To Tape or not to Tape
 

When you have a card torn into multiple pieces (t206 specifically) - do you tape it back together? Just keep the pieces together? Something else?

Just scotch tape? Something else?

Just wondering what everyone's thoughts were. I just picked up a two piece card and trying to figure out what to do with it. At this point I just plan on taping it back together with scotch tape unless the board has a better idea. It is just a common card, common back, so no significant value.

Which just made me think - what does PSA or SGC do if you send them a two piece card? Just encapsulate both pieces?

You can put it back together using Elmers white school glue. Then later you can just soak it and it will be back in pieces.

I agree with the Elmer's glue. I absolutely, positively would not use tape. At best tape will leave a residue if and when removed; at worst the surface of the card will come off with the tape if and when removed.

:(

Many years ago, I acquired two T330-2 Piedmont Art Stamps of WaJo, each of which was missing a significant portion of the stamp. Last year, I finally decided in my infinite wisdom (questionable!) to do a cut and tape job to end up with one somewhat presentable stamp, which I then sent to SGC to hopefully get slabbed with an "A" grade. Here are pics of it before and after slabbing:

I have a roll of this archival tape I've used a couple of times on the back of photos. It would work on cards as well. You can buy this or similar products at any archival supply, or even Amazon. It's usually $15-$18 a roll.

Thanks for the thoughts
 

I'll try the Elmer's glue - assuming there is some overlap to glue on - or just kind of coat both sides in a thin layer?

Kind of amazing to me that these two little pieces of cardboard have stayed together for over 100 years without being attached to each other - unless of course the rip happened recently.

Wajo
 

Funny - that your taped stamp is Wajo - one of the few cards that I have that is taped back together (2 or 3 that I can think of out of 1400 or so) is a Wajo Hands at Chest.

Are there not professional restorers for cards? They'd be able to mend a card far better than could any dilettante.

;)

placed into binder as-is

This is the correct answer. And one of the only adhesive fixes that can be reverted.

If you want to see how an actual pro does this it's pretty crazy. Reattaching the fibers with extremely thin tissue fiber.

https://youtu.be/dbnxisNkrVg

Here is my two-piece, no-tape Ruth, carefully slid into, and scanned while within, a Card Savers 2 sleeve, where it remains to this day.

Brian (but I really should remove it from the scanner bed)

archival tape
 

this stuff works great water soluble if you want to reverse someday.

filmoplast

Attachment 653600

Just spray a little Kurt’s on it. The pieces should reattach, good as new, no?

Wish we had somebody on the forum who was good at this kind of thing. I have a postcard (maybe $50) that is ripped in half. I would love to have it reattached but don't trust myself 🤣. And conservators are basically $100/hr minimum. Some things it just has to be done by yourself or it doesn't make sense to fix at all.

For a $50 item, is it really worth it to spend $18 on archival tape? If you can research the shelf life of a roll of the stuff and it appears to last a long time, then maybe. The thing to ask yourself is how many times do you think you're going to find yourself in this situation?

After nearly 40 years, I have only needed to repair tears maybe twice that I can recall. I used Elmer's. The result was OK, but definitely could have used a bit more practice.

I suggest gathering a sampling of various cardboard stock and tearing it apart in as many ways as you can come up with. Devote a bit of time to teaching yourself the craft. I think the best advice is that you can never be too sparing with the Elmer's, as you can always try again with a little more. Too much can just make a mess, and it is sometimes amazing how little of it can qualify as "too much"!

But regarding the Elmer's, I would definitely only want to use this on lesser-valued items where it just doesn't make financial sense to buy specialty tape or glue, let alone outsourcing to a conservator.

I roll a Q-tip in the glue to load the cotton with the glue. Then I apply it by rolling the Q-tip down both edges being put together. Anyway that is what works for me so I don't make a complete mess with way too much glue.

Definitely worth it. I am not a fan of ripped in half items. And being a collector of photos it is something I run across often. A few times a photos corner is so bent, just touching lightly it completely falls off. And honestly those few times I just tossed the broken part. Not a huge deal just because century old photos missing border pieces is so common. But it's something now I'd like to fix rather than throw away. And I'd bet I have 5-10 with barely attached bits that I can tape to prevent it from happening to.

I mean, non archival Scotch tape is holding strong on 40s cards. So I expect the non yellowing no acid archival stuff to easily last twice as long.

When an item is so ragged that it won't hurt the value, and it improve the item's integrity, I will use archival tape. One roll can last years and years. I do it very infrequently but have done it to my own satisfaction several times.
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I've used the archival tape before too, to re-piece back together some separated flaps on Jell-o complete boxes.

Just keep in mind that the archival tape is not transparent, and will look like a bit of gauze wherever you place it. So you'll want to be thoughtful about where you use it. In my case with the Jell-o boxes, it was easy to position the archival tape on the inside of the box so that it wasn't visible unless you opened the box and looked inside.