Evaluation of the use of SC6000 in conjunction with Klucel G as a conservation treatment for bookbinding leather: Notes on a preliminary study

Journal of the Institute of Conservation

Volumn 36, Issue 2, 2013, Pages 125-144

  Johnson, Anna ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

artificial ageing; book conservation; bookbinding leather; Klucel G; red rot cocktail; Renaissance Wax; SC6000

Indexed keywords

CONSERVATION;

ARTIFICIAL AGEING; BOOK CONSERVATION; KLUCEL G; RED-ROT COCKTAIL; SC6000;

LEATHER;

EID: 84890053408     PISSN: 19455224     EISSN: 19455232     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/19455224.2013.815646     Document Type: Article

References (129)

1. See Anthony Cains and Katherine Swift, Preserving Our Printed Heritage: the Long Room Project at Trinity College Dublin, 2nd ed. (Dublin: Trinity College Dublin, 1999), sections 9 and 10;
2. Carolyn Horton, Cleaning and Preserving Bindings and Related Materials, 2nd ed. (Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 1969), 48-54.
3. James Jackman, Leather Conservation: A Current Survey (London: The Leather Conservation Centre, 1982), 11.
4. Ellen McCrady and Toby Raphael, 'Leather Dressing: to Dress or Not to Dress', National Park Service Conserve O Gram 9/1, 1993.
5. Information on the history of treatments applied to bookbinding leather, given in Table 1, has been taken from the following sources: Harold J. Plenderleith, The Preservation of Leather Bookbindings, rep. ed. (London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1970);
6. Horton, Cleaning and Preserving Bindings; Roy Thomson, 'Leather', in Conservation Science: Heritage Materials, ed. E. May and M. Jones (Cambridge: RSC Publishing, 2006), 92-120;
7. Maria Fredricks, 'Progress in Leather Conservation' (conference review), WAAC Newsletter 19, no. 2 (1997), http://cool. conservation-us.org/waac/wn/wn19/ wn19-2/wn19-209.html (accessed November 1, 2010);
8. René Larsen, 'Vegetable Tanned Leather: Evaluation of the Protective Effect of Aluminium Alkoxide Treatment', in ICOM Committee for Conservation, 11th triennial meeting, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1-6 September 1996:
9. Preprints, vol. 2, ed. J. Brigland (London: James & James, 1996), 742-50;
10. Anne Lama, 'Acid-deterioration in Leather' (paper presented at Society of Leather Technologists and Chemists Conference, University of Northampton, 7 May 2011);
11. McCrady and Raphael, 'Leather Dressing'; John W. Waterer, 'A Novel Method for the Conservation of Fragile Leather', Studies in Conservation 17, no. 3 (1972): 126-30;
12. Marion Kite, Roy Thomson, and Aileen Angus, 'Materials and Techniques: Past and Present', in Conservation of Leather and Related Materials, ed. M. Kite and R. Thomson (London: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2006), 121-9;
13. Bruce J. Humphrey, 'Vapor Phase Consolidation of Books with the Parylene Polymers', Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 25, no. 1 (1986): 15-29;
14. Cains and Swift, Preserving Our Printed Heritage; E. Cameron, J. Spriggs, and B. Wills, 'The Conservation of Archaeological Leather', in Kite and Thomson, Conservation of Leather, 244-63.
15. Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage [ICN], Guidelines for the Conservation of Leather and Parchment Book Bindings (Amsterdam: ICN, 1997);
16. H. A. B. van Soest, T. Stambolov, and P. B. Hallebeek, 'Conservation of Leather', Studies in Conservation 29 (1984): 21-31.
17. See McCrady and Raphael, 'Leather Dressing'; Canadian Conservation Institute [CCI], 'Care of Alum, Vegetable, and Mineral Tanned Leather', CCI Notes 8/2 (1992);
18. Mary-Lou E. Florian, 'The Mechanisms of Deterioration in Leather', in Kite and Thomson, Conservation of Leather, 36-57.
19. See Thomson, 'Leather', 117-8;
20. Larsen, 'Vegetable Tanned Leather'.
21. For an indication of usage in the United States, see Whitney Baker and Liz Dube, 'Identifying Standard Practices in Research Library Book Conservation', Library Resources and Technical Services 54, no. 1 (2010): 21-39;
