Volume 14, Number 8
Dec 1990

Products & Services

Wanted to Buy: Betty Wagner, 3017 23rd Ave. So., Nashville, TN 37215, is in the market for used bookbinding equipment, especially for a copy press.

For Sale by Owner: Bruce Bumbarger (Haverford College, Pennsylvania, 215/896-1165), wants to sell his Kwikprint Model 55, with two self-centering typeholders. For details see his earlier announcement on p. 50, in the June issue.

Howard Bradley (Bradley Associates, 1402 Hazel St., Boise, ID 83702, 208/345-9323) also wants to sell a Kwikprint, plus lots of type and a Kutrimmer board shear.

Sam Ellenport (Harcourt Bindery, 51 Melcher St., Boston, MA 02210, 617/542-5858) is selling off some old tools. He has updated his old tool catalog. It costs $10, but you get that back if you order more than $100 worth.

Stanford University is inviting bids on the following equipment and supplies: 26-inch guillotine with 2 extra blades
Hand tool cabinet with 408 tools (gouges, pallets, etc.)
Paper and board, mixed lot (listed in separate inventory)
Hand tools in metal file (= file cabinet?)
Brass roulettes, mixed lot
French blue board, mixed lot
Guillotine formerly used by Grabhorn Press.

The deadline is December 17, but might have been extended. Contact Stanford University, Surplus Property Sales, 330 Bonair Siding Road, Stanford, CA 94305-7250 (415/723-3001).

Dataloggers: The WAAC Newsletter for September, in its "Technical Exchange" column by Walter Henry, describes a datalogger for the Macintosh, the DataBear Measurer. It is small and "as Mac peripherals go, moderately priced." It can store up to 7680 readings and then give them bark in the form of graphs and statistics. It has a built-in temperature sensor and room for another sensor, so it could replace an ordinary hygrothermograph.

The National Library of Australia has been using "stick-on" temperature and relative humidity data loggers to check on the amount of protection offered by cardboard and plastic boxes and a packing crate for a travelling exhibition, against variations in temperature and RH. The thin cardboard offered on protection, but the plastic box did dampen the swings in RH considerably. None of the containers protected against temperature variations, but the crate offered excellent RH stabilization over a whole month in the tropics. See the September AICCM National Newsletter. for details.

Pens: Writing pens tested at the Glasgow Art Gallery are described elsewhere in this issue.

"A comparison of pH Pens on the Market," by J. Miller and E. McCrady. Alkaline Paper Advocate, Nov. 1990, p. 3-5. Eleven pens, including the Abbey pH Pen™, were tested on papers buffered to pH 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, and the colors shown were compared to those predicted by the manufacturers. Results made it clear that the user has to rely on himself to interpret the colors obtained with a pH pen.

Indelible Printing: At the Museo Nacionál de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid, they wanted a permanent ink for the ribbons used in their typewriters and computers for cataloging, presumably because they sometimes had to immerse identifying labels along with the item in a preserving fluid. So they took ordinary ribbons from their cartridges, washed out the ink in ethyl alcohol, then soap and water. When dry, they were coated by hand with black Rotring ink and put back in the cartridges. They worked fine. For details see Collection Forum, Spring 1990, p. 38.

Supplies: Mocon® (612/560-2900) sells permeation measurement systems that will tell you how well a barrier film will exclude moisture and oxygen.

Museum labels made of cotton rag paper and Tyvek synthetic paper are described and evaluated in two separate articles in the Spring 1990 Collection Forum. Test results and literature references are provided. Tyvek is good as a label material. It can not only be written or typed upon, but it can be permanently embossed with a #4 pencil.

Dust cloths that attract and hold the dust without the use of mineral oil are best. The Dust Bunny magnetic wiping fabric is made of a proprietary polymer with a permanent electrostatic charge, for use in the printing industry. It can be used with cleaning solvents. Because the product is machine washable and dryable, it may be reused. It was one of four new technologies to receive the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation's InterTech Awards for 1990, according to GATFWORLD for Sept./Oct. The manufacturer or supplier is Leapfrog Technologies, but no address is given.

Resistall Paper is used in natural history collections for labels that are to be stored in fluids, because it is impregnated with a wet-strength resin, melamine, that makes it stable when wet. Unfortunately, it cannot be made at an alkaline pH, because the melamine requires a low pH for the impregnation process. Whether or not the paper is actually made short-lived by use of alum (pH 4.5-5.2) under these conditions has apparently not been investigated. The wet-strength resin could be expected to increase the strength even under dry conditions markedly, and the fluid may have its own preservative qualities. If it can preserve dead fish, preserving acidic paper should be a piece of cake. (Resistall Paper is made by Byron Weston.)

Twinrocker Handmade Paper has just created two new binding papers called "Chapin" and "Chestnut," both of jute and cotton rag fiber and tan with darker visible fibers, and both laid. They look about right for endpapers and other structural purposes, but not covers. Call 317-5633119.

Basic Crafts is selling bone clasps or lid pins like those used in Japanese bookbinding. Call 212/679-3516.

A Good Back Gauge for the Vagelli Board Shear: Robert Espinosa made the following announcement on electronic mail less than a month ago, and has sold six or more since then.

"I had a custom made back gauge made for my Vagelli board shears several years ago because of the problems encountered with the gauge which came with the cutter: too heavy, scratching of the surface of the table causing materials to pick up the green paint residue, and generally clumsy to move easily.

"The new gauge is made of a lightweight aluminum, with teflon skids on the bottom, providing a very smooth action. It is anodized so there is no transfer of oxides to the operator or to material being cut. We have since made then for two other cutters in the book repair unit, a Jacques shear and an older cutter, both of which required the machining of new 'guides' for the gauge to travel on.

"I an now offering then for sale to any interested parties who would like to replace their Vagelli back gauge. If there is more interest, I can have them made for other cutters on a custom basis. The cost will be $200 for the Vagelli model.

"We have been extremely pleased with these gauges, because their light weight and virtually frictionless movement provides for very quick and easy adjustment.

"Send your queries to me here or call me at 801/3787654."

Companies: BookMakers' new address is 6001 66th Ave., Suite 101, Riverdale, MD 20737 (301/459-3384). This is near New Carrollton, at the Baltimore-Washington Expressway and Riverdale Road. Their new catalog should be out by now.

Hiromi Paper International moved on November 1, to 1317 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA 90291 (213/396-7900; fax 213/ 396-5738). They have a new price list and more kinds of paper. All of it is eastern, and most of it is handmade. Sample book: $10.

Colophon Book Arts Supply, 3046 Hogum Bay Road NE, Olympia, WA 98506 (206/459-2940), learned recently that the telephone company had been telling people that their number had been changed to an unlisted number, and it had been doing this for about six months. It is not unlisted; in fact, the company would probably like to list it in as many appropriate places as possible. Calls from customers are invited.

Disaster Services: There is an ad in the Disaster Recovery Journal for Oct.-Dec. for a drying service: World Wide Drying. It uses on-site dehumidification technology. For information call 800/442-1911.

Helene Donnelly, director of the Data & Archival Damage Control Centre in London, has opened a branch office in this country, managed by her brother, Allen C. Donnelly. For information contact him at 932 Kinnaird Ave., Fort Wayne, IN 46807 (219/456-4495).