427Impaler

Haven’t had the chance until now to post an update. Lignin is confirmed as substance removed from paper by this process so that is very exciting. Third party Industrial testing is next. I neglected to post the aging test of a pressed book. Interesting results, I expected to see the presets book show accelerated signs of aging but after a full cycle of testing both halves of the book scored the same on the fold test. Unexpected result you can see in the pic, the book almost returned to the unpressed state after the aging test! Paper has memory! Before (top of book unpressed) After back of book before

Wow, thinks getting hot around here! i do like threads that challenge my opinions and this one certainly has. If I had two identical books in front of me, one had rough edges from wear and one had been roughed up to hide trimming I may not know the deifference and would buy them at a price based on current condition, so I’m not sure it would matter to me as a buyer. i have to say I was uneasy with the idea of someone damaging the edges to get a blue label from CGC, until I read the post I just quoted above. What is the difference between scrapping off glue or paint to get a blue label and roughing the edges? Sounds like a very similar intent and action? Hmmmm

Agree with most of what has been said but considering it will always have a restored label you could have a someone get all the tape off and do a proper restoration. If done by CCS I would imagine you retain the sig authentication also. Better looking book, higher grade, without the evil tape and same label 2 cents

It was an interesting challenge. This is one book that revealed its story as it progressed, as Jeremy said someone had been tracing the front cover images so much that they became mostly detached, and in an effort to save the book they put string in the indentations and then spread glue over the book, followed by two and some places three layers of tape. Managed to get everything off, pieced it back together and stabilized the paper. Not as cosmetically pleasing as I would like, but it won’t be deteriorating further and now a great reader or basis for resto. here is the tracing damage: and the tape and paper delamination

Great thread for discussion. I do conservation so of course I would be a staunch supporter of it. That being said value would depend on the extent of the conservation done, much like resto work. De-acidification done properly is IMO the best thing you can do to a book, removes contaminants and buffers against further degradation. A book with only that stage done should not be too far off blue label I would hope. The other end of the spectrum is a book with a rebuilt spine, pieces reattached, staples replaced, and a bunch of tear seals and reinforcements, this book would if done well still qualifies for a conservation grade. A book like that should be right around the same value as a restored book if I’m the buyer.

Still waiting for third party testing but in the downtime I had the opportunity to work on one of my favourite GA covers. Here are the before and after shots, in the after pic the book has not been dry cleaned or pressed. Nasty surgical tape came off uneventfuly, and tide lines were reduced. front cover before and after back before and after

aardvark88 has given me permission to show the results of treating his comic cover on the forum. The book has had no mechanical cleaning and no brush work while in the baths. It also has not been pressed prior to these pics. These are scans that have had zero retouching other than cropping. On another note, I am in discussion with a conservator/museum curator in the UK, who has been trying to remove lignin from artifacts but has had no success. We should have definitive confirmation of the success of the treatment shortly.

No problem if you want to pm me about sending something. Three spots currently taken, 7 to go.

As long as I’m not bending any rules, anyone who wants to send me a cover I’ll do it no charge, you pick up the shipping. First ten people who post here qualify. I’m near Vancouver Canada and shipping a low value cover/book should be about 10 bucks each way.

That is entirely possible. Just de-acidification can lift ink depending on water temp, length of bath. Every book is a little different with paper type, ink set, type of fixative, etc. Most likely it is that part of the process that does it. The de-acidification is done last, and sometimes you will see some slight tint to the water that is yellow and you know ink is lifting. The initial two baths never have that tint, as areal test i left a book in for 48 hours. Expecting to find goo in the bath the next day the book was surprisingly undamaged. i was going to through this out there, but not sure if it breaks any forum rules. Allow ten people to send a cover/book to get their opinion in hand. If that doesn’t break the rules I would do it no charge.

The waves are caused by allowing it to air dry without any pressing or weighted drying, just wanted to check for any color loss without the pressing variable.

Also, here are results of the aging test without de-acidification. After 2 48 hour stretches the control piece was brittle at 4 folds and also broke horizontally while being tested. The treated paper just began to separate at ten folds. Promising results that indicate possible reduction in lignin content. Have to wait for chemistry for confirmation. i do understand fully the concern of this process being done without disclosure. There are those people who only care about profit. If this really can prolong the life of paper artifacts, I won’t hesitate to do every book in my personal collection just to not worry what they are doing while in their slabs and bags. I am sure lots of us have had it happen where you crack a book or pull it from a Mylar and find it has degraded since the last time it was out. Either way, this is not available for use right now. Strictly experimentation and food for discussion

Just a quick update, here is a mid grade comic that has some yellowing. Relying on scans this time to take out my sketchy picture taking variable, scans are untouched and straight out of a Canon MG5500. Also have some updates as far as brittleness, this is unscientific at this point but working on a Subby 1 that had heavy tape and required reinforcement on three edges with Japanese paper, after treatment the book no longer requires the reinforcement. This is no magic bullet as the further the deterioration the less effect this has on the paper. Still waiting on chemical analysis to validate the hypothesis but very hopeful that this is something that can be a positive thing in historic and collectible paper artifacts.

I went back to the original pics and I think I would blame it on my poor picture taking. Before pic was a slightly blurry when magnified and that combined with upload compression hid some defects. I cropped before and after pics here for comparison, have another cover to test and use the scanner this time.

Next round of testing, slight change from the last test. As the process is part of a de-acidification the question came up is the resistance from age related deterioration due to the new process or is it partially or completely due to the de-acidification? Now we will find out conclusively, two new pieces were selected from a 1954 Atlas comic loose back cover. Both were selected from the middle of the page, both had top and bottom trim to equalize any edge differences. One was untouched and the other treated with the lignin chelation and no added de-acidification buffer. Both will undergo one week at 80 degree Celsius at 60 percent humidity. Flipped each day and checked every 48 hours. While we are having this done we also thought “let’s see if we can answer the question does pressing damage a comic?“. So we cut a book in half, and pressed one half. There are lots of ways to press a book so please don’t immediately go on the attack. My feeling is the experienced excellent pressers out there do not over cook books and are not doing any damage. On the other hand I have spoken to many Newbie pressers who theough a book into the press for 2-4 minutes at 180 degrees. Hell I smoked some books learning what not to do. For this test we pressed the book on both sides for one minute fourth five seconds at 160 degrees. Both pieces are undergoing the same aging test. More of a fun exercise than anything conclusive, what do you guys think will happen????? Here is pics of the test subjects and another mid grade white cover for fun. new test subjects The Dell pressing test book we murdered Another paper improvement