You wrapped this topic up very well, Allan. I gasped a bit when you put those old scrapbook pages in the sink and ran water on them, but I have to admit that when you laid them on the table and sprayed them with Spic n' Span (?), my interest really peaked and I was impressed with your restoration technique. Newspaper is a lot more durable than it's cracked up to be. Are you using the Spic n' Span spray starch for laundry? Is that what puts the sizing back in the newspaper? 1930's telephone book collectors might have use for the pages you discarded after removing the comics! I wonder how soaking would work with rubber cement, Lepage's glue or Elmer's glue? Enjoyed the video! Mark Kausler
Hi Mark -- The spray is Magic Sizing, available at your local grocery store.
I, too, gasped the first time I heard of a restorer putting newspapers in water, thinking that they'd just fall apart. Not so, not so!
So far I've only had a few glued scrapbooks that gave me any appreciable trouble. Of course there's no telling what glue was used so the only option is to do a test. If it turns out that you can't remove the clippings because the glue doesn't dissolve, you really haven't lost anything because you can dry that test page and slip it back into the scrapbook.
As I said in the video, I would never buy a scrapbook and go to all this work unless the material was really rare.
You wrapped this topic up very well, Allan. I gasped a bit when you put those old scrapbook pages in the sink and ran water on them, but I have to admit that when you laid them on the table and sprayed them with Spic n' Span (?), my interest really peaked and I was impressed with your restoration technique. Newspaper is a lot more durable than it's cracked up to be. Are you using the Spic n' Span spray starch for laundry? Is that what puts the sizing back in the newspaper? 1930's telephone book collectors might have use for the pages you discarded after removing the comics! I wonder how soaking would work with rubber cement, Lepage's glue or Elmer's glue? Enjoyed the video! Mark Kausler
ReplyDeleteHi Mark --
ReplyDeleteThe spray is Magic Sizing, available at your local grocery store.
I, too, gasped the first time I heard of a restorer putting newspapers in water, thinking that they'd just fall apart. Not so, not so!
So far I've only had a few glued scrapbooks that gave me any appreciable trouble. Of course there's no telling what glue was used so the only option is to do a test. If it turns out that you can't remove the clippings because the glue doesn't dissolve, you really haven't lost anything because you can dry that test page and slip it back into the scrapbook.
As I said in the video, I would never buy a scrapbook and go to all this work unless the material was really rare.
--Allan
Marvelous stuff, Allan. Thanks.
ReplyDelete