Annual repair.

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David McDonald
Posts: 234
Joined: 01 Mar 2006, 21:56
Location: Mayo,Ireland
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Annual repair.

Post by David McDonald »

I usually pick up annuals or comics if they are of interest, despite the condition.
They must be complete, but spines missing or torn, tears in pages, while I'd prefer if they were not there would not put me off buying.

While I done mind the poor condition, I still want to keep them in as good a shape as I got them for my future reading bouts. Sellotape and similar can yellow and become brittle over time.
My question is can anyone suggest some form of 'archive tape' that would be suitable for taping the tears or ripped spines?

Thanks.

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koollectablz
Posts: 490
Joined: 05 Mar 2006, 18:30

Re: Annual repair.

Post by koollectablz »

For tears to paper pages I'd recommended using Arcane Transparent Mending Tissue, this is self adhesive, will not yellow over time, acid free, extremely thin and strong and once burnished into the page pretty much disappears.

For repairs to spines, (first off I'd recommended buying one undamaged but if that's not possible) the best thing to do is to evaluate whether you actually have missing material or the spine itself is still complete but damaged.

If it's complete but damaged, I'd repair using a flexible glue - copydex is good in that regard and can be repositioned while it dries.

If the spine is completely missing then I'd consider either using a binding tape or (if the item is rare enough) have the whole book itself rebound. Good examples of annuals that are beyond repair and would lend themselves to be rebound are 1940s DC Thomson style bindings. Also annuals with just a plain spine. Any annuals from around the mid fifties onward I'd just repair as best you can with glue to prevent any further damage.

I've recently taken up book binding and have had some good success with adding cloth bindings to later annuals too but that is very time consuming and isn't really finanacially sensible. To do it to a high standard it's really necessary to invest in quite a number of tools too. Good luck with however you decide to proceed! It's very rewarding to turn around a book that looks fit for the bin into something that can last another 60 years.

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babington
Posts: 281
Joined: 01 Feb 2010, 22:24

Re: Annual repair.

Post by babington »

Just to note that while most UK annuals aren't worth much now, the US equivalent are drastically reduced in value by any kind of repair or restoration. So my inclination on rarer UK titles would be to leave them alone. I know if I was buying a 1940s Beano or Dandy book I wouldn't buy it if someone had repaired or restored it. But if it's a cheap book that just becomes more readable with a few repairs then I wouldn't be worried. Some eBay sellers put a strip of coloured masking tape on the spines of old annuals to make them look better than they are, which I think is a shame.

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