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Are "acid-free" backing boards truly acid-free? Time to pH test & find out!
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Started by mschmidt,

443 posts in this topic

DeliBebek

DeliBebek

Posted
Posted
I have a dumb question. Why not just bag the comic, then put in in a bag with a backer board behind it?
Most people prefer not to use two bags per one comic. When you're talking about high-value comics it makes more sense, but even then, unless you test the bags and boards in question, there can be slippage, which I think would bother a lot of collectors. I've seen people post here about doing something very similar to what you suggest, though. I think it becomes a matter of thinking that if one bag is standard protection, two bags ought to be a higher standard for a higher value comic.

 

Also, there is a suggestion that the pH-balanced board actually helps deter yellowing, rather than simply not contributing to it, sort of like the micro-chamber paper.

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InvstmntComcSuply

InvstmntComcSuply

Posted
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It is a fact, that an alkaline board will deter yellowing caused by the breakdown of paper as it ages. It is the whole point of using a board that maintains its alkalinity, such as Gerber or Cole's and staying away from a board that quickly becomes acidic and contributes to degradation like BCW's.

 

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Jaws1965

Jaws1965

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Posted (edited)

Wow, I just spent the last 90 minutes reading all 37 pages of this thread. Fantastic information.

 

I wish I could rewind the 30 years I had all 2,000 of my bronze age marvels sealed in 1 mil mylites with NO board at all.

 

They were stored in completely buffered acid-free flip-top boxes (the kind that hold about 50 books each), but back then I didn't like not being able to see the back cover, so I only put the heavy-gauge gerber boards in with my most treasured few comics. As standard practice, I actually used the heavy-gauge boards much as people use plastic dividers today, as spacers in between every 10th comic or so, with the direction of the next 10 comics flipped to keep the number of staples relatively even on each side of the box.

 

Upon recent review of the many books stored this way, untouched for 20+ years, few books have those pristine snow white interior pages any longer. They're offwhite to slightly yellowed, but there's no tanning "halo" effect like you see on a lot of silver age stuff. Still, they are perceptibly, uniformly, and disappointingly to me dimmer than "new" newsprint. I have some of those books in with CGC and am eager to see how CGC characterizes their page quality. I hope these all qualify as OW/W still. That being said, covers are still very nice, only the slightest noticeable degradation from newstand fresh whiteness.

 

I suspect an overriding factor is that the storage temperature was unavoidably a little higher than I liked, probably 65 degrees in winter, and perhaps as high as 80 in summer. (The bottom of an upstairs closet in my mom's home in Arkansas, which although air conditioned, did indeed get pretty warm in summer.) When it was 105 outside with 95% humidity, it was pretty warm upstairs, even with AC going full blast and downstairs feeling like a meat locker. I think there was even a summer when the AC unit died, and they basked in full, glorious Arkansas heat for at least a week.

 

Even in the late 80's I used to beg my mom to turn down the air conditioning because I could hear the dying screams of my comics. She refused to let me keep them anywhere downstairs, and for my entire military career, I never had enough room to take them with me, alas. Good thing though, this method did physically protect the books from a toilet backup once, as well as some silverfish invasion. Warped and gnawed boxes, but books were good to go!

 

Lesson for readers: In all this discussion, PLEASE REMEMBER that temperature and RH are incredibly important as well!

 

So...the higher than optimal temperature coupled with the lack of an alkaline reserve has hurt my babies. But thanks to this thread, all is not lost, and I still have some nice stuff worth protecting. It's interesting that the degree of aging is not uniform, even in the same box, and there's no apparent pattern to it. Some 1975 books are whiter than 1982 books, both bought right off the rack/shelf.

 

Anyway, I am shifting to this storage mode: 2 mil mylites, halfbacks/thin-extenders, and 2-per MCP. It's all I can afford. Fortunately, the 2 mil bags afford some inherent rigidity, so I can forego the fullbacks.

 

 

Edited by Jaws1965
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youmechooz

youmechooz

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...I have stated that I am having the products tested that were represented in Mike's study and provide the results here on the forum which I will do because I am a man of my word, regardless of what some here may think.

Results never came. I don't think he is a man of his word.

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mschmidt

mschmidt

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BCE Mylar is considerably more expensive than E Gerber. Any reason for this, and is I worth the money?

 

No, with a few notable exceptions, they sell the exact same products. The BCE Arklites 2 are identical to the Gerber Mylites2, for instance.

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slym2none

slym2none

Posted
Posted
Glad I read this.

Going to swap my valuable books in to new bags & boards this weekend.

 

The Spider-Man Clone books from the 90s can stay in their current acid traps, though.

 

Wow. You really don't like those particular bags & boards, do you?

 

(:

 

 

 

-slym

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BCW Supplies

BCW Supplies

Posted
Posted
From the latest Bill Cole email newsletter:

 

What are Acid Free Boards?

 

Recently on some of the comic forums on the Internet, an individual took all boards claiming to be "acid free" and conducted tests on them to confirm or deny that they were acid free. We are please to say that BCE boards and that of a competitor passed with flying colors.