22. Kristen St John, 'Survey of Current Materials Used for the Conservation of Leather Bookbindings', The Book and Paper Group Annual 19 (2000), http://cool. conservation-us.org/coolaic/sg/bpg/annual/v19/bp19-32.html (accessed October 9, 2010).
23. Alan Puglia and Priscilla Anderson, 'Solvent-set Book Repair Tissue', in Kite and Thomson, Conservation of Leather, 233.
24. Ruth Stevens, Paul Garside, and Eleanor Russell, 'A Review of Current and Recent Practice in the Use of Adhesives by the Conservation Department at the British Library' (paper presented at the Canadian Conservation Institute Symposium Adhesives and Consolidants for Conservation: Research and Application, 17-21 October 2011), http://www.cci-icc.gc.ca/symposium/2011/Paper%203%20- %20Stevens% 20et%20al.%20-%20English.pdf (accessed September 29, 2012).
25. See Anthony Cains, 'Book Conservation Workshop Manual-Part One: Preparation of the Book for Conservation and Repair', The New Bookbinder 1 (1981): 13.
26. See Patricia Anderson, Alan Puglia, and Sarah Reidell, 'Conservation Treatments: Chapter 4. Board Reattachment', AIC Book Conservation Catalog, http://conservation-wiki.com/index.php? title=Books-Section-2-Conservation- Treatments-Chapter-4.-Board-Reattachment (accessed November 1, 2010).
27. Glen Ruzicka et al., 'Leather Conservation: Bookbinding Leather Consolidants', in Kite and Thomson, Conservation of Leather, 230-2.
28. Research conducted at the British Library in the early 1980s appeared to show that films formed by Klucel G in methanol remained flexible after exposure to acidic environments.
29. See British Leather Manufacturers Research Association [BLMRA], The Conservation of Bookbinding Leather (London: British Library, 1984), 36-7.
30. BLMRA, Bookbinding Leather, 39;
31. Betty M. Haines, Surface Coatings for Binding Leathers (Northampton: The Leather Conservation Centre, 2002).
32. See William Minter, 'Betty M. Haines, Surface Coatings for Binding Leathers', book review, JAIC 43 (2004): 189.
33. http://leatherconservation.com/22-2/sc6000/(accessed October 8, 2013).
34. Don Etherington, 'Japanese Paper Hinge Repair: For Loose Boards on Leather Books', The Abbey Newsletter 19 (1995), 48-9;
35. David Dorning, 'The Development of a Testing Method for Assessing Book Joint Repair', The Paper Conservator 29 (2005), 25-38.
36. Sarah Reidell, 'Acrylic Adhesives', Conservation DistList posting, May 29, 2003, http://cool.conservation-us.org/byform/mailing-lists/cdl/2003/0708. html (accessed June 5, 2011).
37. Kite and Thomson, eds., Conservation of Leather.
38. C. Velson Horie, Materials for Conservation: Organic Consolidants, Adhesives and Coatings (Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2010), 128.
39. Dinah L. Moffett, 'Wax Coatings on Ethnographic Metal Objects: Justifications for Allowing a Tradition to Wane', JAIC 3 (1996): 1-7.
40. Cains and Swift, Preserving Our Printed Heritage, section 10;
41. St John, 'Survey of Current Materials'.
42. Haines, Surface Coatings;
43. Ruzicka et al., 'Leather Conservation', 232.
44. Haines, Surface Coatings.
45. The most recent publication on SC6000 significantly misinterprets Haines' research.
46. Brewer draws conclusions that are not supported by the evidence presented in Haines' study, ultimately stating that, 'While commercial products can tend to change according to the market, it seems that SC6000 can be trusted for use in conservation, especially when compared to other coatings'.
47. Tish Brewer, 'SC6000 and Other Surface Coatings for Leather: Composition and Effectiveness', The Bonefolder: An E-journal for the Bookbinder and Book Artist 2, no. 2 (2006): 33-5.
48. Haines, Surface Coatings.
49. The name SC6000 has been retained throughout this article, except where quoting directly from Haines' study, as this is the trade name under which the product continues to be sold by the LCC.
50. Yvette Fletcher, personal communication, December 8, 2010.
51. Horie, Materials for Conservation, 10;
52. Stevens, Garside and Russell, 'Practice in the Use of Adhesives'.
53. Jan Verhoeven (Shoe & Aftercare Finish Manager, Stahl Europe), personal communication, April 14, 2011.
