Light document restoration work

[Claudius]

Greetings;

I thought I would show how I work on a document that needed some light repairs. Right or wrong, this is the way I've done it for may of my documents in a similar condition. I have had a lot of success with this method and have always improved the overall condition of the document.

But it is important to have a light touch and be patient. I don’t recommend it to anyone who is nervous about putting a hot iron next to 100+ year-old documents or generally has a blacksmith approach to small tasks.

This document I recently acquired is 13 ½ inches by 16 ½ inches on heavy stock. It had creases, tears, and turned corners and didn’t lie flat.

I knew that I wanted to return the original appearance and preserve the document.

[Claudius]

I usually start with two, maybe three very clean, white sheets. At least one stays dry and goes underneath the document. Even when working on an ironing board, I put a clean sheet down to work on. The other two may be moistened or remain dry depending on the severity of the damage and/or thickness of the paper.

I put the document on top of the cloth –face down. I always start from the back side and do most of the work there and not against the ink side if I can at all help it. The other sheet is lightly placed on top. At all times, I never let the hot iron touch the document.

I may use the sheet dry, but if the paper is thick and bent over I will use a moistened cloth. In this case, this document used heavy stock paper and two corners were bent over. I wetted one cloth with distilled water from my de-humidifier and wrung it out. Then squeezed more, opened it up and ran the hot iron over it first to draw off even more water. Finally the cloth was only moist. Warm to the touch, but not too wet.

Gently I placed the moist cloth over the document, not even pressing down yet. With a clean iron, with no water in the reservoir, I touched the wetted cloth and let the produced steam go into the document.

Gently I press to make contact. When the paper fibers were warmed and hydrated from the steam, I gently folded the corners back into the original position. Once in place, a dry cloth can be used to iron the document and draw out the excess water in the document. The document may now want to curl as one side is dryer than the other. The document has to be flipped over, a dry cloth on top and the document needs to be lightly ironed to counter-act the curl.

[Claudius]

This document had some rips and some fatigued areas from hard creases. The best restorative work is done with rice paper and handmade wheat flour glue applied with a sable brush. I didn’t go quite that far.

I used a quality restoration tape and burnished is across the cracks and rips. It holds the document in place, keeps it from tearing further, and best of all, it is reversible, should any future restorer would like to work on the document.

[Claudius]

Another picture and the product I used...

[Claudius]

Now that that is done, I needed to put the document in a sleeve or case that would protect it. I think I might want to eventually put it in a display mount, but for teh time being I need to store it in a safe manner. The 13.5” x 16.5” is an odd size so I made a pocket folder from acid-free, 100% rag cardboard stock.

I recommend both, acid-free and the 100% rag stock.

[Claudius]

I almost forgot...here it is after my work on it.

[Chris Boonzaier]

Very interesting!!

I must get some of that mending tissue!!!

[Spasm]

Great work. Patience and slow seems to be the way to go. Thanks for showing.

As you are the expert maybe you can help. I have a German WW1 Militarpass that has pages stuck together, I've always been intrigued as to what the pages contain within. Do you think the same technique would work - I've thought of steaming them but didn't really know how.

[Claudius]

Thank you.

Whoa…thank you, but I am just an amateur at this. I have no formal training. I have seen the effects of steam on wood fibers from my years of working on wood projects. Paper is filled with these wood fibers so by extension I slowly used applied this characteristic of wood fibers to my documents (but only if they needed it)

@Spasm: For your MP, I would recommend it. I have done something similar. I had pages that were adhered together like epoxy. I thought nothing would get these apart and I would have to rip the paper to separate them. Fortunately, the glues they used back then were water-based, or at least water vulnerable.

When I lightly hydrated the pages, the hard impacted glue areas turned back into their gooey beginnings. The pages could then be gently separated and the moistened, and now sticky glue was wiped away before they re-harden. I recommend having some clean, lint-free rags on hand to wipe up the glue. The technique for this kind of operation is to drive the steam into the affected area, but DON’T press down on the paper like I did on my document above. That will drive both steam and glue deeper into the paper and you don’t want that. It is a bit of a balance act, but steam it from both sides thoroughly. Wait a moment. Steam again. Test for possible seperation. Steam again....

Beware, this can also release all the glue you want to keep intact...Book bindings, photo attached to documents, postage stamps, etc.

Good luck!

[Spasm]

Derek, thanks for the advice. I'll give it a go and show the results - maybe the Gents can help me translate once we have access.

[922F]

Great thread & very practical applications-----THANK YOU!!!