midwestconservator: msulconservationlab: We’ve recently upped our box making game, with a focus on making corrugated clamshell boxes for folio and oversize materials. As a result, we have tons and TONS of e-flute scraps. I’ve used some of it up to make smaller boxes, and I’ve used some to make “bricks” that can be used to […]
Do you hate leather paring as much as I do? Then you’ll love the Scharffix. Also, this video really should be subtitled: “Schmedt After Dark”, because of the music.
I’ve been working on condition reports all week, and this certain song is stuck in my head…because condition rhymes with tradition.
Let’s just say I have a GoPro I can strap to my head. What bookbinding or conservator stuff, or conservation treatment techniques do you want to see from my point of view?
Yesterday, I got to pretend to be an objects conservator, while repairing our beloved plastic Japanese squid clock with conservation adhesive called Butvar B-76. I knocked the clock off the wall weeks ago, and it shattered into several pieces. Because of the complexity of the breaks, I had to be a human clamp and manually […]
This from a great little book called “A Library is to Know”, which is a parody of Maurice Sendak’s “A Hole is to Dig”. Parsons, Arthur Hudson, 1910-1959. A Library Is to Know. [Jacksonville, Ill.: New Method Book Bindery, 1961. You can read the whole thing for free on the HathiTrust!
So, our old HEPA filter vacuum broke yesterday, right in the middle of a mold-remediation project I was working on! BUT! I just found out today that the library is going to buy us a new Nilfisk vacuum for the conservation lab! Nilfisk vacuums are like the Rolls Royces of conservation vacuuming. I’m 100% sincere […]
I really like this breakdown of the cost for rebinding a book (and more than once, at that!) circa 1906. It’s a lot more expensive now! From this same book, here is a very detailed cut-away picture of the joint and endpaper construction for a book. These images are from: Dana, John Cotton. 1906. […]
Wow, whoever originally backed this 19th century publisher’s binding should’ve really taken a moment to calm down and take a deep breath first before continuing. They really beat the crap out of it with the hammer! Backing is “the process of shaping a ridge or shoulder on each side of the spine of a text […]
When you can immediately diagnose a book’s “special pain” without even having to open it first. Somebody was overly “helpful” with the hinge tape application on this poor baby. Over time it dries, and becomes stiff, which restricts the “drape” of the paper, and causes it to crack along the edges of the hardened tape. Hence, why you […]