Source for wool felt sought

Maria Fredericks <mfredericks [at] themorgan__org> writes

>Can anyone recommend a current U.S. source for high-quality, clean,
>white wool felts?  We have recently rejected samples and roll
>material from three different manufacturers, due to the presence of
>burrs, oil stains, colored wool fibers, and irregular surface
>textures that seem to be significant manufacturing defects (in other
>words, more serious than creasing from having been rolled, though
>that is also a problem)
>
>Some of these problematic samples came from suppliers who have
>provided beautiful felts to book and paper conservators in the past,
>so I am looking particularly for good material from a recent making.
>Several vendors I spoke to cited a decline in the raw material
>available to them (and I suspect there is also relatively little
>demand for the quality of felts we use in conservation).  However, I
>hope there is still a viable source somewhere.

Thank you Maria for this warning call.

As I had recently experienced the same troubles when trying to find a
good velvet quality, I am concerned with a more general approach of
your query.

>... seem to be significant manufacturing defects ...
>...
>Several vendors I spoke to cited a decline in the raw material
>available to them (and I suspect there is also relatively little
>demand for the quality of felts we use in conservation).

It seems that we have to cope with a general standardisation of
production where quality and purity tend to be levelled toward a
middle low class where overall appearance become Standards. Now for
fine top line manufacturing processes, either the material and
knowledge is gone or the production line does not exist anymore.

As some of those goods have limited shelf life that represent some
concerns, stockpiling is therefore not always the correct approach.

We know that paying the correct cost helps having access to higher
standards, but here we are mainly dealing with raw materials and
manufacturing technology running out of business.

Would anyone care to comment and bring bright ideas to those common
issues?

Could preservation efforts should also goes toward preservation of
traditional manufacturing goods?

In the recent and trendy "green attitude" may we find targets in
common with preservation that help this issue?

It is certain that some business bankruptcy is a serious loss as
world patrimony heritage is concerned.

David Cottier-Angeli
Associated Member of the Swiss Chamber of Technical and Scientific
    Forensic Experts
5C Route des Jeunes
CH-1227 Geneva
+41 22 300 19 55
Mobile: +41 79 319 319 0
Skype: cottiermetal


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 25:33
                 Distributed: Sunday, January 15, 2012
                       Message Id: cdl-25-33-003
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