Soaking - What exactly can be removed?
 

I have soaked some cards to remove extra paper and pieces before and it worked very well. I am curious what else can be removed with the process. I know staining and ink do not come off but what about dirt? What about other unidentified stuff? Does "dabbing" with a q-tip or paper towel help? My questions surround the card below as its a beautiful Collins except this dirt on the back.

The loose dirt will come off but the dirt will also stain the card that will not come off. It could improve the looks but my guess is that there will be a stain that will remain.

um - what would you soak it in? or what would u dab it with?
(sry if this is a dumb question, i have never cleaned up a card)

It all depends on the composition of the dirt and how it is stuck on the card. If it were me I would do as suggested and try removing a small piece of dirt by gently rubbing with a Q tip and water and see what happens. Be gentile and good luck.

edited to add..... I have had this card for many years and have always contemplated getting the dirt on the back of it off but have just never done it. I think it would improve the appearance.

http://luckeycards.com/pt207redcross.jpg

i think "blotting" with a qtip...would be a better technique than "rubbing."

not a rub...just an opinion!!!!:)

Thanks guys, Im right on the fence on this one. Blotting seems the best way to go, but I didnt think about the fact that the dirt will probably leave a stain...great point. My concern was pulling some paper off with the dirt, I know its a 15 but they are also pretty fragile (even though 14s are transparent). My gut hasnt decided yet...any opinions on the dirt on the front of this Tinker?

honestly...with my little experience w/soaking...I'd consider a soak over rubbing/blotting on a 14' CJ due to the super fragile nature of the card...or doing nothing at all!!!!

If you are asking an opinion about that CJ card, I would leave it alone. You can still read all of the writing and it's not too distracting.

The plan is to soak and the dab/blot while the card is soaking -OR- soak and then apply a ton of pressure to a paper towel on top of the dirt spots and try to "soak it up" into the towel.

Good luck...you should do a time lapse video!!!!

That'd be cool :cool:

I would not do anything until you know that CJ are ok to soak with water. I know most exhibits soak fine but a few of the colored ones like red, blue, pink have issues with losing ink and sometimes it spreading or just going away (I had a pink Traynor that lost all its color bummer). Also I know the red in E93's sometimes has issues, as you can see on the glove and belt below.


http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...storious40.jpg

soaking
 

I've had mixed results with soaking. I soaked an e90-1 that had scotch tape on the back and the soaking improved the card from very poor to poor.

I soaked a t213-2 with scotch tape on the back and the tape came off, but the front was completely ruined. Both cards were very poor to begin with. I would hesitate to soak a card that I thought had any value as it is.

Ive soaked both 1914s and 1915s w/o a problem, just never tried to remove dirt or used a q-tip/towel to dab/blot with.

I've had success with paper stuck on but have not tried the Q-tip method for stains/dirt. Anyone successful with T206s? Would love to try on this guy.

http://i.imgur.com/HhBr9.jpg

Imo, you've got to be crazy to soak, blot, or in any other way apply liquid to a 100 year old baseball card. The stains are part of its character and history. Leave them be and enjoy the card(s) as they are, in all their antique glory.

Im not trying to remove the caramel stains and their glory, going after the dirt that was applied after the fact as previously stated...

Sometimes there can be paper remnants which very easily come off with water. With the remnants, parts of or all of the printing, might not be able to be read. Without the remnants it can be read. No doubt almost anyone would rather be able to read the back of a well printed card instead of only seeing paper remnants. But certainly to each their own....(and I do agree that many times leaving what is on the card is a good thing, when it adds to it's character)

It would be nice to see a list of card sets, and whether or not they can be soaked. For instance, I was very surprised that National Copper Plate premiums could be completely soaked - who would have guessed?

What's the verdict on Cracker Jacks? Complete Immersion? just carefully cue-tipping?

If I cant completely immerse a card, I would leave it be for fear of leaving a clean spot, lol. I have never soaked for reasons of dirt, only to remove scrapbook remnants, and even then have only ever done one sport card; a C56, improved it from an AUTH to a BVG-1 though. Have done lots of non-sports cards, and never really had any issues with them, (I do have some J-cards i plan on submitting as a result of how nice they came out!).

--kilo.

so just to be clear here...Soaking a card = fully putting it in water???

Haha. Yes. It does sound horrible until you've gotten away with it.

CJ are completely soakable, both 1914s and 1915s. At thh National I soaked about 6k worth of 1914s for an associate to remove the scrap paper they were attatched to and I have soaked a few of my 1915s for the same reason. They do well in boiling water, but I only let them soak for 5-10 minutes opposed to the 1956 topps I soaked for hours. The biggest risk with a CJ is creasing the card post-soak but there are ways around that as well.

A couple months ago, I successfully soaked a huge piece of scrapbook off of the back of a C-46 Imperial Billy Nattress. When the cardboard broke loose, there was still a bit of residue remaining. I broke out a Q-Tip and spurred on by the early positive results, I got a tad over-zealous and created a rare "missing three letters" variation. It only took one mis-directed swipe.....Oops!!:D

I soaked off a bunch of T206 out of a scrap book last year. I started with the beaters first and did the same thing with a couple of them. I changed to a cotton ball instead of a Q-Tip and had a lot better results. The cotton ball was more forgiving than the Q-Tip. I'm not a surgeon though. I'm more of hammer and chisel person. :D

Results to follow

hey that will be great to see! Thanks so much for making that effort.

T205: It's been 8-10 years since I soaked one of these, but I don't remember any adverse effects to the front, but...the backs were a different story. I found that I had to be much more careful than with T206's - for the more difficult cases, bits of writing would come off almost as easily as the undesired stuff.

Video I made the first time I attempted this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1QFe7T8zK8

http://i.imgur.com/B0Ak0.jpg

Another nice suggestion Bruce...

Chris,

How long,from start to finish did it take for the paper residue to come off of the card in your video? Also, did you have additional glue to remove,when the paper peeled off? If so, how did you remove it?

I'd say it soaked for 10 minutes and it started to peel off on its own. I think I have early video I can post.

I lightly used my finger to clean off any residue (cotton is likely a better choice). It came off surprisingly clean.

Thats how long it takes for pasta to COOK - :eek:

sometimes I use different sized artist brushes to gently remove debris from t206's while they are soaking.

That would be awesome.

Chris, what was coin/token in the bowl next to the card? Was it used to keep the card submerged?

Yep, he really didn't want to stay under.

Chris, I wish I had a video of the night I soaked my National Copper Plate premiums. It was intense. :o

Yes, you need a method to keep the cards totally submerged. I call it card-waterboarding.:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

I use a very rounded spoon handle. It just seems more humane that way.

lmao!!!

How do you dry the card? Air dry, Blowdryer? Pat with paper towle?

Does the card ever loose color, pieces of cardboard it wasnt supposed to or just get all bowed or wrinkiled????

Before-After
 

Here are 2 I soaked in water

Just so you are clear, modern day cardboard is not soakable. It reacts how you are thinking cardboard would react to getting wet. Someone better informed than I will need to tell you which sets are OK to soak other than the T206 and the C46. I am not sure if it is a certain year when the industry changed across the board. Also. older glues seem to come off easier and more completely.

so T206 can be soaked, what about the t205?

yep

Larry,,,What do you think that was on your two soaked cards...tobacco most likely? How long did you soak them to get those results?...I have only soaked to remove paper , not stains.....

Mike,
I soaked them in water over night. I think both cards for the most part were dirty with tobacco stains.

Larry, the colors on the front seem to have faded a bit after the soak; is this accurate or is it just the scans?

it's the scan quality

the results are in

nice improvement larry!