Everything you wanted to know about deacidification!
Tips from a professional book conservator
Do you have brittle, brown, crispy, crumbling pages in a special book? What can you do to fix this? The damage to the pages is caused by an acidic imbalance likely introduced in the making of the paper and the (partial) solution is therefore to change the pH balance. While there are some safe deacidification processes that can help a book survive into the future, most books will not warrant the time and expense involved to properly deacidify the pages. The bad news is that even when deacidification techniques are applied, it does nothing to reverse the damage already done. Those pages are going to stay brittle. They will just stop getting worse. Deacidification can also cause chemical reactions that may fade ink, induce color changes in the paper, and even cause wood pulp paper to become even more brittle due to a chemical reaction with the buffering agent. This is why you should consult a book conservator before treating rare and valuable books.
Now for the good news. There is a deacidification spray that anyone can use. It is called “Bookkeeper Deacidification Spray.” It is made of magnesium oxide in a non-reactive solution. You can buy it from Talas, Archival Products, Gaylord, Hollinger Metal Edge, or similar places that sell archival products. The lowest price I found (October 2024) was $42.34 for 5.29 ounces (150 grams) at Archival Products. This amount is said to spray 25 square feet of paper. This might be 50-100 pages of a book depending on size and if you spray both sides. You can see how this can get very expensive! Fortunately, there is some more good news. The Library of Congress, in an article called: The Deterioration and Preservation of Paper: Some Essential Facts, reveals that deacidification can extend the life of the pages from an average of fifty to one hundred years to several centuries! To use the sprayer, you need to shake the bottle (a lot), keep the bottle upright. It will drip so don’t spray over the book. Be safe, even though the solution is not toxic, wear a mask, and have good ventilation.
If you cannot deacidify your acidic pages, you can work to store your book in the best possible conditions to slow down the deterioration. Keep the book out of the sun, in cooler temperatures with 30-40% relative humidity. If you only have a bit of ephemera (one page) that is acidic, you could consider enfolding it in a piece of buffered paper such as “antique end-leaf” from Talas. www.talasonline.com. You can read more about deacidification in The American Institute for Conservation's Book and Paper Group Annual Volume 15 from 1996. The article goes into lots of detail about the chemistry and effectiveness of deacidification sprays. More information is in volume 17 from 1998 including information about color changes.
Finally, if you're interested in learning more about archival book repair and restoration. Sophia is offering an online Certificate Course in January: Book Binding Repair for Beginners. You can find out more on the SaveYourBooks.com website.
-Sophia S. W. Bogle, author of "Book Restoration Unveiled: An Essential Guide for Bibliophiles"
