Filmoplast P1 tape

I would like to second Hilary A. Kaplan's comments on
pressure-sensitive tape. The tapes marketed as 'suitable for
conservation use' have been age-tested, and their materials judged
to be acid-free; but this does not address the problem of
permanently tacky adhesives themselves. What keeps them tacky, and
what effect does this have? I would be interested to know if they
had been tested for aging of the bond as well as for acidity.

Some sticky tape dries out, and so might as well never have been
used, but I have found on several occasions that where sticky tape
(admittedly, not archival mending tape) does retain its tack, it may
bond very strongly to the surface of the paper, and paper that needs
mending in the first place can often be too fragile for such a
strong bond. Where this happened (on a lignin-containing newspaper
and a 1940s map repaired with Magic Tape) we found that neither
controlled heating nor common solvents worked well; more exotic
solvents are usually more hazardous, and, as H. Kaplan says, many
solvents will alter the paper substrate. For this reason I have
never used any sticky tapes, and don't feel I could recommend them.

Debby Rohan
Cambs. Archives Service

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:73
                  Distributed: Friday, March 12, 1999
                       Message Id: cdl-12-73-004
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