preserving sheet music

[jeffshuniak]

I have some books that are bleeding. it is really humid hear in florida, 100% all weekend.

anyway, I usually keep loose sheets in the non glare plastic slips, but books I tend to leave alone, photocopying the pages I need. prob is I like to bring these entire books out... I remember in art class in high school my teacher said spraying hairspray over a pencil drawing will keep it from smearing.
has anyone tried this with sheet music,
or what else works?

[Christine W]

Would laminating them work or would that be too much glare?

[GeoMandoAlex]

I have some books that are bleeding......

A band-aid might be better. LOL. Sorry, couln't pass this one up.

[Christine W]

Nevermind I just re-read your post and I guess you can't laminate a whole book(I thought you meant loose pages). I mean you could but I don't think that would be very conducive to you learning anything out of it.

[Gavin Baird]

I understand that "Conservators Wax", used by museums, works well on documents..G

[John Flynn]

Are you saying the music is "de-composing?" Sorry...

I believe there is a "fixer" you can spray on printed paper, not unlike the fixer used in the photographic process that "fixes" the ink in place. I don't know much more than that. I have a friend who is an expert on preserving old photos and who is also a musician. If you don't get satisfaction on the board here, send me a PM and I will reach out to her.

[BenE]

How about that stuff you spray on a puzzle after it is put together....Pretty much any Wally World will carry it in stock....

[Bob DeVellis]

Krylon spray is often used by artists to fix charcoal, pencil, or pastel drawings. It's a transparent plastic coating with no appreciable affect on gloss that prevents mechanical disruption of the material -- keeps it from getting rubbed off. If ink is dissolving in your books, however, that's something else again and the solvents in Krylon or hairspray may be more of a problem than a solution. It'd test them out in a noncritical area before blasting away. Also, if these books have any cash value, any sort of spray will affect them adversely. Hairspray (which is shellac) might also make the pages more brittle. Have you tried a Google search for document conservation?

[jeffshuniak]

I think I will try google. there has got to be something out there for this, non glare formula, I hope. ha


I also thought of photocopying everything and making "new books" out of them. I do still want to preserve my originals.

[mandroid]

Look in backpacking stores, or, REI, Campmor, online , for map treatments, waterproofing, will probably need to do 1 page at #a time and let each dry ofernight , of course, works good.

In Art supplys look at fixatives for Charcoal and pastel drawings, somewhat less waterproof , but fast drying upon application.

[AspiringLuthier]

Krylon Workable Fixatif works really well. Home made bumper stickers coated with this stuff have held up for years.

[Don]

If it is just the music that you want to preserve and have available forever,you might consider scanning the pages and burning them to CDR.I've done this with a lot of old instrument catalogues and songbooks that I have.The scanning process is tedious,especially if you're doing a 300 page book.But once it's done,it's done forever,and you can access
and print as many copies as you like.For books,I've found the easiest way is to remove the spine from the book,leaving all the pages loose.I found the easiest way of accomplishing this is to take the book to Staples Office Supply and have them remove it with one of their special "cutters".You can also have them put the book back together using a "comb" binder.Doesn't cost much either.Also,the more you do this,the easier it gets.

[Dolamon]

Depending on the age of the books, and if they are "trade" editions or a more professional copy ... the problem could be not in the ink, but the matrix of the paper. Lower cost printing for years used high wood fiber (pulp) in the paper making process. This is really high acid content paper and it reacts to everything. Fingerprints, sun light, humidity, ad inf. The only way to keep these old books relatively alive is to 1/ store them in an acid free envelope, 2/ wash your hands before handling them 3/ put a desicant in the acid free envelope.

Rather than scanning these old books and breaking the spine - consequently destroying them ... use a small digital camera which can focus down to at least 15 inches. You can get one or two pages on a frame and then store it as a pix on your hard disc or a CD-RW. The normal way to archive old graphic material is this way ... the copying is done with the print upright rather than forced into a photocopier.

Oh yeah - the cheapest source for acid free envelopes is the US Post Office. They'll give you a bundle of Tyvek mailers for either Priority or Express mail. You can't tear this stuff, it's acid free and you can lable them with a Sharpie. I have about 40 labled envelope with books / music dating back to the 1850's in my library at this time.