, me as the target, so it was OK as far as you were concerned). At what point do you "wake up" and be a moderator with Carlito's way and HowdyDooDee? You know, a REAL moderator, with a real "pair" that enforces his own rules for EVERYONE unbiasedly and doesn't stick his head in the sand as long as it's happening to one particular member with which you have an axe to grind? What is the real reason behind the bias, Arch?

[PovertyRow]

Again, it is flammable and fumes not healthy

 

Wouldn't wearing a respirator be a good idea then?

 

Can't hurt. I used to have one just in case.

[Zonker]

 

There is also "archival tape" which is essentially japan or japan-type paper with an archival adhesive. Comes on a roll. If the books are really something that bad and you have no plans to have them professionally restored, you could try that. It would certainly hold your book-in-pieces together. While it is very unobtrusive, it is pretty easy to detect. Lineco is, I believe, the most common brand available in art supply stores. Again I caution - only use this for practice so you can start getting a feel for detecting restoration and only do it on books you otherwise would keep but are in bad shape.

 

Thanks Pov! Lineco tape sounds like something to explore, as I have no ambitions to become a true craftsman in this area. Do you have any opinion about how suitable that archival adhesive is for amateur restoration, i.e. does the glue degrade the paper like Scotch tape does?

 

It would be very odd indeed (though not without precedent... ) if I simultaneously spent a lot of effort to remove tape (using the Naptha) on some books, and added similarly damaging tape to other books!

 

Thanks,

Z.

[Zonker]

"Shield" I believe has supplied the answer to my query on another thread...

 

. My only beef with CGC grading is the fact of which type of tape is considered restoration. I could tape up a spine split with destructive scotch tape and still get a "blue" label, but if I use non-desctructive removable archival tape it'll get a "Apparent Slight (P)" restored grade. Archival tape won't break down and eat into the paper 20 years later, and is much safer for the preservation on the book

 

Cheers,

Z.