ACK! HELP!

[averygoodun42]

Okay, I know a lot of you are crafters, and some of you deal with paper.

I have the only good copy of an old church directory so that I can scan the front cover to replace some destroyed photos. At some point today, the envelope it was being kept in was dropped on the wet tile floor (entrance) and wasn't noticed until the whole right corner of the book was soaked through. Now it's all wrinkly and horrible and... *sobs*

So far, no photos have bled, inside or out. The only visible damage is the wrinkling and some discoloration of the white inner pages. Although I feel horrible, I am not going to worry about the discoloration, but I do want to fix the wrinkling if at all possible.

Is it possible? I've separated the pages and put plastic wrap in-between each page to keep them from sticking together. I don't know what else to do.

The corner is still damp, btw.

Help. Please?

Comments

[camillo1978.livejournal.com]

Um, based on the frequency with which I drop books in the bath, I'd put weight on them to flatten them out. If you've got two big heavy books to put the directory between now you've separated the pages that should help. Just make sure that the plastic wrap won't stick to the surface of the page and lift any photos. If you can flatten them while they're still wet and leave them to dry like that it works much better.

[averygoodun.livejournal.com]

Excellent! That's what we're doing (although it's actually sandwiching it between the laminate countertop and two big art books). Thanks!

[camillo1978.livejournal.com]

Good luck! I have my fingers crossed for you.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

Ironing doesn't hurt. Just don't use steam.

[averygoodun.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It looks better, though not perfect. As good as can be expected, though!

[cecelle.livejournal.com]

I second a low-heat, no steam iron. Try it on a page where it doesn't matter that much first. But when we had our basement flood, I managed to straighten out some mementos that way.

[averygoodun.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I did and it looks better. Not perfect, but... yeah.

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

Ironing, low heat, no steam, can work wonders once it's dried out a bit. You might be able to paste new inner pages in, but it's worth asking first if that's what they want because if it is old they might want to keep it original.

[averygoodun.livejournal.com]

The inner pages I 'm not so worried about, really. There are other directories in existence, but this one was the only one that had the front in excellent condition. I ironed it out and it looks better, but it certainly isn't pristine. Ach well. At least it wasn't ancient; it was only 15 year old or so. I would feel criminal had it been older. As it is, I just feel embarrassed and ashamed. ;-/

[zalena.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, and a second tip about ironing. You might want to put it beneath a thin cloth (like one of those sacking towels) so that the paper doesn't scorch.

The way professionals deal with water damaged paper is to freeze dry it.

[averygoodun.livejournal.com]

How does freeze drying work?

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I don't really know, I just know it was the process that was used for the UNC page replacement project when I worked on it after the flood. From what I can tell, books are flash frozen to prevent damage from ice crystals forming. Then they are dried in a vacuum to sublimate the moisture. It goes directly from a frozen to a gaseous state minimizing the water damage:

http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=3246

But really, I don't know how it works. But I do know there are companies that specialize in this.