Sizing--Washing--Mending
SIZING
The paper in old books is sometimes soft and woolly. This is generally
because the size has perished, and such paper can often be made
perfectly sound by resizing.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.]
For size, an ounce of isinglass or good gelatine is dissolved in a
quart of water. This should make a clear solution when gently warmed,
and should be used at about a temperature of 120 deg. F. Care must be
taken not to heat too quickly, or the solution may burn and turn
brown. If the size is not quite clear, it should be strained through
fine muslin or linen before being used. When it is ready it should be
poured into an open pan (fig. 17), so arranged that it can be kept
warm by a gas flame or spirit lamp underneath. When this is ready the
sheets to be sized can be put in one after another and taken out at
once. The hot size will be found to take out a great many stains, and
especially those deep brown stains that come from water. If there are
only a few sheets, they can be placed between blotting-paper as they
are removed from the size; but if there is a whole book, it is best to
lay them in a pile one on the other, and when all have been sized to
squeeze them in the "lying press" between pressing-boards, a pan being
put underneath to catch the liquid squeezed out. When the sheets have
been squeezed they can be readily handled, and should be spread out to
dry on a table upon clean paper. When they are getting dry and firm
they can be hung on strings stretched across the room, slightly
overlapping one another. The strings must first be covered with slips
of clean paper, and the sized sheets should have more paper over them
to keep them clean.
Before sizing it will be necessary to go through a book and take out
any pencil or dust marks that can be removed with indiarubber or bread
crumbs, or the size will fix them, and it will be found exceedingly
difficult to remove them afterwards.
When the sheets are dry they should be carefully mended in any places
that may be torn, and folded up into sections and pressed. A long,
comparatively light pressure will be found to flatten them better and
with less injury to the surface of the paper than a short, very heavy
pressure, such as that of the rolling-machine.
In some cases it will be found that sheets of old books are so far
damaged as to be hardly strong enough to handle. Such sheets must be
sized in rather a stronger size in the following way:--Take a sheet of
heavily-sized paper, such as notepaper, and carefully lay your damaged
sheet on that. Then put another sheet of strong paper on the top, and
put all three sheets into the size. It will be found that the top
sheet can then be easily lifted off, and the size be made to flow over
the face of the damaged sheet. Then, if the top sheet be put on again,
the three sheets, if handled as one, can be turned over and the
operation repeated, and size induced to cover the back of the damaged
leaf. The three sheets must then be taken out and laid between
blotting-paper to take up the surplus moisture. The top sheet must
then be carefully peeled off, and the damaged page laid face downwards
on clean blotting-paper. Then the back sheet can be peeled off as
well, leaving the damaged sheet to dry.
The following is quoted from "Chambers' Encyclopaedia" on Gelatine:--
"Gelatine should never be judged by the eye alone.
"Its purity may be very easily tested thus: Soak it in cold water,
then pour upon it a small quantity of boiling water. If pure, it will
form a thickish, clear straw-coloured solution, free from smell; but
if made of impure materials, it will give off a very offensive odour,
and have a yellow, gluey consistency."
WASHING
When there are stains or ink marks on books that cannot be removed by
the use of hot size or hot water, stronger measures may sometimes have
to be taken. Many stains will be found to yield readily to hot water
with a little alum in it, and others can be got out by a judicious
application of curd soap with a very soft brush and plenty of warm
water. But some, and especially ink stains, require further treatment.
There are many ways of washing paper, and most of those in common use
are extremely dangerous, and have in many cases resulted in the
absolute destruction of fine books. If it is thought to be absolutely
necessary that the sheets of a book should be washed, the safest
method is as follows:--Take an ounce of permanganate of potash
dissolved in a quart of water, and warmed slightly. In this put the
sheets to be washed, and leave them until they turn a dark brown. This
will usually take about an hour, but may take longer for some papers.
Then turn the sheets out and wash them in running water until all
trace of purple stain disappears from the water as it comes away. Then
transfer them to a bath of sulphurous (not sulphuric) acid and water
in the proportion of one ounce of acid to one pint of water. The
sheets in this solution will rapidly turn white, and if left for some
time nearly all stains will be removed. In case any stains refuse to
come out, the sheets should be put in clear water for a short time,
and then placed in the permanganate of potash solution again, and left
there for a longer time than before; then after washing in clear
water, again transferred to the sulphurous acid. When sheets are
removed from the sulphurous acid they should be well washed for an
hour or two in running water, and then may be blotted or squeezed off
and hung up on lines to dry. Any sheets treated in this way will
require sizing afterwards. And if, as is often the case, only a few
sheets at the beginning or end of the book have to be washed, it will
be necessary to tone down the washed sheets to match the rest of the
book by putting some stain in the size. For staining there are many
things used. A weak solution of permanganate of potash gives a
yellowish stain that will be found to match many papers. Other stains
are used, such as coffee, chicory, tea, liquorice, &c. Whatever is
used should be put in the size. To ascertain that the right depth of
colour has been obtained, a piece of unsized paper, such as white
blotting-paper, is dipped in the stained size and blotted off and
dried before the fire. It is impossible to judge of the depth of
colour in a stain unless the test piece is thoroughly dried. If the
stain is not right, add more water or more stain as is needed.
Experience will tell what stain to use to match the paper of any given
book.
To remove grease or oil stains, ether may be used. Pour it freely in a
circle round the spot, narrowing the circle gradually until the stain
is covered. Then apply a warm iron through a piece of blotting-paper.
