Has anyone ever soaked a Baseball Magazine Premium
 

I have a Scalk on a horrible piece of paper, but it is glued down pretty well. Has anyone ever tried to soak one of these? Results?

James G

Yes. And it can be done...

Drying it is the challenge. The last few times I soaked one I softly blotted it with a dishcloth to absorb as much water as I could. Have some paper changes ready so you can dry it and avoid wrinkles. Be patient and careful when moving it from water, so as not to tear it.

Frank, this is interesting. Since these are photogravures, I'm not surprised that water will not damage the actual image, but it is surprising that the paper can recover. I collect Curtis (and other) photogravures, so this information is nice to know, although I can't imagine getting water on them.

Frank - what do you think of soaking this one? Any advice is appreciated, as I really need to remove the newspaper addition:

http://www.huntauctions.com/phone/img95/978.jpg

Scott...

First, let me mention something to refrain from doing. Something will either soak, or it won't. Sometimes folks dab a little water on a card to loosen something or wash something away, their thinking is that a little water might not hurt as much as a dousing. The result is a watermark, a wavy line, or several, showing where the damp met dry... so I don't think a partial soaking is much good.

Now for what to do. The piece with the newsprint on it has a torn corner. Where that tear meets the right edge there is a small amount of paper that juts up above the tear. If it were me, and I had no idea if that would soak or not, I'd tear off that little tiny piece and soak in in water for half a day or so. Then I'd attempt to blot it and dry it. If it soak ok, then I'd put that big piece in a big piece of Tupperware, a CLEAN baking sheet with raised edges, or something similar. I'd soak the entire piece for half an hour or so, then see how the newsprint is doing. I'd think it would loosen and separate from the bigger piece. It would soak to pieces eventually, so carefully fish it out if you're wanting to save the newsprint. That piece of newsprint is likely to have left an acidic mark on the big piece, unless it is really old newsprint. So it needs to come off of there. I'd change water a time or two, and rinse the thing off well. If much of a mark remains then that newsprint was acidic, might consider a pinch of baking soda in one of the water changes to buffer the acidity briefly, then another clean soak.

One way of thinking about that big piece is that the longer the newsprint stays attached, the more damage it will cause.

Hopefully it's on there with flour paste, so it will soak right off. It could be on there with some meaner material, that could be a problem.

Hope that helps. FW

Thanks Frank - very helpful. When you originally responded to the initial post, I never thought I would end up dealing with something similar.

I won't have this piece for a week or two, but look forward to posting pics of the process.

Frank - what do you think about using an iron? I removed an old supplement from a backing a few days ago that was glued at each corner by using a thin towel and an hot iron. It worked like on charm.

Doug

Hey Doug,

I've yet to try that. I did think about it once when looking at bits of old, broken rubber band stuck to a 1933 Goudey.

Sounds like it worked well for you. The glue / paste / adhesive that confronts you would be a factor. Anything that works is good.

Scott, let us know how it goes, please.

I have a couple of supplements that I would like to remove from the backing, but the whole concept of submerging them in water scares me. That having been said, I also feel like the heat from an iron could help to make them more brittle, although it didn't seem to have that effect on the one I removed the other day.

Doug

I appreciate the idea - I'll let you know what happens.

Doug, try soaking a beater if you have one.

The first card I soaked was a T206. I did it after being assured, for a couple of years or so as I recall, that it would be ok. The gentleman had told me about soaking scrapbook sheets in a bathtub overnight, with no problems. When I finally decided to try it, I didn't soak the card that had paper stuck on the back, I soaked a beater T206 to see what happened. It sat in the water fine, came out fine, dried well... everything was great. So then I tried the card that had the extra stuff pasted to its backside. That went well, too. Point is to soak something you could live with losing to get over the anxiety of it.

That's a very good idea that I should have thought of. I have a couple duplicate Police Gazette supplements that are stuck to things that I can experiment with.

Doug

Job done on the National Copper Plate supplement. The semi-glossy surface made this very easy - very similar to just soaking a T206, but even easier.

The glue was not the simple stuff where the unwanted paper slips right off, but it wasn't the impossible stuff either - it required gently tugging and scraping. Glue had been applied only along the left margin of the Sporting Life newspaper photo, about 1/2"- 3/4", very heavily. I started by dipping that part of the supplement in a tray of water, but eventually just fully submerged the entire thing and let it soak. There was a tough area where the glue didn't want to let go - I lost two small spots of the black border lines.

The EASY part was drying it. The soaking even took several creases out. I kept blotting with typing paper until it was completely dry and flat - there was no warping at all. I then put it in a large piece of blotting paper and weighted it down under some books for about 2 hours. Job done. Just the two small bits of paper loss, a touch of glue residue, and some minor staining where the newspaper picture had been.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Congrats, Scott

Thanks Doug. The key was the semi-glossy surface. I think most supplements would have warped.