{"id":2363,"date":"2023-01-29T15:50:29","date_gmt":"2023-01-29T15:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/?p=2363"},"modified":"2023-01-29T15:50:29","modified_gmt":"2023-01-29T15:50:29","slug":"basic-tear-repair-on-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/basic-tear-repair-on-paper\/","title":{"rendered":"Basic Tear Repair on Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">This post is about basic repair for tears in paper. Many tears in paper can easily be repaired by a simple process if you have the right equipment. This guide is for simple tears when you have no loss of material. It requires a few tools that most conservators or conservation studio should have on hand. If not, they can easily be found in conservation or archive suppliers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">To do this you will need minimal materials:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A pair of tweezers<\/li>\n<li>A brush<\/li>\n<li>A water brush<\/li>\n<li>Adhesive<\/li>\n<li>Japanese tissue paper<\/li>\n<li>Nonstick material (Reemay\/Bondina)<\/li>\n<li>A scalpel<\/li>\n<li>Weights or a book press<\/li>\n<li>Blotting paper<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">The pair of tweezers is to help you place the tissue paper at the right place. To do so, you might want to use a light box to make sure you are analyzing the situation properly and that you will cover the entire tear. Sometimes tears can be hard to see with normal lighting, so a light box is a practical tool to see more details. I would recommend closing the light box before applying the adhesive. The tissue paper being as thin as possible, it will be hard to see if it is well place and if the adhesive is appropriately applied onto the tissue paper. If you don\u2019t have a light box, you can put a light source under the paper to look at it with a magnifier.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">The brush is to apply the adhesive. You can choose whatever size you feel more comfortable with. I prefer a brush on the smaller side and spread out the adhesive in more motion. I find I have more control over the adhesive placement that way. I prefer one with softer bristles.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">The water brush is to help tear the tissue paper. This type of tissue has specific fibres that you don\u2019t want to cut with scissors. You want to keep the full length of the fibres to be able to have a strong bond between the paper and the tissue without the mending being visible. By using a water brush, it is possible to easily tear the tissue paper in the desired size without any difficulty. You can also substitute that for a small pointy brush and water. You will simply have to dip your brush to make sure the tissue is wet where you want to tear it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">The adhesive is up to you. The classics are wheat starch paste, Klucel G and methyl cellulose. Wheat starch is the most used in book binding and paper repair and has been used for a long time. For this project, that is what I will use. I can be done quite fast using a microwave. I make it with a ration of 1:10, 1g of wheat starch for 10\u00a0ml of water. It is good for about a week when kept in the refrigerator, therefore you should do only the amount you need to limit waste. Methyl cellulose is also quite fast to do, but less so than the paste. It can, however, be kept longer in the refrigerator. For this type of repair, you can use the one you have already prepared or the one you prefer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Japanese tissue paper is the crucial element of the mending. You need to choose the right density of fibres for the mending to work, but also keep in mind paper itself. More often than not, tears are not strategically placed on the paper. They can be where there are some writings. In that case, you don\u2019t want to hide the words or details. Therefore, you should try to find the thinnest tissue paper that will do the job. Usually when there is something underneath, conservators tend to go for 3\u00a0gsm. It is light but strong and will keep the tear from getting bigger but won\u2019t hide the details underneath. It works for most tears. Six gram per square metre is a good option if something stronger is required. However, it is thicker and will hide the details of what is underneath a bit. It is best used in places where there is only paper, and no ink, like on the edges or in the centre crease of the folded pages of a book.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"post-2365 media-2365\" class=\"image align-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 514px;height: 576px\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/228\/2023\/01\/tempImageMZEj4H-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">Different thickness of Japanese tissue paper. The writing underneath indicate the thickness of the paper that covers it<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before starting to repair paper, you should always clean the paper first. Mending comes after the cleaning of the surface or object you want to work on. \u00a0You want to have a clean surface to work with; otherwise the grime will get stuck in the adhesive and the entire mending will need to be removed to remove the grime.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is important to do this on a surface that glue won\u2019t stick to. The usual ones are Reemay and Bondina. The glue won\u2019t stick to the surface; therefore, you won\u2019t tear the paper further when the process is over and it is time to remove the paper from between the nonstick material. You can put a piece of those on top of your work surface. It needs to be bigger than the paper you are working on. You will need two of those for each paper. You will also need two blotting paper for each piece of paper you are working on. The Bondina\/Reemay and the blotting paper can be reused for other projects.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once you have determined the placement of the tear, the appropriate Japanese tissue, the adhesive you want to use, you can place your Reemay\/Bondina on the table and start working.