Ether should only be used in a draught in a well-ventilated room on
account of its well-known inflammable and anaesthetical properties.
A very dilute (about one per cent.) solution of pure hydrochloric acid
in cold water will be found to take out some stains if the paper is
left in it for some hours. When the paper is removed from the
solution, it must be thoroughly washed in running water. It is
important that the hydrochloric acid used should be pure, as the
commercial quality (spirits of salts) often contains sulphuric acid.
The following recipes are quoted from _De l'organisation et de
l'administration des Bibliotheques, par Jules Cusin_:--
To remove stains from paper:--"_Mud Stains._--To take away these kinds
of stains, spread some soap jelly very evenly over the stained places,
and leave it there for thirty or forty minutes, according to the depth
of the stain. Then dip the sheet in clean water, and then having
spread it on a perfectly clean table, remove the soap lightly with a
hog's hair brush or a fine sponge; all the mud will disappear at the
same time. Put the sheet into the clear water again, to get rid of the
last trace of soap. Let it drain a little, press it lightly between
two sheets of blotting-paper, and finish by letting it dry slowly in
a dry place in the shade.
"_Stains of Tallow, Stearine, or Fat._--To take away these stains
cover them with blotting-paper and pass over them a warm flat-iron.
When the paper has soaked up the grease, change it and repeat the
operation until the stains have been sufficiently removed. After that,
touch both sides of the sheets where they have been stained with a
brush dipped in essence of turpentine heated to boiling-point. Then to
restore the whiteness of the paper, touch the places which were
stained with a piece of fine linen soaked in purified spirits of wine
warmed in the water-bath. This method may also be employed to get rid
of sealing-wax stains.
"_Oil Stains._--Make a mixture of 500 gr. of soap, 300 gr. of clay, 60
gr. of quicklime, and sufficient water to make it of the right
consistency, spread a thin layer of this on the stain, and leave it
there about a quarter of an hour. Then dip the sheet in a bath of hot
water; take it out, and let it dry slowly.
"You can also use the following method, generally employed for
finger-marks:--
"_Finger-marks._--These stains are sometimes very obstinate. Still
they can generally be mastered by the following method:--Spread over
them a layer of white soap jelly (_savon blanc en gelee_), and leave
it there for some hours. Then remove this with a fine sponge dipped in
hot water, and more often than not all the dirt disappears at the same
time. If this treatment is not sufficient, you might replace the soap
jelly by soft soap (_savon noir_), but you must be careful not to
leave it long on the printing, which might decompose and run, and that
would do more harm than good."
Sheets of very old books are best left with the stains of age upon
them, excepting, perhaps, such as can be removed with hot water or
size. Nearly all stains _can_ be removed, but in the process old paper
is apt to lose more in character than it gains in appearance.
MENDING
For mending torn sheets of an old book, some paper that matches as
nearly as possible must be found. For this purpose it is the custom
for bookbinders to collect quantities of old paper. If a piece of the
same tone cannot be found, paper of similar texture and substance may
be stained to match.
Supposing a corner to be missing, and a piece of paper to have been
found that matches it, the torn page is laid over the new paper in
such a way that the wire marks on both papers correspond. Then the
point of a folder should be drawn along the edge of the torn sheet,
leaving an indented line on the new paper. The new paper should then
be cut off about an eighth of an inch beyond the indented line, and
the edge carefully pared up to the line. The edge of the old paper
must be similarly pared, so that the two edges when laid together will
not exceed the thickness of the rest of the page. It is well to leave
a little greater overlap at the edges of the page. Both cut edges must
then be well pasted with white paste and rubbed down between
blotting-paper. To ensure a perfectly clean joint the pasted edge
should not be touched with the hand, and pasting-paper, brushes, and
paste must be perfectly clean.
In the case of a tear across the page, if there are any overlapping
edges, they may merely be pasted together and the end of the tear at
the edge of the paper strengthened by a small piece of pared paper. If
the tear crosses print, and there are no overlapping edges, either
tiny pieces of pared paper may be cut and laid across the tear between
the lines of print, or else a piece of the thinnest Japanese paper,
which is nearly transparent, may be pasted right along the tear over
the print; in either case the mend should be strengthened at the edge
of the page by an additional thickness of paper. In cases where the
backs of the sections have been much damaged, it will be necessary to
put a guard the entire length, or in the case of small holes, to fill
them in with pieces of torn paper. The edges of any mend may, with
great care, be scraped with a sharp knife having a slight burr on the
under side, and then rubbed lightly with a piece of worn fine
sand-paper, or a fragment of cuttle-fish bone. Care must be taken not
to pare away too much, and especially not to weaken the mend at the
edges of the sheet. As a general rule, the new mending paper should go
on the back of a sheet.
Sometimes it is thought necessary to fill up worm-holes in the paper.
This may be done by boiling down some paper in size until it is of a
pulpy consistency, and a little of this filled into the worm-holes
will re-make the paper in those places. It is a very tedious
operation, and seldom worth doing.
Mending vellum is done in much the same way as mending paper,
excepting that a little greater overlap must be left. It is well to
put a stitch of silk at each end of a vellum patch, as you cannot
depend on paste alone holding vellum securely. The overlapping edges
must be well roughed up with a knife to make sure that the paste will
stick. A cut in a vellum page is best mended with fine silk with a
lacing stitch (see fig. 18).
[Illustration: FIG. 18.]
Mending is most easily done on a sheet of plate-glass, of which the
edges and corners have been rubbed down.