Newbs Investigation through Experimentation regarding Conservation

[427Impaler]

I dont know what I am doing.....but I have never let that stop me before.

 

Having long been interested in the subject of conservation I decided to chronicle my journey into the "meat and potatoes" of conserving comic books. First off, I had to have a working description for what I would consider "restoration" compared to "conservation". I came up with this:

 

Conservation: Actions taken to repair damage and age degradation, also steps that can prevent further damage from aging and handling. Primary focus on preservation, with visual appeal as a side benefit.

 

Restoration: Actions taken to visually improve a book from the effects of wear and handling, primary focus to improve the appearance and tactile feel with preservation being a POSSIBLE side benefit.

 

Not ground breaking stuff, just something I had to really nail down to improve my focus and direction.

 

What I will be doing is performing some well known procedures for conserving books, I have zero experience and expect to have a steep learning curve. Of course I will not be practicing on AF 15s or anything close to a key book, just some old GA fodder I have kicking around. This should be fun, funny, and just maybe informative, I am wide open to suggestions, criticism, and even a little ridicule.

 

Oh, what have I done.....

 

See more journals by Bob Strain

[427Impaler]

Sooooo, here we go.

 

First book I have selected to perform surgery on is a totally beat copy of Four Color 148. Somewhat unique as it is a Canadian copy, but as the pictures show it is ready to fall apart with even gentle handling. This book was saved along with a large pile of GA beaters from the recycling (!), I just could not let that happen.

 

Problems with this book are many, the spine roll is so bad the leading edge of the cover has worn thin, split many times, and curled up tighter than Shirley Temples locks. The spine itself is worn through with 2 inch horizontal splits, paper loss top and bottom, and staples holding only by sheer will. Top that off with the book being stored like a rolled up newspaper and you pretty much get the idea of what I am dealing with

 

 

 

 

 

First order of business is to decide how far to go with the book. I elected to simply get the book presentable, deacidify it, and improve the structure. So the first step will be taking it apart...

[427Impaler]

Disassembly can be a little tricky with a fragile book, if you haven't tried it before all i can say I go dead slow, one false move and you can end up with a bad spine split or worse. I use a small metal spatula to lift the staple slightly and then some surgical tweezers to carefully lift the staple tongs without causing any weird bends. Once apart keep the staple somewhere safe, they seem to grow legs and vanish if you dont. Once apart the true scope of the books damage is evident.

 

 

Just getting this thing flat is going to be a challenge. I elect to go straight to a deacidfying bath.

 

The bath is a mix of distilled water and Calcium Hydroxide powder, this creates an alkaline bath which through chemical process neutralizes the acidity in the paper. Common process in Libraries and Universities for preservation of Historic documents. This is not for the faint of heart! Without a proper float support expect the cover to fall apart as soon as you move it, I have a sheet of polyester under the cover for support, and put a second sheet over top when moving it out of the solution.

 

 

After some time in the bath, the paper begins to relax, and the curls and folds can be gently flattened out.

 

 

 

 

After blotter and weighted drying, I have a nice flatter and cleaner canvas to work with. I used no bleaching agents on the paper or in the bath, at least not for this first conservation candidate. Even without any cleaning/bleaching agents the bath does remove a lot of yellowing in the process:

 

 

Next up is infilling the old fashioned way...

[Vorpal]

Yes! Restoration threads are my favorite thing to read in the comic collecting universe. Thank you, and please keep the updates coming!

[1950's war comics]

This is the best journal ever ,...

[DR.X]

don't leave us hanging. when's the next episode?

[mattn792]

This is such a cool journal, I wish I could see the process in person!

[427Impaler]

Thanks guys, big update after work tonight!

[427Impaler]

So now that the cover has been washed and deacidifyed, all the curls and bends were carefully flattened and then the cover was blotted out (under pressure), changing the blotters often. Next is the tedious process of filling in all the loss areas and strengthening the weak areas. Common practice is to leafcast, which I think is a great idea, but not having a $15,000.00 leafcaster handy I went with the old fashioned Japanese paper repair.

 

I discovered this is a bit of an art form. Translation: It's HARD

 

First I fashioned a fill piece out of a donor book with similar color:

 

 

A little hand sculpting with a spatula and some water:

 

 

After doing this for all the missing areas, the pieces are attached using very narrow strips of Japanese paper which are formed by painting thin lines of water on the sheet and gently tearing them into strips, this leaves nice long grain feathered edges on the strips. Yes, it is about as not-easy as it sounds.

 

These "mending strips" are attached using a form of glue. There are many types of glue that can be used, I opted for PH neutral Methyl Cellulose mixed with distilled water. Completely archival and reversible. using a very fine paint brush the "goop" is applied and the strips carefully "painted" down with the brush, using care to fan out the loose fibres. Just try not to laugh when you look at this next picture:

 

 

as you can see I elected to individually handle the spine stresses. There was some question in my mind whether to just glue down one solid piece of reinforcement, I had some concern with it stiffening the spine too much, I may try this on the next book for comparison.

 

The cover was then dried with weight once again (using release paper to prevent everything from being glued together) and then trimmed. I resisted the temptation of trimming the actual edge of the comic, and just trimmed the J-paper back to the book.

 

 

 

At this point a restoration phase would usually take place, in-painting all the loss areas, color touch here and there, etc. For the scope of this trial, I am going to keep this to the most basic and rudimentary conservation, so that means its time to put this thing back together!!

