Wooden Boards Recase

I would typically not take the time to post about a recasing job, but this one was unique in the sense the original covers were wooden boards attached by a leather spine and covered with decorative paper. (This is the first time I have encountered wooden boards).

The book qualified for recasing because the sewing was broken and the text block was detached from the spine, in several small groups. I removed the loose signatures from the book, and removed the original endpapers (which were already delaminating) by spraying them with a 50/50 water/alcohol mix to loosen the remaining adhesive. Next, I pulled the text block and placed the folios between Reemay for washing and deacidification. While thumbing through the text block, I found a small ink drawing. I tested in the inks, and they were water soluble. So I set the image aside and later brushed the back with Wei T'O to deacidify it. This is the drawing.

 The text block required a full treatment because it was originally stab sewn. After washing and deacidifying, I went through and guarded all the sections with Japanese tissue. (The top image shows the text block being guarded and dried between Reemay lined boards. The bottom shows the text book after guarding and collating pages).

Next, I sewed the text block back together, adding new dove gray endpapers, cased it in, and made a label. Then I began to work with the original covers. I made a fake text block from corrugated board to support the covers, and wrapped it in polyester film (mylar) so it could be handled without further damage. Finally, I constructed a phase box to house these items together.

Wet Cleaning and Report

I was going through my old pictures and realized I had not yet posted any wet cleaning of books. Since this particular book belongs to me, I wrote a treatment report for it. I will post that with pictures instead of the usual format.

Treatment Report

Title: Alice in Wonderland – Carroll        Date Completed: August 2009
Format: Book
Material: Cloth                                     Time:  28 hours
Binding: Full

Condition: Text block was originally perfect bound, but the adhesive had delaminated in spots, causing the text block to be split into several “sections.” The text block was completely detached from the front cover. Pages were yellow with acid and incredibly brittle. Almost every page was torn or creased, with pieces missing. A few pages were missing entirely. Covers were in surprisingly good condition, with the exception of a piece missing from the spine. There were a few cracks in the cloth, but the spine was still attached, joints were not too worn and corners were not bumped.

Treatment: Pages were separated from text block on by one and placed between sheets of Reemay. Once all the pages were separated, they were soaked in cold, filtered water for 20 minutes. The initial pH of the paper was 3.5, so after a water bath, the pages were soaked in Magnesium Bicarbonate [Mg(HCO3)2] for an additional 30 minutes. The pages, attached to the Reemay, were then hung to remove excess liquid, pressed between blotting paper, and dried on the drying rack. The pH after washing was 6.5. Once dried, all pages were aligned and inspected for damage. Missing pages were replaced with acid-free Dove Grey paper and repairs were made with heat-set tissue. The pages were then divided into signatures of six and guarded with Japanese tissue (via wheat starch paste). When all sections were attached (sewn one on) and aligned, they were nipped in the press to reduce swell. Using pre-punched holes, the text block was sewn with tapes. A toned, linen lined, handmade paper endsheet was sewn in to replace the missing endpapers in the front. The spine was then lined with Japanese tissue (via wheat starch paste), head and tail bands were attached, and then the spine was lined with linen (via PVA) and rounded. The endsheets were lifted on the covers, and the original spine lining was removed, and then replaced with Japanese tissue and 10 pt board. The text block was re-attached to the boards by gluing the tapes and linen down under the lifted endsheets. The missing piece on the spine was replaced with Morike and toned with acrylics. The small cracks in the cover were repaired with Japanese tear strips, and also toned.

Notes:  Despite de-acidification, the pages remained terribly brittle. Some pages tore slightly during sewing, and it reached the point where continued repair with heat-set tissue was not worth the value of the book. Had this been a more prestigious book, the pages might have been individually lined with a very thin Japanese tissue for support. But this particular book was not worth such efforts.

Images:

These images show the book before treatment. Notice the breaks in the text block.

This is a pictures show the washing process, including the initial submerge in the bath (top), the amount of acid washed out with soaking (below), and a method of hanging the leaves to dry (bottom).

These are after images. I received a lot of brownie points for getting the text block back in the case without rebacking it. I was just lucky, considering I had to guard every folio for sewing.