54. In the documentation for a training course conducted in the USA in 1984, Haines suggests that the solvent used in SC6000 is petroleum ether
55. see Betty M. Haines, 'Bookbinding Leather Conservation' in Recent Advances in Leather Conservation: Proceedings of a Refresher Course Sponsored by FAIC, June 1984, ed. Sonja Fogle (Washington, DC: Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, 1985, 34
56. while the material safety data sheet (MSDS) for SC6000, dated December 1989 makes no mention of petroleum ether, and lists the following hazardous substances: C8/9 aromatic hydrocarbon; diacetone alcohol; ammonia 925;
57. isopropyl alcohol. The same is repeated in an MSDS dated 1994.
58. By contrast, the MSDS for SC7400 dated 24 October 2005 lists only: propan-2-ol (isopropanol); ethanol; ammonium hydroxide.
59. SC6000-Selfshine Cream', material safety data sheet, December 1989, reproduced in Paula Zyats, The Effects of Coatings or Dressings on Degraded Bookbinding Leather.
60. Unpublished graduate student project, Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Conservation, 1996;
61. Talas, 'SC6000-Acrylic Polymer and Wax Emulsion for Leather Surfaces', material safety data sheet, 24 January 1994, http://talasonline.com/photos/msds/ SC6000-MSDS.pdf (accessed October 9, 2010);
62. Stahl Europe BV, 'SC-7400-Selfshine Cream', safety data sheet, 24 October 2005.
63. BLMRA, Bookbinding Leather
64. Haines, 'Bookbinding Leather Conservation'.
65. Haines, Surface Coatings.
66. Haines, Surface Coatings.
67. Ruzicka et al., 'Leather Conservation', 232.
68. Zyats, Effects of Coatings, 7.
69. Ruzicka et al., 'Leather Conservation', 232.
70. Fletcher, personal communication, December 8, 2010.
71. Yvette Fletcher, personal communication, May 14, 2013.
72. Similar findings are also presented in Haines, Surface Coatings.
73. Anderson, Puglia, and Reidell, 'Conservation Treatments';
74. Ruzicka et al., 'Leather Conservation'.
75. Leather samples were prepared using the sampling location given in British Standards Institution [BSI], BS EN ISO 2418:2002.
76. Incorporating Corrigendum No. 1: Leather-Chemical, Physical and Mechanical and Fastness Tests-Sampling location (London: BSI, 2003).
77. Dorte V. Poulsen, 'Presentation and Evaluation of Spot Tests for Identification of the Tannin Type in Vegetable Tanned Leather', in ICOM Committee for Conservation, 13th triennial meeting, Rio de Janeiro, 22-27 September 2002
78. Preprints, vol. 2, ed. R. Vontobel (London: James & James, 2002), 792-7.
79. The grade of Klucel used in Cellugel is not specified in the product labelling or literature, but Scott Kellar of Preservation Solutions (personal communication, May 21, 2011) has confirmed that the hydroxypropyl cellulose component of Cellugel is pharmaceutical grade Klucel G.
80. For information on the various grades and viscosities of Klucel, see Hercules Incorporated, Klucelw Hydroxypropyl Cellulose (Wilmington, DE: Hercules Inc., 2001).
81. René Larsen et al., 'Recommendations on the Production, Artificial Ageing, Assessment, Storage and Conservation of Vegetable Tanned Leathers', in ENVIRONMENT Leather Project: Deterioration and Conservation of Vegetable Tanned Leather, ed. R. Larsen (Copenhagen: Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Conservation, 1996), 195.
82. SATRA Technology Centre, 'STD 114 Apparatus for Leather Shrinkage Temperature Determination', http://www. satra.co.uk/portal/test-equipment/tec- view.php?id=59 (accessed July 28, 2011).
83. René Larsen et al., 'Determination of Hydrothermal Stability by the Micro Hot Table Method', in Larsen, ENVIRONMENT, 145-66.
84. Claire Chahine, 'Changes in Hydrothermal Stability of Leather and Parchment with Deterioration: a DSC Study', Thermochimica Acta 365 (2000): 101-10.
85. Petru Budrugeac and Lucreţia Miu, 'The Suitability of DSC Method for Damage Assessment and Certification of Historical Leathers and Parchments', Journal of Cultural Heritage 9 (2008): 146-53;
