Remove "waving" from book pages?

[TomVDJ]

Hey all, I bought a fantastic "Hero" Grail Diary from Sarednab. Probably the most accurate Diary I've seen. But one thing is bothering me: the pages of the book are "waving". In this picture you see the "waving diary" on top. The bottom one is another diary I have where that waving is not there.

So my question is if someone knows how I could remove this waving? I read that it has to do with pages drying when they are bound against the paper grain (wich is the case here). I already tried moistening the pages a bit and clamping them between wooden planks, but this didn't help a lot. Also ironing them is not really an option, since the pages are laser printed and the print might come off due to the heat.

If there are other techniques someone knows of I can try to flatten the pages without damaging them, please let me know! Thanks!

 

[TomVDJ]

No ideas by anybody?

 

[IFA]

No idea but I would let them like that......they are part of an old book which took moisture and humidity so I guess the pages should (could) be that way....

 

[smithjohnj]

In case the history of your document is unknown, it may be of value to understand the original cause of the wave, wrinkle or cockle of the pages. Moisture in some form was the cause. Either through direct contact with liquids or just over time via a high humidity environment. Paper in normal office environments has a moisture content of around 6%. According to archivists “wet” paper can swell up to 30%. Wet, damp, or humid pages or books which are dried without mechanical compression will distort and cockle. That extra percentage, if allowed, has to go somewhere and it causes the cockle. When the paper is dried by air or simple dehumidification it cockles unless it is constrained. Also as the water molecules are drawn out this can break up the paper fibers, weakening the page's strength and making them more fragile and especially sensitive to tearing. In certain environments this cycle can be repeated, often seasonally, worsening the condition each time it occurs. The Library of Congress and the National Archives & Records Administration both recommend vacuum freeze drying by sublimation as the preferred method for removing water from paper. This technique does not damage paper or inks, avoids or at least stops mold and mildew and does not cause pages to stick together.

I have used the following process for truly wet documents but none of them were laser prints so you might print some test pages , wet them and see if you can use the following suggestions. As a control, let some pages air dry and experiment with others. Whether it is advisable to purposely damped the replica dairy pages just to flatten them would be your own decision. I have no experience in that regard.

Putting this all together if your document is “damp” you might be able to clamp it flat, in an airtight container, and place it in a freezer, for a long period of time. The moisture will sublimate – convert directly to water vapor - and be removed from the paper. This vapor will normally condense on the interior surface of the container which you should clean and dry as time passes and you check your progress. In true freeze drying a low pressure environment such as with a vacuum pump is used to speed up the process. Sucking or pumping out as much air as possible before sealing your container seems to help. There are document recovery specialists which can preform this type of recovery but it is often only cost effective for historical or critical original source documents.

 

[TomVDJ]

No idea but I would let them like that......they are part of an old book which took moisture and humidity so I guess the pages should (could) be that way....

My problem with it is that the waving shows that the book is bound "against the paper grain", something that an bookbinder would never do. So it shows more or less that it's not actually an old book with this kind of waving. So that's why I would like to have it removed (if possible).

 

[Mach]

Not my area at all, but I saw this the other day on Reddit. Reportedly used to flatten books.

A 19th century book press to help flatten books

Edit. Comments on that thread indicate the press is only used for binding.

You might check with r/bookbinding

https://www.reddit.com/r/bookbinding/comments/rn3uwm

https://www.reddit.com/r/bookbinding/comments/7mr3ga

 

[TazMan2000]

Sometimes there is no solution to problems and trying to make it better leads to more issues. Museums have problems with this and usually just leave it be as restoration may be extremely expensive and risky.

But i will give you a somewhat impractical way of trying to fix this. Completely theoretical but considering what I know about paper, it may work.
Paper will soak up humidity from the surrounding air, which makes it expand and contract, but because of the pulp and additives in the paper, and the uneven drying, it waves or wrinkles.

You will have to separate each of the pages from the spine. Get one of those hair straightening heating irons and 2 aluminum plates as large as the paper. Steam the paper lightly so that it absorbs some moisture but not so much that it will Soak the paper and make the ink run (if it is inkjet printed). Leave the room and clamp the paper between the aluminum plates and clamp the plates with the hair iron.

TazMan2000

 

[TomVDJ]

Undo the binding is not an option. It will destroy the pages.

 

[TomVDJ]

Trying this at the moment:

Clamping some pages really thight, then spraying the edges (not the complete page, because that would ruin it) and let it dry. After my first "run" of this treatment, the book comes out like this:

Already much better. I'm going to repeat this treatment a few times to get the pages as flat as possible. I keep the complete book clamped right now and hope the wave will not come back. For now, I'm pleased with the current result!

 

[Halliwax]

Great thinking with the clamps