Wallpaper Samples - Part 2 - Wet Board Removal

As previously mentioned, the wallpaper samples I have been working on had two distinct adhesives, spray mount adhesive and gelatin paste. The spray mount could be removed dry by splitting the backing board. I tried to split the board on the samples with gelatin pastes, but the board did not cooperate. I could not get the bone folder between the layers. After struggling with this for a little while, I decided to try wet removal (which is how I identified the gelatin adhesive).
On the first sample, after I had partially removed some board with the bone folder, I dampened the back of the board using a sponge and a spray bottle. When the board was damp, I was able to roll it off in small amount with my thumb. With additional moisture, this proved more successful and I was able to remove board all the way down to the back of the paper. At this point, I decided to try soaking the sample. I spot tested the inks and when they proved water stable, I moved the sample to a warm water bath (supported by Reemay) and soaked the sample for about 10 minutes. Then I removed the sample, flipped the tray and used it to support the sample so that I could work on it over the sink. I was able to sufficiently  remove the board by rolling my thumb over the surface and picking up the final pieces with a spatula. When all the board was removed, I pasted out the sample on a piece of Mylar and lined it with Japanese tissue. Then I dried it between Reemay and blotting paper under weight.
These images show a sample before treatment, after wet removal of the board, and with an untrimmed Japanese tissue lining.

 

This process took longer, but the end result was much cleaner. I was able to remove ALL the board, unlike with the dry removal. And the risk of skinning the paper is greatly reduced as the adhesive gives.

Wallpaper Samples - Part 1 - Dry Board Removal

I recently began a new project dealing with hand painted wallpaper samples from the late 19th century. There were twenty-eight samples in total, in a variety of sizes. All of them had been mounted to boards, but with two different adhesives. Some were attached to just a backing board with a gelatin paste, and others were matted and attached to a backing board with spray mount adhesive. There was also a variety of damage to the samples. ranging from creasing to tears to large sections missing. Because space in the lab was limited, I divided the samples into four groups (based on level of damage) so I could removed them from the stacks in smaller increments.The ultimate goal for these samples was to remove the acidic backing boards and line with Japanese tissue for stability, then construct a box to house the collection.
As previously stated, there were two distinctly different adhesives which led to two different methods of removing the board. Fortunately for those that were matted, the mat boards were cut larger than the backing board and taped together on the back. Because there was not adhesive between the sample and the mat, I was able to simply remove the tape on the back and thus remove the mat. I found a surprise in one of these worth photographing.

Because the spray mount adhesive was not water soluble, I had to remove the backing board dry. I did this using a shaped bone folder. I removed the board slowly, in layers. Luckily these boards split easily. I continued removing layers until I was as close as I could comfortably get to the paper. Some areas lifted clean away from the paper without fuss. For the areas where the board was well and truly stuck, I used the bone folder to gently scrape and the surface and thin the board down to the last layer before the paper, and left it. Forced removal would skin the paper. The following picture shows this process about halfway through, and the tool used.

When the backing board was sufficiently removed, I pasted out the wallpaper on a sheet of Mylar and lined it with Japanese tissue. I dried the samples between Reemay and blotting paper under weight to keep them flat.
I did have some minor issues on the first couple samples with skinning the paper. After I began to get the hang of it, I realized this was because I was trying to take off too much backing board at once. I also found that when I was down to the last few layers, the thinner I could get the board, the easier it came away from the paper.
In the next parts I will discuss my wet board removal method, and how I treated the missing pieces on damaged samples.

Encapsulation/Screw Post Binding

Encapsulation is an excellent treatment for fragile materials which will be handled frequently. Most commonly at Syracuse, this is done for newspapers. This particular newspaper was a Japanese-American Publication during World War II. The paper was highly acidic and brittle. Most of the original folds had become splits. Some pages were still attached, and had to be split for the encapsulation.* My first step was to go through the pages and number them with pencil in an inconspicuous place. Next, I washed the pages, between Reemay, in filtered water and deacidified them using magnesium bicarbonate (Mg(HCO3)2), then dried the pages on blotting papers. When the pages were dried, I repaired any large tears with heat set tissue.
The next step was to make the Mylar sleeves which would support the pages. To do this, I measured the pages, multiplied the width by about 2.5, plus extra space needed for the spine piece (approximately 2"). I also added about 2" to the length. Then I folded the Mylar in half, using a bone folder to get a crisp edge, and put this edge in the heating press for about 4 seconds. This welds the Mylar together, and it is critical the the edges are flush. Therefore, when the first edge is sealed, the Mylar is taken to the board shear and the next edge is trimmed (using the welded edge to make a right angle) and welded. After this was done, I put a page from the newspaper inside the Mylar to determine the squares, making sure the spine edge was NOT welded. Once I was pleased with the placement of the page, I trimmed and welded the third side (with the page inside the Mylar). I repeated this process for all the pages, and then punched holes (carefully positioned to be visually pleasing) on the spine side of the Mylar.