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Measure the Japanese tissue paper. For a simple tear, you want to have a perimeter of 3\u00a0mm around it to help strengthen the area. If the tear is on the edge, like in my pictures, you can measure your tissue and double it since we are going to fold it on the other side. Once the measures are taken, you can place it on another surface and use the water brush to wet around the piece you\u2019ll need. Once that is done, you can simply tear the piece out. That way you keep the long fibres of the tissue intact.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"post-2367 media-2367\" class=\"image align-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 178px;height: 237px\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/228\/2023\/01\/tempImagecBcMjL-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">An example of a piece of tissu paper 6gsm torn away using the water brush<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"post-2368 media-2368\" class=\"image align-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" style=\"width: 216px;height: 288px\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/228\/2023\/01\/tempImageKi1cQM-scaled-e1675004407316.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">Piece of tissue paper on the tear before the adhesive. 6gsm was used since the paper is quite thick and to allow the tissue to be visible in the pictures<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<li>If your tissue paper is quite thin, like a 3\u00a0gsm, you can put the tissue where the tear is and apply the adhesive on top of it. You want to start inside and go outwards when applying the adhesive to get a smoother result. The tissue paper is thin enough that the glue will penetrate fast through it and will allow a good bond between the tissue and the paper. If you are using a higher gsm, you can apply the glue on the paper on another surface, like a marble piece or a plastic, pick it up with tweezers and place it on the paper. You should apply pressure on it to make sure the tissue is touching properly the surface of the paper.<\/li>\n<li>If you the tear is on the edge, you can fold your tissue paper on the other side and to step 2 again. Otherwise, you can take another piece of the proper size on onto the other side of the paper and do step 2 again.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"post-2371 media-2371\" class=\"image align-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 298px;height: 181px\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/228\/2023\/01\/tempImagedjFMoP.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">This tissue paper covers two tears that are near each other. It will be folded and the adhesive will be applied on top. The longer tear has already been repaired<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<li>Once the tissue is properly applied, sandwich your paper between pieces of Bondina or Reemay. Add another layer to the sandwich by putting blotting paper on each side. Once your 5-layer sandwich is created, out it in a press or under weights. This will allow the paper to dry flat. Leave it overnight.<\/li>\n<li>Once the drying process is done, you can cut with a scalpel the excess Japanese tissue that is going over the edges of your paper. And voila! You have repaired a tear in your paper.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"post-2366 media-2366\" class=\"image align-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 359px;height: 269px\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/228\/2023\/01\/tempImagewxOa9G-scaled-e1675003976727.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">Three tears that were repaired using two strips of Japanese tissue paper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you have multiple tears, you can address them all at the same time and do steps 4 and 5 once all the tears have been covered with tissue paper.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sources to look at for more information:<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">NEDCC (2019), <em>Surface Cleaning of Paper<\/em>, https:\/\/www.nedcc.org\/free-resources\/preservation-leaflets\/7.-conservation-procedures\/7.2-surface-cleaning-of-paper Consulted on the 29th January 2023<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">This guide gives you more information on cleaning.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wagner, Katie (2013), <em>The Fix- The Art of Simple Paper Repair<\/em>, Available at: <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.library.si.edu\/blog\/2013\/03\/13\/the-fix-the-art-of-simple-paper-repair\/#.Y9Licy2FA1I\">https:\/\/blog.library.si.edu\/blog\/2013\/03\/13\/the-fix-the-art-of-simple-paper-repair\/#.Y9Licy2FA1I <\/a>Consulted on the 29th January 2023<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">This article gives you an example of paper repair and a quick how to.<\/p>\n<p>Morrow, C. and Dyal, C.(1986). <em>Conservation Treatment Procedures<\/em>. Library Unlimited Inc, Colorado.2nd edition,<\/p>\n<p>The book is a bit old, however the chapter on mending using Japanese paper is quite well illustrated. Conservators now use tissue paper instead of thick paper like in the book, but the steps are the same.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson, Arthur W. (1981), <em>The Tames and Hudson Manual of bookbinding<\/em>. London: Thames and Hudson.<\/p>\n<p>This book is a good reference for bookbinding. It has a small section on tear repairs. Some images show different type of repairs possible on tears and infills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This post is about basic repair for tears in paper. Many tears in paper can easily be repaired by a simple process if you have the right equipment. This guide [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":6885,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-cu-conservation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4fDDX-C7","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2042,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/the-use-of-japanese-tissue-paper-in-the-conservation-of-natural-history-specimens-the-in-filling-and-re-furring-of-a-taxidermy-atlantic-grey-seal-pup\/","url_meta":{"origin":2363,"position":0},"title":"The Use of Japanese Tissue Paper in the Conservation of Natural History Specimens: The In-filling and Re-furring of a Taxidermy Atlantic Grey Seal Pup","author":"Robyn Timmins","date":"January 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Last October, during the first class of my first year of the Conservation Practice MSc at Cardiff