I have used the liquid Evapo-rust (liquid not gel) before aqueous bath and after the small amount of bleaching is slightly noticeable. In some cases I have excised the remaining stain and leaf casted (with varying success due to my leaf casting inexperience). I do use distilled water to moisten the stain - and calcium hydroxide for the bath. I have found that I usually need to use the Evapo-rust multiple times
Yeah, thanks for confirming - I was thinking that would need to be the process, but was not willing to tackle it at the moment. Great info and I appreciate it :)
Jack is delightful to see alongside your excellent and thoughtful assessment. Here’s how I see it, as far as considering evapo-rust treatment to be restoration because of the bleaching, my argument with CGC would be that rust stain migration removal is conservation since it prevents deterioration of the paper by removing something that wasn’t there when the book was made, much like mitigating acid accumulation due to the lignin breakdown. And removing stains in general isn’t really restoration. They’re done on regular basis in conservation such as removing foxing due to fungal staining. The second point is that you’re prolonging the life of the book since the rust is likely to get worse over time and eat through the paper. And I agree, there are some trade-offs and not everything in conservation is reversible. And mind you, we’re removing the evaporust afterward and doing the CaOH2 bath which leaves it in as an alkaline reserve. Why is the latter not restoration? So, while I can’t predict what CGC will do, I think including a note explaining the procedure will help clarify its intent as conservation - mitigating and preserving the life of the book.
I have used the liquid Evapo-rust (liquid not gel) before aqueous bath and after the small amount of bleaching is slightly noticeable. In some cases I have excised the remaining stain and leaf casted (with varying success due to my leaf casting inexperience). I do use distilled water to moisten the stain - and calcium hydroxide for the bath. I have found that I usually need to use the Evapo-rust multiple times
Yeah, thanks for confirming - I was thinking that would need to be the process, but was not willing to tackle it at the moment. Great info and I appreciate it :)
Jack is delightful to see alongside your excellent and thoughtful assessment.
Here’s how I see it, as far as considering evapo-rust treatment to be restoration because of the bleaching, my argument with CGC would be that rust stain migration removal is conservation since it prevents deterioration of the paper by removing something that wasn’t there when the book was made, much like mitigating acid accumulation due to the lignin breakdown. And removing stains in general isn’t really restoration. They’re done on regular basis in conservation such as removing foxing due to fungal staining. The second point is that you’re prolonging the life of the book since the rust is likely to get worse over time and eat through the paper. And I agree, there are some trade-offs and not everything in conservation is reversible. And mind you, we’re removing the evaporust afterward and doing the CaOH2 bath which leaves it in as an alkaline reserve. Why is the latter not restoration? So, while I can’t predict what CGC will do, I think including a note explaining the procedure will help clarify its intent as conservation - mitigating and preserving the life of the book.
We should pick a good test case and try it. Let's see what CGC would say. We would be setting an example for future submissions.