[427Impaler]

If there is one part of this I really hate, it is putting staples back into a book. Really painstaking when you have removed the spine roll, everything seems to have moved slightly and it is really slow going. Once it was all together it was clear the book was MUCH better in hand, the aqueous bath made the pages supple and fresh, the colors were nice and bright, and the weak leading edge of the cover felt new again. here is a before and after:

 

BEFORE:

 

 

AFTER

 

Side by side:

 

In the side by side it appears the colors are not sharp, it is just the camera focal point. The colors are just as sharp but much brighter.

 

Hindsight: I am really happy that the book is now MUCH more solid and less acidic than before,so much better prepared for the future now. Keeping in mind that the focus was not so much restoration as conservation I would say it was a partial success. Areas of improvement are clearly the spine area, it was greatly weakened and should have been reinforced along its full length. I may consider some in-painting of the loss areas, I'll have to think about it.

 

It is rewarding to be able to accomplish this much with limited experience, and there was much learned over the course of the project. As I have a nice supply of craptastic books I will be honing my skills and sharing my triumphs and flops right here. As usual, any comments, suggestions, or general abuse is always welcome

 

 

[Ronnylama]

I would rather drink my own ....oops...wrong thREAD

 

[427Impaler]

Well, I did ask for comments...........

[Vorpal]

The book looks so much better! Nice job. I think we've all been spoiled by what leaf casting can do for a book, but it's nice to see older, more accessible methods demonstrated. How much would you say your setup costs (bath plus mending supplies)?

[427Impaler]

The book looks so much better! Nice job. I think we've all been spoiled by what leaf casting can do for a book, but it's nice to see older, more accessible methods demonstrated. How much would you say your setup costs (bath plus mending supplies)?

 

Thanks for the compliment! Nice part is the book is also much more stable as well.

 

As far as cost it is minimal, the wash tub was 2.99 at Walmart, distilled water is pennies a gallon, Methyl cellulose is about $7 a bottle at art supply houses (enough for about ten baths), 24" X 36" mending paper is about $20. so probably a three bucks in supplies for the project. Time actually worked on the book was around three hours (not including drying time).

 

Next victim will be this fabulous copy of The Lone Ranger. It is a great candidate because if it happens to catch fire and burn to a crisp while it gets worked on, no one will shed a tear. I have some ideas I want to try after my disappointment with the last spine repair. I will also try some marker removal as well. Should have the results by the weekend

 

 

 

 

[surfer99]

Ron, .

 

This was very interesting, thanks for posting! I'm not a fan of the purple label myself so not something I would ever want to do, but it's way cool to see how much of a difference these techniques make. Looking forward to seeing what happens in the next episode with the Lone Ranger!

 

 

[mattn792]

I'd say excellent job for being brand new at it! This certainly gives me some idea of what my restored copy of ToS 39 went through to go from water logged and staple rusted to an SS 6.0®.

[Vorpal]

Ron, .

This was very interesting, thanks for posting! I'm not a fan of the purple label myself so not something I would ever want to do, but it's way cool to see how much of a difference these techniques make. Looking forward to seeing what happens in the next episode with the Lone Ranger!

Not to pick specifically on you, surfer99, because I think your viewpoint reflects that held by many collectors -- It's really a shame that even conservation techniques that are clearly beneficial to books in terms of preservation and ongoing utility (as a readable book) get such a bad rap just because of label color. People applaud the work that's done out of one side of their mouth, then badmouth the label color out of the other side of their mouth. I think that a lot of people *want* to like these books (as evidenced by positive commentary I've seen in the various conservation/restoration threads) but feel like they have to toe the party line of "purple label = death." Conserved and even restored books do not deserve the reputation that they have, as long as the work is done well. Hopefully the sentiment in the community shifts over time.

 

/soapbox

 

Please keep the updates coming!

[427Impaler]

I 100% think this is a good discussion to have. I find it interesting as comic collecting is just one of my hobbies, the other main hobby is collecting and restoring 60's muscle cars. The view on restoration is much different in that hobby, an original untouched gem is worth more but no one bats an eye or disdains a well executed restoration, and they still achieve very high sales figures (of course fakes or clones are on the bottom of the totem pole).

 

One thing that has to be considered is that any printed material from the mid 1800's to present will require some kind of conservation process or it will in fact reduce to brittle and then to dust. Modernization changed papermaking processes and particularly the method of "sizing" paper around that time, and basically created a ticking time bomb of self destructing paper. Currently the most popular method of conserving the structure of paper is the deacidifcation bath (a process used to conserve all historic documents), unfortunately that results in an instant purple label.

 

I agree that an original untouched copy should garner the most respect in the community, followed by the conserved book. The restored book is a whole different can of worms, as can be seen with the recent furor over the HG restored Bats that is a hot topic on the GA forum.

 

Anywho, this journal is completely about experimentation and having a little fun, so I'm going to get back to that. I am going to change things up a bit, the Lone Ranger is going to get a "blue label" makeover first, basically see how much I can dress it up short of doing anything that would "purple" the book and then do a little conservation. I am also going to re-do the spine on the first book, which will give me the opportunity to see how easily reversible my first attempt is. Updates should be ready by the weekend.

 

Thanks for looking!

[Brandon Shepherd]

This is a great thread, why I'm just now seeing this, I don't know! I'm looking forward to more!

[Antpark]

This has been a great read thus far.

I've always been a little curious about restoration/conservation, so I'm looking forward to the next entries.

Thanks for taking the time to write this up and post pictures!