Volume 8, Number 4
Jul 1984

Supplies &c.

For Sale By Owner

• Alfredo de la Rosa, 821 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, is selling a number of pieces of hand binding equipment and will send a list on request.
• Michael Berta, Star Route, Box #7-j, Burr Hill, VA 22433 [near Fredericksburg], is selling his entire bindery. The 36" power cutter and some other equipment have been sold, but other equipment is left; also tools and materials, including brass type and numerous pallets.

Recommendations

• Scott Kellar writes, "A generous swatch of very nice Belgian and Irish linens are available from Canvas Specialties as advertised in the last AIC Newsletter [as of May 16]. They offer heavier canvas weight linens suitable f or covering and a couple tight-woven lightweight linens which appear nearly identical to airplane linen and no minimum order requirements. Prices are reasonable. It's $3.00 for the samples, sent to Canvas Specialties, P.O. Box 163235, Sacramento, CA 95816."
• Editor McCrady bought something called "Le Glue, Liquid Paper Glue" that was made in Taiwan and sold by A.D.I., P.O. Box 401, Roslyn Heights, NY 11577. It has been very useful f or scrapbook-type pasting in the Newsletter office, especially for assembling slips and scraps of communication for filing with the correspondence. The innovation is not the adhesive, which seems to be methyl cellulose, but the applicator. It is 7" long and about 3/4" diameter. The opening at one end is stopped with a soft sponge, which is removable. A small amount of Conservation Materials' bookbinding PVA mixed with what was in there already makes an adhesive that has a short slick phase, a short very sticky phase, and sets with very little shrinkage or cockling in about 10 seconds.

Nixen Engineering and the Jacques Board Shear

• Kathryn DeGraff, Special Collections Librarian at DePaul University, sent to the Newsletter office a record of her repeated efforts to get a used 33" Jacques shear, purchased from Nixen in June 1983, into operating condition. There were two problems: 1) the sliding side gauge was missing and 2) the blade was out of adjustment and developed burrs after a short period of use. Nixen delivered the gauge in January after many delays, but were apparently unable to deliver the clamp that goes with it. Nixon did agree to replace the blades (moving and fixed) without charge, but it took them five months to do so.
• Jim Dast, Conservator for University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, called the office to say that they had had trouble with their board shear, a Jacques table model, two or three years ago. The machining of the arm at the pivot points seemed to be bad. They sent the arm to Nixon to be fixed, but it was returned in the same condition it was sent--that is, no improvement. Mr. Dast then made his own analysis of the problem, which seemed to be the angle of the blade. It was 100 from the vertical, and should have been only 5°. He corrected it himself by shinning up the right side of the yoke 1/8", and now it works beautifully.

  If others are having this problem and need more detailed instruction for making the adjustment, he will be glad to send instructions and diagrams for publication. Contact Jim Dast, 1910 Keyes Ave., Madison, WI 53711. His phone (not sure if it is daytime or evening phone) is 608/263-5480.

• Jan Merrill-Oldham wrote in June to say that she had just discovered that Nixon Engineering Company had moved. The new address is Nixon Engineering Co., Inc., P.O. Box 244, Central Fells, RI 02863. When sending blades for sharpening, substitute 79 Chestnut St. for "P.O. Box 244."

Suppliers

• Leather suppliers who make good goat leather for bookbinding are diminishing in number. The only ones left are Harmatan, Hewit's and Russell's.
• Light Impressions has started selling simple bookbinding supplies of the sort that would be stocked in a library mending department. They also sell a bromocresol pH testing pen for $7.95, the "Tri-Test" paper spot- testing kit for $25, Wei T'o solutions #2-4 and sprays #10-12, psychrometers and archival ink.

New Equipment

• The PolyCase a demountable exhibit case, was developed by Polly Lada-Mocarski and is being manufactured and distributed by Charles J. Dickgiesser & Co., Inc., 2S7 Roosevelt Drive, Derby, CT 06418 (203/734-25S3). It is made of clear acrylic panels in modular sixes, assembled and dismantled with a special tool. It can be fixed to the surface it rests on with hidden screws for security.

  The cases come in any size desired, but are usually ordered in 6" increments starting with 12". They can be cubes or rectangular boxes. A 24" cube is $380; cost goes down with quantity. Ultraviolet-resisting acrylic sends the price up by 50-70%. The cases are designed for the exhibition of books, manuscripts and art Objects.

• Camberwell School of Art and Crafts has been working with designers and engineers at Weston-White Ltd. For over two years, and now have a special ultrasonic welding machine made to their standards and design. It is also apparently being produced for sale to others. For more information, see the March Paper Conservation News or write Helene M. Donnelly, Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, Research Section, Peckham Road, London SE5 8UF.
• On the Technology Page of the Library Binding Institute's newsletter for members, Werner Rebsamen describes the Schmedt's library binding equipment which is now sold in America. The H. H. Schmedt Company is small, growing rapidly and starting to export its ingenious gadgets and machines from Hamburg, Germany, to many countries over the world, including the United States. It specializes in machines for small library binding establishments, to do adhesive binding, cloth cutting, casemaking, stamping, cover spine rounding and casing in. This was in the June is sue.