University, I expressed an interest in natural history collections. The result was being allocated a taxidermy Atlantic Grey Seal pup (Fig.1) from Tenby Museum as my first object. Looking through the object documents,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;About CU Conservation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"About CU Conservation","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/category\/about-cu-conservation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/228\/2022\/01\/DSC4170-done-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":725,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/preserving-and-displaying-layers-of-history-the-stock-certificate-nearly-destroyed-on-september-11\/","url_meta":{"origin":2363,"position":1},"title":"Preserving and displaying layers of history: The stock certificate nearly destroyed on September 11","author":"Devin Mattlin","date":"October 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0This post was originally written for the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institute. You can find the original post on their blog here. They have kindly given us permission to share the post on our blog as well. \u00a0 The history behind a single object can often\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Internships and Placements&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Internships and Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/category\/internships-and-placements\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/228\/2017\/10\/devin-post.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/228\/2017\/10\/devin-post.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/228\/2017\/10\/devin-post.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":45,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/stabilisation-of-the-matcham-collection-interning-at-the-va\/","url_meta":{"origin":2363,"position":2},"title":"Stabilisation of the Matcham Collection at the V&amp;A with Nerys Rudder","author":"Nerys Rudder","date":"January 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"During the summer of 2013 I was very fortunate to have a placement in the Conservation Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. I was involved with many activities, like cleaning tapestries and upholstery in the British Galleries, repairing and mounting memorabilia for the Afro Supa Hero Exhibition\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Internships and Placements&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Internships and Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/category\/internships-and-placements\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ramona Riedzewski, Theatre and Performance Collection Archivist and Conservation Manager moving blueprints with students and interns.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/228\/2014\/01\/matcham-stabilisation-blueprint-sorting-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/228\/2014\/01\/matcham-stabilisation-blueprint-sorting-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/228\/2014\/01\/matcham-stabilisation-blueprint-sorting-300x225.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":431,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/shedding-some-light-glamorgan\/","url_meta":{"origin":2363,"position":3},"title":"Shedding some light &#8211; using the Glamorgan Archives lightboard for map conservation","author":"Pamela Murray","date":"January 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Devin Mattlin and myself have been volunteering at the Glamorgan Archives for the last 3 months under the guidance of Lydia Stirling. We have been cleaning pamphlets and a leather bound book from the 1800s. The conservation lab at the archives is a beautiful room with large windows, lots of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Volunteering&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Volunteering","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/category\/volunteering\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/228\/2017\/01\/photo5pam.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/228\/2017\/01\/photo5pam.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/228\/2017\/01\/photo5pam.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2160,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/welcome-to-a-new-year-in-the-cuconservation-labs-handy-blog-posts-to-read\/","url_meta":{"origin":2363,"position":4},"title":"Welcome to a new year in the CUConservation labs: Handy blog posts to read","author":"Courtney Lyons","date":"October 3, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to a new academic year in the CU Conservation labs!! If you are a new student looking for what to expect in the lab, with object treatments or you are a prospective student looking for some more information about studying conservation before you apply, here are a few blog\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;About CU Conservation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"About CU Conservation","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/category\/about-cu-conservation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2017,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/rebinding-a-childrens-book\/","url_meta":{"origin":2363,"position":5},"title":"Rebinding a Children&#8217;s Book","author":"Estelle Girard","date":"January 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Context \u00a0One of the objects I\u2019m working on currently is a children\u2019s story book. After an in-depth condition assessment of the object and a talk with the owner, I decided that that best way to conserve the book was by rebinding it as part of the treatment. The book\u2019s original\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;About CU Conservation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"About CU Conservation","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/category\/about-cu-conservation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/228\/2022\/01\/Sans-titre-e1642566214912.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6885"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2372,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363\/revisions\/2372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/conservation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}