There are stains such as handwriting, and the treatment methods can be roughly divided into four categories:

1. Pencil marks: use an eraser.

2. Ink marks: It is said that you can put a piece of absorbent paper under the page, soak the stains with 2% hydrogen peroxide solution, and then put another piece of absorbent paper on the page with a heavy object on it. When the ink is dissolved and absorbed by hydrogen peroxide, the ink will disappear after the paper dries. But I have never used this method.

3. Oil pen (ballpoint pen) marks: I can only rub it repeatedly with fine sandpaper. This method is really rude, but I have no other good way.

2. Oil stain: It is said that after putting a piece of absorbent paper on the oil stain and ironing it with an iron for several times, the oil stain can be sucked into the paper to make the pages smooth and clean. I haven't used this method either.

If the original cover is damaged and repaired by a bookseller or someone, the treatment methods are more complicated, which can be roughly divided into two categories:

1. Sticking with adhesive tape: Many people like to stick pages with transparent adhesive tape (tape), but after a long time, the adhesive tape will react chemically and seriously corrode the pages. Therefore, the adhesive tape method is the least desirable. In this case, I can only tear off the adhesive tape. Although this may damage the integrity of the page, I have no other way to use it.

2. Paste or glue repair: Paste or glue will also do great damage to the pages, and it will even stick the front and back pages together, which is not conducive to reading. In this regard, you can use the method of soaking in clear water to remove the paste or glue from the pages, and then stick it again with a small piece of paper coated with white latex.

On September 3rd, 24, I bought a copy of The Story of Avanti (compiled by Zhang Shijie, China Children's Publishing House, first edition, 1963, printed in April, 1979). I soaked the cover and the title page of the book in water, lifted them up little by little, and finally made the complete title page appear before my eyes.

The scientific name of white latex mentioned here is "polyvinyl acetate emulsion", which is milky white and opaque, hence the name. In my opinion, it has the best bonding effect and won't wrinkle the pages.

A method of mending calligraphy and painting was introduced in Mounting Calligraphy and Painting in China (edited by Dong Wang, Jiangsu Ancient Books Publishing House, first edition, 1988), which can also be used for reference when mending old books: "Soak in water, put it in a pool or basin with drain holes, plug the drain holes, and pour boiling water into the pool for scalding. After soaking for half a day, the top layer of old dust will leave the picture and dissolve in water, and the water will turn yellow." Then pull out the plug and let out dirty water to see the soaking effect. ..... If the accumulated dust can't be completely removed after several times of soaking, a small amount of bleaching powder can be added to clear water to remove the last layer of accumulated dust. "

If the cover is damaged without treatment, it is necessary to analyze the specific problems:

1. Cracks: If there are obvious paper fibers exposed at the cracks and there is no "lack of meat", apply a small amount of white latex to the affected area, smooth the cracks, and then stick them after drying (plastic films are finally put on both sides of the cracks to avoid milky white glue on the lining page or the title page). If the crack is "short of meat", it can only be mended with a small piece of paper coated with white latex. It is best to use a piece of paper with the same color as the cover, which looks more beautiful and natural. "China Painting and Calligraphy Mounting" said: "To remedy cracks, use the labeling method, that is, paste a strip on the back of the back paper with rice paper at the crack, and cover the back paper in the middle ..." This method seems to be almost less used with me.

2. spine cracking: if it is only cracking, it can be repaired with milky white glue; If the spine of the book is seriously damaged or no longer exists, it can be mended with a piece of paper of the same quality and color painted with white latex, and the width of the paper should just cover the cover, so as to be resistant to turning over.

2. hole: stick and repair it with a piece of paper of the same quality and color painted with white latex. "China Painting and Calligraphy Mounting" once said: "Screen paper method: Apply paste to the residual hole and paste a piece of rice paper. After drying, tear off the four sides by hand. Because the residual hole has been pasted firmly, the shape of the four sides after tearing off is just the same as that of the residual hole. After covering, put this layer of paper in the middle. Using this method to make up for the disability is called' net paper'. "

3

Let's talk about the treatment of pages.

in fact, the above methods are also applicable to pages, but the damage of pages has several special features.

