Tyvek

In response to Walter McDonald's Tyvek question, from everything I have
read and heard, tyvek is conservationally sound.  It is made of the same
stuff as polyester except that it is spun into thin threads.  It
therefore, has some qualities of both mylar and paper.

    **** Moderator's comments:   For some considerations on plastic
    films, see YEAR4-2.DST and YEAR5-1.DST (send filelist requests
    to consdist-request [at] lindy__stanford__edu (but not between 9-25 and
    10-19, 1992!)

Tyvek does come in different thicknesses and it is measured by weight
like paper is, but the weights do not correspond to one another.  One
thing to be careful of in tyvek is to make sure you get pure tyvek. Much
of the tyvek that can be bought has different types of chemicals added
to it for various reasons,  For example, house wrap tyvek has a UV
protectant added to it.

As for using tyvek in book conservation, I cannot say much.  The people
to talk to are Fred Bearman at Columbia University ((212) 854- 3850
fb22 [at] cunixf__bitnet) and Maria Grandinette (Preservation Dept. Stanford
University Libraries, Stanford, CA 94305).  Fred told me that tyvek
tends to split when it is flexed alot.  But tyvek is very strong, and
Maria seems to like it so maybe this is not a problem.  Talk to them.
Another person you can talk to is Joe Mannarino from Curtis 1000 ((212)
563-3996).  We have working together on some conservation uses for
tyvek. You may remember him from AIC.  He was the person handing out the
very useful tyvek shopping bags.

I hope this information is helpful.

Brian Baird
Princeton University.

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 6:22
               Distributed: Thursday, September 24, 1992
                        Message Id: cdl-6-22-002
                                  ***