When all the pages are encapsulated, I measured and cut board for the covers. This is two large covers and three small strips for the "U" shaped spine.  My spine pieces were 2 - height x 3/4" and 1 - h x 1/4". Covering these pieces is tricky because you need to account for the board thickness. The best way to do this is to glue one strip down (green) and then glue out the middle piece (blue), butt it against the other piece and wrap the book cloth around. This way when the middle piece sticks to the cloth, it will pull away from the other piece and leave the correct space for the board thickness. Adjust the distance slightly to account for two cloth thicknesses. Then just glue the third piece on the same distance apart.

Also the corners of the book cloth for the spine piece should be as follows:

 

When the "U" piece and covers are covered with book cloth (and end sheets on the covers), I drilled holes through them with the Dremel drill to match the holes punched in the Mylar sleeves. Finally, I attached everything with screws and posts (Fall 2009).

Recasing

Occasionally in the library, I encounter books with covers so badly damaged it is easier (and cheaper) to recase the text block than to mend the original covers. Recasing is also a treatment option for damaged books that are not especially valuable.
This is an example of a book I recased. It was originally a quarter bound leather, tight backed (fastback), with marble paper covered boards. The paper was torn and faded with dirt and age. The spine had completely delaminated and split off the front board (Top). Delamination at the spine also caused the text block to split (Bottom).

I started by removing the cover. I pressed the sections of the text block together between boards, and cleaned the spine with methyl cellulose to removed the old liner and adhesive. The sewing was cut in several places, so I had to pull the text block apart. I washed and deacidified the sections in filtered water and magnesium bicarbonate [Mg2(CO3)2]. After the pages dried, I repaired damaged areas with heat set tissue, and guarded each section using wheat starch paste and Japanese tissue. I realigned the signatures, resewed the text block, adding dove gray endpapers and lined the spine with Japanese tissue. The addition of materials from guarding caused swell in the spine, so I rounded it to reduce this swell.

I decided to mimic the original case design with a quarter binding in PC4 paper. I cut the boards to fit, attached the PC4 spine and trimmed the PC4 to be even and straight on both covers. Next, I covered the remainder of the boards with book cloth. Then I trimmed the turn-ins, infilled the boards, and attached the text block. After pressing the book with jointing boards, I attached the labels, which were pre-coated with Klucel G to prevent the ink from smearing (Summer 2009).

The above image on the left shows the finished product and the right depicts the stability of the text block after treatment. The below images are additional before and after examples of recased books. These book were bound entirely in book cloth (2008).

Wet Cleaning - Prints

A friend of mine was dog sitting, and the puppy urinated on a print she had leaned against the wall. The original matte and foam core were badly stained. Luckily only the lower right-hand corner of the print was affected. In order to remove the urine, the print needed to be washed. I first tested the inks by wiping small areas of each color with damp q-tips. This is a before picture of the corner.

I washed the print between sheets of reemay in a filtered* water bath (Top). This removed most of the staining. Some areas were worse than others, so I removed them using filtered water on a vacuum suction table. I dried the print in the drying rack, and then reintroduced moisture using Gortex and pressed the print under weight to flatten it again. The picture on the bottom shows the corner after washing.

I was unable to wash the matte board. I cut a small piece of similar matte to test, and it completely delaminated in water. So in an effort to soften the stain, I sprayed the stained area with isopropyl alcohol, and walked it out along the edge. This did sterilize it, but did nothing to the stain. I did keep the matte and return it to the owner because the artist's insignia (a small paw print) was cut into the board.
The foam core was completely ruined. The artist statement was attached to the back of the foam core, but was not affected by the urine stain. However, twenty years had made it highly acidic. After removing it from the foam core, I washed it between reemay in filtered water, then deacidified it with a magnesium bicarbonate solution (Mg(HCO3)2). These images show the before (Top) and after (Bottom).

I cut a new matte for the print, but left the artist statement detached, in an archival envelope, in case the owner wanted to get the image re-matted by the artist.

*The Syracuse University lab does not have de-ionized water. Instead, the water is run through a particle and charcoal filter.