1. mildew: there are few mildew spots on the cover, which usually exist on the page. "China Painting and Calligraphy Mounting" said: "When the mildew spot is coated with' gray manganese oxide', the mildew spot becomes purple; Then apply oxalic acid, which can turn from purple to yellow, remove light mold and reduce heavy mold. ..... Only purple spots are difficult to clean and can only be alleviated. " Looking up on the Internet, there is an article in the Labor newspaper "The Raiders of" Eliminating Plums "after the value of various collections is discounted", saying that "use 3% potassium permanganate solution, brush the moldy spots with a cotton swab or a brush, and after one or two minutes, apply it with 5% oxalic acid solution to remove the moldy spots."

I haven't tried any of these methods, because I'm not too disgusted with mildew. On February 24th, 23, I bought a book "Selected Poems and Fu by Yu Xin" (selected by Tan Zhengbi and others, first edition of Classical Literature Publishing House in February, 1958). There are some purple mildew spots on the pages, which look like ink paintings. They are very beautiful, and I still have them, and I can't bear to clean them.

2. Rust: Some old books are bound with nails, which are easy to rust after being wet. It is said that the rust can be wiped off with oxalic acid or citric acid solution, then washed with clear water, pressed with blotting paper and dried. But I have never used this method.

3. Crack: In general, it is directly repaired with a small piece of paper of the same quality and color painted with white latex. If the crack is long, or appears in the text, it can't be mended casually, because there are words on both sides of the page, so it must be handled carefully. But I don't have a good way, so I can only use narrow small paper strips to make up for it. When making up, let the paper strips stick to the gap of each line, which will affect the reading of the text. Anyway, I only use milky white glue to make up, and never use paste, glue or transparent tape, because they are too harmful to the pages.

On August 1st, 24, I once bought the second volume of Secrets of the Ancient City (by Le Bailang [France], translated by Zhou Shoujuan, printed by Kant, Literature and Art Publishing House on November 1st, 25), and only repaired the damaged cover. A few days later, it somehow fell from the bookshelf to the ground, but I didn't find it. My cat thinks it's a good tool to sharpen its claws. After a few scratches, it tore several pages of the text, so I had to use a small piece of paper to mend it, using the method mentioned above.

4. Vegetable stains: There are always people who like to eat and chew while reading, and their mouths are not tightly closed, or there are holes in the original, and the remains such as stewed lion's head and fried persimmon with eggs are spilled on the pages. What should I do? I can do nothing but curse those greedy ghosts in my heart.

5. Tide trace: Some people like to throw books into the water, thinking that they can teach them to swim. It is said that alum solution can be used to wash the tide marks on the pages, but I haven't tried it, because I simply don't buy old books soaked in water unless I have no choice.

6. Wormholes: Wormholes in books can be repaired by referring to the "hole-breaking" treatment method described above. But I have never tried it, because I like wormholes. Once, a friend gave me a copy of the Republic of China Edition of Western Painting by the Commercial Press (by Wu Mengfei, an encyclopedia series). The wormholes in it were ethereal, varied, ingenious and beautiful, which made me amazed. Such a beautiful wormhole, I want to keep everything.

7. Folding or missing corners: Many people like their opponents' hands and feet when reading books, and they have the ability to treat each page as a raw edge. Over time, many pages will have broken corners or missing corners, which is not conducive to reading books. My treatment method is to use a piece of paper coated with white latex to stick it on the corner or missing corner of the page to increase its hardness or restore its original length. This method can also be used for covers with folded corners or missing corners.

8. Library seal or signature: Many old books have library seals or signatures, some of which can be removed by the above-mentioned chemical methods, and some of which I can't do anything about, so I just cut them off with scissors and then glue them with white paper, just to keep the eyes quiet.

4

The binding quality of some old books is poor, especially nail books and glued books, and the cracking phenomenon is serious. In my opinion, the only feasible way is to carefully tear off the cover of the old book, then drill the book, replace the sewing needle with a straight paper clip and bind it with a thin thread. Then, repair the cover with milky white glue. In the future, the book will basically not crack unless it encounters very, very serious damage.

briefly talk about the maintenance of old books. The Catalogue of Ancient Books in Libraries (the first edition of Zhonghua Book Company in 1985) also said that old books should be protected from fire, water, tide, insects, rats, dust, strong light and high temperature, and the study windows should be equipped with ground glass or shutters. I don't have these conditions, just let my old books go with the flow, because I always believe that under normal circumstances, the life of books will always last longer than that of people.

all for you.