Paper Repairs with Japanese Tissue

Once the paper has been undergone aqueous  treatment, and has been strengthened, we need to take care of paper repairs before we can sew them back together.

 Let us look at the folios that make up a section. On the top right of this picture, we see that the folio has completely come apart. This is the outermost folio of a section, and is typically subject to the maximum abrasion. The next folio (bottom right) has also started to tear at the fold, and requires repair. Whereas, relatively, the two folios on the left side of the picture have not split at the fold, for they have been protected by the outer folios. In some cases, the paper between the stitching have weakened on the innermost folio as well. Each of these need to be repaired before the folios can be pressed and made ready for sewing.

 We make paper repairs with Japanese tissue, which is a thin, strong paper made from vegetable fibers. It has a high structural strength, archival properties and also has good wet strength as well. It is available in a range of gsm and come in various color shades. Selecting the right shade and tone of the paper to match the paper being repaired, will allow the tissue paper to blend into the paper and not show off a contrast.

We need to prepare strips of Japanese tissue paper for repairing the folded parts of the folios. We make use of a water pen to tear off thin strips of the tissue paper with frayed edges. Tissue paper cut with a scalpel show off a sharp contrast on the folios, whereas frayed edges make the tissue blend in. A water pen is like a regular pen, filled with water allowing water to flow out in minuscule quantities through a hair brush. Use a scale to prepare narrow strips of tissue paper - Ready as many strips of tissue paper as required. Once the tissue paper is wet with the water brush, just tear it apart with your hand so that the edges are frayed.

Use paste with Japanese tissue paper. As the tissue paper is very thin, lay them on a piece of transparent plastic sheet and paste them out. The same may be picked with with a tweezer and pasted on the folios. Should the folio have completely split apart, you may paste two strips of Japanese tissue, one on each side of the paper.

With so many folios to repair, it is more efficient to prepare a factory-like-setup. Cut several thin strips of Japanese tissue, bondina (30 - 70 gsm) and also thin strips of blotting paper. The sequence of layering the repaired folios is as follows:

• Blotting paper

•  Strip of Bondina

•  Folio, repaired with Japanese tissue paper

• Bondina

• Blotting paper

• Strip of bondina…and so on

 These layers allow the paste applied to the tissue paper to percolate through the bondina and get absorbed in the blotting paper. Once dry, the layer of bondina peels off the folios with paste, without sticking to it.

Where the folios have completely come apart at the fold, you may consider reinforcing the joint with Japanese tissue on both sides of the fold. This will thicken the folios at the spine, and will cause other problems later on (increasing the swell on the spine), but we will deal with that at a later stage.

It is important that there is a close color match between the color of the folios and the color of the Japanese paper, so that the repairs do not show. 

Clip off the extra length of the Japanese tissue paper at the head and tail of the folios.











Any tear in the paper may also be fixed with Japanese tissue as shown. Where edges are frayed and are breaking apart, the Japanese tissue may be used to strengthen the entire edge.



Once the folios are dry, separate the folios from the Bondina and blotting paper, and fold them back, and assemble the sections. Take extra care to ensure that all the page numbers are intact and in the right place.  









NOTE:

Rough guideline for thickness of Japanese tissue to be used: For paper tears though the text, use 5 gsm, so that it does not obscure the text. Paper tears on the edges may be repaired with 10 gsm or the like. Tears in the fold, which require additional strengthening may be repaired with tissue which are 18 gsm, 23 gsm, etc. 

The Assessment

Making an assessment of the object of conservation is the first step in book restoration.

In this example, we are working on restoring a fairly recent book published in 1972, but the quality of the paper and binding is quite poor.

Let us take a look:

Observations

This is the first edition of the book, 'Voice Real' published by SRCM in India in 1972.



This book looks pretty nice on the outside. But let us turn the page.

We notice that:

- The quality of the paper is quite poor. It is acidic, and is turning the paper to yellow

- Paper appears brittle

- Stopgap repairs have been undertaken, by gluing a piece of paper to keep the book block attached to the spine

We can see that the paper is so brittle that it is breaking apart. 

The book has some photographs printed on art paper (Ceramic coated paper), and a tape has been used to keep it together

The color of the paper is turning yellow, which indicates that the paper is acidic. Acidic papers age very quickly and turns the paper brittle. 

The book is a tightback

Hot glue has been used to glue the spine to the cloth cover

The binding has come apart, and is in poor condition. 

Another view of how brittle the spine is. 

Some pages appear to be a lot further into the process of aging. We can see this from the difference in the color of the paper. 

Also, we can see that some of the pages (beginnings of chapters, etc.), do not have page numbers. It is important that all pages are numbered before we proceed. 

The book block is coming apart in the spine, all across the book. The issue is not only with the binding, but the book block as well. It is in poor shape indeed. 

Several pages have been underlined with pens and pencil. We are not sure at this stage if this has been done with an ink pen or with a ball pen.  

A soft ear bud (QTip) can be moistened with water and swabbed on the paper where the ink is present to see if the ink runs off. If it does, it indicates further processing is required to fix the ink on paper. If it does not, we can proceed with the next steps. 

This has to be done for every ink mark in the book. We cannot assume that the same pen would have been used to make all the ink marks. 

Pencil marks are not a problem, and do not pose any issues when processing the folios. 

In this case, we are still in the process of learning, and will proceed without further processing. 

Tapes used on the end paper towards the end of the book as well. 

In normal circumstances, annotations such as this are considered valuable and should be preserved, 

The book is coming apart at several points in the spine. The paper has turned brittle and the hot glue used has lost all its adhesion properties.

Some pages / sections are intact, and the sewing is still in position. 

There are multiple photographs that have been printed in art papers, and have been tipped onto the book block. 

Preparatory Steps for Restoration

Preparatory steps before beginning to work on the project include:

• Numbering all pages, with a pencil
• Identifying any missing pages / Folios
• Determining how many pages / folios make up each section
• Assessing the type of binding (Hollow / Tightback), Type of sewing, end bands (Present or absent), Type of material used for binding (Paper, Calico), Type of glue, presence and numbers of photographic plates, etc. 
• If photographs are present, note down the position where they are inserted

Determine the nature of repair to be carried out. In all cases, the choice is always one of the degree of effort, which directly implies the balance between time / cost on on hand, and the extent of restoration. The basis for this determination is always the value of the book, and how much effort needs to be invested to restore the book. 

Having made the assessment, we will proceed to disassemble the book and begin the restoration process. Continue the journey by clicking here...