 

Another competitor was extremely displeased with the results and started to malign those results. As a consequence they started to make claims that were just not true. They sell a board that is shiny white one side and dull white on the other. They claim that their boards are acid free, yet they do not state in their advertising what the pH is or what the percentage of calcium carbonate buffer is in the board. They cannot since the very nature of their board is what is known as SBS. Solid bleached sulfate. DO NOT USE ANY BOARDS THAT ARE SHINY WHITE ON ONE SIDE as they can and eventually will damage your books. (See below)

 

On another note:

 

They are using a name that describes their brand of boards as "EXTENDERS". This is a play against a brand name that we have been using since 1991 and that is "The X-Tender™ name, which covers our Thin-X-Tenders™, Time-X-tenders™ and Life-X-Tenders™. Many of our customers have called and say that are confused about all the claims that they are making. They are also saying that they have a board that will protect comic books against deterioration, which is what our Life-X-Tender Plus™ does. Do not be fooled or confused. Only buy from a vendor that actually states what is in their boards. The caveat is "Let the buyer beware"

 

 

The standard that we follow is listed here!

 

Acid free as it pertains to backing boards is usually a no brainer. There are National Consensus standards that are followed by Museums, Libraries and conservators. That standard is all boards must have a minimum 8.0 to 8.5 pH and have a minimum 3% Calcium Carbonate Buffer throughout the board. Of course we at Bill Cole Enterprises follow this standard to the letter. Boards that are shiny white on one side and dull white on the other should "NEVER" be used with your comics. They are called SBS (Solid Bleached Sulfate) and usually have a pH of about 5 to 6. They are highly acidic boards that are sold as acid free at time of manufacture or acid free on both sides, will over time degrade and cause your valuable books to turn yellow. Reputable manufacturers and distributors will state on their packaging what the contents are. Whatever you do, do not purchase or use any boards that does not have a combination of a certification that it contains the minimum pH of 8.0 to 8.5 and a minimum of a 3% Calcium Carbonate buffer throughout.

There definitely are standards, such as the Library of Congress Preservation Directorate Specification Number 300-300 – 09 Specifications for Board Stock, Buffered For the Storage of Artifacts, which you can find here;

 

http://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/supply/specs/300-300_09.pdf

 

Please note that the specification does NOT require a 3% buffer throughout the paperboard.

 

The specification does, however, state in section 1.1 Fiber "The stock must be made from rag or other high alpha-cellulose content pulp, minimum of 87%, as defined in ISO 18902. It must not contain any post consumer waste recycled pulp." And, in section 1.2 Lignin the specification states that "The stock must give a negative reading for lignin as determined by the phloroglucinol test when tested according to ASTM D 1030, X5 spot stains, and shall have a Kappa number of 5 or less when tested according to TAPPI T 236."

 

Given the test results from the Chicago Paper Testing Laboratory that I posted on 18 August 2011, we can see that the Bill Cole Thin X-Tender is 21.7% Groundwood. Groundwood is mechanical pulp, or recycled paper, and cannot be considered alpha-cellulose. Therefore, the content of Bill Cole's Thin X-Tenders cannot be a minimum of 87% alpha-cellulose which would disqualify their product under section 1.1 of the Library of Congress Preservation Directorate Specification Number 300-300 – 09 Specifications for Board Stock. Further, Groundwood contains lignin which would disqualify the product under section 1.2 of the Library of Congress Preservation Directorate Specification Number 300-300 – 09 Specifications for Board Stock.

 

You will also note that the pH level of the BCW product was not 5 to 6 as the newsletter posted above suggests. It was 8.47 in the data from the Chicago Paper Testing Laboratory. And, further, you will note that the BCW product contains no Groundwood, or recycled paper, because SBS is considered virgin paperboard.

 

You can find the test results here;

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=5041204&fpart=1

 

In all fairness, none of the boards tested would qualify according to the Library of Congress Preservation Directorate Specification Number 300-300 – 09 Specifications for Board Stock, Buffered For the Storage of Artifacts. That's why we don't recommend BCW Comic Backing Boards for long-term storage. We recommend that you change your comic bags and boards every 3 to 5 years, as do most reputable manufacturers of comic supplies. The fact remains, however, that the BCW product does not contain recycled paper while the Bill Cole product obviously does. And, that's why the BCW board doesn't require as much calcium carbonate buffer as the Bill Cole product.

 

I'm grateful that Mike Schmidt did his informal study of BCW products, and that it was brought to my attention. As a result, I have done quite a bit of research, and even spent a day with Mike Beecher at the Chicago Paper testing Laboratory, so that I would have a better understanding of the paperboard that we are providing. Recently, I was offered an alternative to the SBS that we are providing for our customers, and at a considerable savings. I sent samples of the paperboard to Mike Beecher at the Chicago paper Testing Laboratory and I was able to quickly and easily interpret the results. The pH was 8.73, which is good. But, the Fiber analysis revealed that the board was 2.8% Bleached Kraft Softwood, 26.3% Bleached Kraft Hardwood, and 70.9% Groundwood and unbleached fibers. By the standards of some of the members here, this would be a better product, and we could put the difference in our pockets. However, I know that the SBS that we are providing is a better solution for comic backing boards which is why we will continue to offer the SBS product to our customers.

 

As has been stated previously on this forum, results can be interpreted a number of ways. So, I guess the question really comes down to, who would you believe? Would you believe the people who vaguely refer to some implied standard, or would you believe the people who refer to a specific and credible standard and provide you with the documentation? Would you believe the people who simply refer to the pH level of SBS paperboard (and incorrectly, I might add), or would you believe the people who provided the scientific data from an independent laboratory?

 

I'll leave you all with this; at the end of the day that I spent with Mike Beecher at Chicago Paper Testing Laboratory, when all of the testing was done and the results were in, I asked Mike to suppose, for a moment, that he was a comic book collector, and tell me what boards he would use for his comic book collection. He said "Definitely the SBS board."

 

 

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