Wet books?

Can't remember exactly but when the ex worked at a used book store, they often took moldy books (not really bad ones) and gave em a shot in the microwave.

For water damage (wrinkled pages), not much worked. They got a little better by extended pressing with a heavy weight (at least sat on the shelves better). Every once in a while, you'd get one that came out like new but that was rare. You might be able to scab together a book press with an old acme screw, a handwheel and some of that iron you seem to so often scrounge.

Or....if you really need a vacuum chamber you might try Rush's head :)

Koz (who couldn't resist taking a cheap shot)

"Gunner Asch" wrote: I scored quite a number of books from the leftover yard sale tables up at the cat rescue place Ive been donating my Saturdays for the past month or so. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ What I recall about libraries that have been flooded, the job of preserving and restoring wet books is difficult. If too much time passes, they begin to mildew. It's probably too late for this, and impractical, but I believe that damaged valuable books are placed in a freezer to prevent deterioration.

To me, the interesting part of your post is that you have been working Saturdays to help build them a sheltered area out of donated metal garage doors. This is terrific--I hope you are taking pictures. Please post them so the rest of us can see what a good guy you are, in spite of your right-wing leanings.

Interleave pages with paper towel, and press (weights are ok, doesn't need a bookbinding press) the books while they dry. Rotate the paper towels out and allow them to dry out in open air. Sewing interfacing is good between the books, if you do them in a stack (not the iron-on kind, just pellon). The mold is going to be a bitch, though. You might find some information at

at least it will be a good jumping off point. The other thing worth trying, if it is a really bad case of mold, is to expose the books to formaldehyde crystals in a sealed garbage can. You can't really de-innoculate paper, once it is innoculated with mold, all you can do is ensure that they don't stay in conditions for the mold to grow (ie dry is good). I wouldn't put moldy books on the same shelf with unmoldy books, the mold travels pretty easily. Wet and un-moldy books should be segregated from the moldy ones, immediately. Freezing helps arrest mold, and is a pretty good stop gap if you have more stuff than you can deal with (ie bag and freeze the lot, defrost and dry a few books, repeat till done).

If you hit a wall, let me know, I have lots of contacts with bookbinders and bookbinding, book conservation etc.

Adam Smith Midland, ON, Canada

----- Original Message ----- From: "Gunner Asch" Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 5:24 PM Subject: Wet books?

"Gunner Asch" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Oh and BTW: small bits of scrap in small cardboard boxes make great bookbinding weights. My twenty year old 154-cm knifemaking offcuts are still seeing service in my Mom's bookbinding studio. A press is nice, but it is amazing the things you can do with boards and weights.

Adam

I think I remember hearing of putting them in a vacuum chamber. Randy

Chuckle..I thought the Left thought he was over inflated and pompus? Ill see if I can dig up a Liberal..perhaps Pelosi..for a high vacuum.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

Build one!!!

Mark Rand RTFM

Use a vacuum BAG, it'll dry and press together ;)

Professional restorers use freeze drying. I don't know if you need a hard vacuume for that. As long as you can get the ice to sublimate to vapor it should work. Good luck.

73 Gary

I don't reccomend using the microwave. When I tried it the glue in the binding softened up and the pages fell out. Engineman

I've heard that cat litter is good for absorbing odors from old documents. Probably best if it hasn't been used by a cat first.

I wonder if just leaving them in a freezer for an extended time would dry them out - kind of a low grade freeze dryer.

I have always had good luck just hanging wet books on clothes line out doors on a nice sunny day. They will never be quite the same again, maybe a little wrinkly. You live in Bakersfield so finding a sunny day should be no hard task. Works for wet cats also.....

The University of Hawaii Library did basically the same thing when it was flooded. They used bushes. Karl

Has anyone ever considered irradiating books to scramble the mold's genetic information? This is how they treat foods, basically just run them under a high flux cobalt source.

I could imagine that curing the problem once and for all.

Jim

A very interesting question! I don't know the answer. Back when I did my own bookbinding/book conservation training (about 15 years ago, and I've never practised), it was not something that was part of the standard practise. But now ... ? I will forward your question to a few people that need to hear the idea, if it is not being done now. I'll let you know if your idea is a new thought. It actually might be, since conservators are, unsurprisingly, a very conservative lot.

BTW, I referenced formaldehyde, because that is what I was taught, but the traditional chemical is paranitrophenol. The conservator that was training me felt that formaldehyde was just as effective, no more toxic (both are very, I'm afraid), and easier to source.

Also BTW, the people that have been referencing vacuum chambers, as well as freezing, are quite correct that those are techniques that get used. I recall reading an account of the folks that dealt with the Venice flood, which swamped a medieval library there, and I seem to recall that both freezing and vacuum chambers were in play (along with prodigious amounts of labour). If I were Gunner, I'd still go with paper towel and pressing, though, rotating out the damp towels to air dry. But if he has a high flux cobalt source handy, and tries your idea, I definitely want to hear about it.

Adam Smith, Midland, ON, Canada

On 6 Dec 2005 07:57:05 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, jim rozen quickly quoth:

Neighbor, could I borrow your Mr. Gamma Food Irradiator for a few minutes, please?

Well, if you think about it, this is what the problem really 'boils' down to.

To make food safe for consumption, one needs to scramble the DNA of whatever organisms happen to be inside the food. Bacteria, parasites, etc.

Cooking does that, mostly.

That doesn't work for mold spores because they're heat resistant. But they're not resistant to high energy photons though.

Jim

Will it kill prions? If we don't find some way to destroy them soon it seems we have three options: Go vegetarian Adopt Kosher buchering techniques ie. don't open the skull or split the spinal colume. Have a mass epidemic of mad cow/chronic wasting desease. Normal cooking heat wont kill them it takes over 850 degrees F.

73 Gary

I was just wondering the same thing.