Handmade paper

I am new to the group and would love any advice on the best options
in making acid and lignin free handmade papers. I own a handmade
paper company (Nature's Handmade Paper) and we deal in papers from
Thailand and India.  About 50% of my business is in the
scrapbooking/photo preservation industry and we are about to invest
a bunch of money in a new product for scrapbooking and I want to
make sure that our papers are perfect.

I have purchased a pH meter and will pulp the paper in distilled H20
to check the pH.  Is this the best way to do it?  My suppliers keep
assuring me that there is no way the paper couldn't be acid free as
the water etc that they use is acid free though I don't know how it
could be as I believe they have to bleach the bark (Thai papers) and
the cotton fibers (India).

I know that humidity, temperature, cleanliness of the storage area
can all contribute to acidification, but what about these conditions
lend to acidification?

Some of our papers have flowers (aster, bougainvillea, corn flowers,
marigolds, roses, leaves etc) and some have grass or banana bark.
Some papers are dyed, and some are painted.  Can the potential
acidification by the plant matter or paint/dye be overcome by
buffering?

Does anyone know the most cost effective way to buffer handmade
paper and how much should we be buffering it?  Does it matter if you
buffer it all the way to a pH of 10 for example?  I never hear of
problems with basic paper; is that bad too, or is the best paper a
buffered pH neutral paper?

I'll reserve my lignin questions for my next posting.

Lee Eberting
Orem, Utah, USA


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 17:24
                 Distributed: Tuesday, August 26, 2003
                       Message Id: cdl-17-24-011
                                  ***