Removing Plastic Film from a Book Cover

[DrPMC]

Today I received a new addition, a book, Das Buch des Deutschen Bauern (1935) which, as you will see, has a very striking odal rune embossed on the cover. Unfortunately, someone has covered the fabric boards with self-adhesive clear plastic, which looks awful.

I have managed to successfully peel away the film from most of the boards and spine but have run into trouble on the parts where the title is embossed - there, even gently teasing the film off, is tending to lift off some of the silver of the lettering.

I wonder if anyone knows of any technique which would allow me to remove the film with the minimum damage?

Less seriously, the removal of the film has left a little sticky residue in some places - is there any way of removing that safely?

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Regards,

Philip

[Danmark]

You could try heating the film ( carefully ) with a hair dryer - this may soften the film and adhesive more than the gilding and allow it to come off. Residue is harder - maybe a methylated or white spirits or tea tree /eucalyptus oil???

*****disclaimer ***** please don't blame me if this doesn't work out. It is a risk no matter WHAT you attempt.
I'm just offering an opinion.

Good luck, Dan

[DrPMC]

Hi Dan, and thank you for your suggestions.

I had thought about a solvent for the sticky bits but suspect that it may also dissolve the dye in the fabric.

If it doesn't work out I certainly wont be blaming anyone - apart from myself, perhaps!

Fortunately the book wasn't expensive, but obviously I don't want to spoil it, not after it's survived a world war and nearly eighty years!

Regards,

Philip

[StefanM]

Philip, hi, To remove film adhesive residue I have used a golfball sized rolled up piece of Sellotape - sticky side out - and used it as a pencil rubber to gentle pick rub off the sticky residue...it sticks to the Sellotape adhesive. Important to rub gently sideways rather than dab as dabbing might take up the cloth cover also.

You can also try a Cow Gum rubber for this, I think it is called Toucan Studio Gum these days.

As per Danmark's suggestion. To remove the film try a hair dryer on gentle heat and heat the film slightly, enough to warm the film adhesive a little so that it peels away from the cloth book cover more easily. Gentle warming heat is the key. You might want to put a layer of tinfoil under the book cover to stop the rest of the book pages drying out too much as 70 year old paper fibre can be very brittle.

The foil blocking might still get damaged as heat is used in the foil blocking process so applying heat might cause lifting of the foil.

Good luck

[DrPMC]

Hello Stephan, thank you for your advice.

I shall probably try the hair dryer later today. Its good to have the information on the foil blocking process - I shall be very careful with the heat.

Regarding the Cow Gum/Sellotape method, I have also been told to use a Crepe Rubber Eraser (http://www.preservationequipment.com/Store/Products/Disaster-$4-Cleaning/Erasers/Crepe-Rubber-Eraser), which I guess works on the same principle.

Regards,

Philip

[StefanM]

Hello Stephan, thank you for your advice.

I shall probably try the hair dryer later today. Its good to have the information on the foil blocking process - I shall be very careful with the heat.

Regarding the Cow Gum/Sellotape method, I have also been told to use a Crepe Rubber Eraser (http://www.preservationequipment.com/Store/Products/Disaster-$4-Cleaning/Erasers/Crepe-Rubber-Eraser), which I guess works on the same principle.

Regards,

Philip

Philip, hi,

Yes, the crepe rubber eraser can also be used to remove Cow Gum etc. When commercial artwork was produced as a craft, Cow Gum, scalpels, crepe erasers, CS10 and Ronson lighter fuel were to be found on every graphic artists drawing board

[wood]

Re last post.
Yup, I use lighter fluid.
Pete

[DrPMC]

An update on my little book restoration job.

I found the hair dryer technique worked very well, although used the higher heat setting. Heatproof fingers would have been useful but otherwise it was straightforward. As you will see in the image below, the silver blocking was lost in a few spots, but I think this damage was caused when I originally tried to peel off the plastic without heat. The crepe rubber (shown below) also did a good job of picking up the residual adhesive.

I'm hoping to eventually include the book in a small display of Reichsnährstand related items all marked with the odal rune.

Once again, my thanks to all who contributed to this thread.

Regards, Philip

[Wagriff]

Turned out great-looks fine. Nice job!

[Adrian Stevenson]

Nice work. Turned out much better than I had expected.

Cheers, Ade.