86. René Larsen, Marie Vest, and Kurt Nielsen, 'Determination of Hydrothermal Stability (Shrinkage Temperature)', in STEP Leather Project: Evaluation of the Correlation between Natural and Artificial Ageing of Vegetable Tanned Leather and Determination of Parameters for Standardization of an Artificial Ageing Method, ed. R. Larsen (Copenhagen: Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Conservation, 1994), 151-64.
87. Samples treated and artificially aged have a three-digit code, representing the serial number of the originating skin, followed by L or R, depending on their position relative to the backbone of the skin.
88. This is followed by a hyphen and a final digit representing the ageing regime.
89. Samples used for microscopic examination were assigned the prefix 'XS' followed by a sequential number; only new leather cross-sections are listed in Table 2.
90. The spectrophotometer was used with a D65 illuminant equivalent to average daylight with a correlated colour temperature of 6504 K. Konica Minolta Sensing, Inc.
91. Precise Color Communication: Color Control from Perception to Instrumentation (Tokyo: Konica Minolta Holdings, 2007), 36.
92. Konica Minolta Sensing, Inc., Precise Color Communication.
93. René Larsen et al., 'Fibre Assessment', in Larsen, ENVIRONMENT, 113-21.
94. A Nikon AZ100 microscope with a CoolLED PE-1 three-wavelength excitation system, under reflected light and 365nm UV was used.
95. IMT i-Solution Inc., PixeLINK mScope User's Guide (Ottowa: IMT i-Solution, 2009), 75.
96. The term colour difference is used here to define a quantitative comparison between two or more samples.
97. Colour change is used to define a qualitative alteration in colour between two points in time (for example, before and after treatment, before and after ageing).
98. Thomson, 'Leather', 95.
99. J.R. Mannekutla et al., 'Fluorescence Quenching of UVITEX-OB by Aniline in Alcohols and Alkanes', Spectroscopy Letters 39 (2007): 322.
100. J.R. Mannekutla et al., 'Fluorescence Quenching of UVITEX-OB', 322;
101. Chithra Hariharan and A.K. Mishra, 'Fluorescence Quenching of Liquid Scintillation Counters by Metal Ions', Radiation Measurements 29, no. 5 (1998): 473-80;
102. Chithra Hariharana, V. Vijaysreeb, and A.K. Mishra, 'Quenching of 2,5-diphenyloxazole (PPO) Fluorescence by Metal Ions', Journal of Luminescence 75 (1997): 205-11.
103. Larsen, ed., ENVIRONMENT, 172.
104. Details of some changes to the standard parameters for artificially ageing leathers can be found in Roger Barlee 'Craft Project BE-S2-3432: Development of Archival Quality Leather', Skin Deep 12 (2001), http://www.hewit.com/skin-deep/?volume=12&article=1 (accessed December 12, 2010);
105. Roy Thomson, 'Bookbinding Leather: Yesterday, Today and Perhaps Tomorrow-Wolstenholme Memorial Lecture 2000', Journal of the Society of Leather Technologists and Chemists 85 (2001), 70;
106. Roy Thomson, 'Towards a Longer Lasting Leather: a Summary of the CRAFT Leather Project', Leather Conservation News 17, no. 1 (2003): 1-9.
107. A record of the establishment of the present ageing parameters is given in an internal LCC report dated September 2005.
108. Anne Lama, personal communication, November 9, 2010.
109. Anne Lama, personal communication, August 22, 2011.
110. Minter, 'Betty M. Haines', 190;
111. Tom Conroy, comment on 'New Treatment for Red Rot', Blog comment posted February 2012, http://jeffpeachey. wordpress.com/2012/01/31/newtreatment-for- red-rot/#comments (accessed March 21, 2012).
112. René Larsen, 'Experiments and Observations in the Study of Environmental Impact on Historical Vegetable Tanned Leathers', Thermochimica Acta 365 (2000): 85-99.
113. René Larsen, 'Experiments and Observations in the Study of Environmental Impact', 85-99.
114. René Larsen, 'Experiments and Observations in the Study of Environmental Impact', 85-99.
115. René Larsen et al., 'Bookbinding Leather in the Paper Deacidification Process. Part I. Analytical Investigation of the Leather', in ICOM Committee for Conservation, 14th triennial meeting, The Hague, 12-16 September 2005
116. Preprints, vol. 2, ed. I. Verger (London: James & James, 1996), 255-62.
117. Larsen, 'Vegetable Tanned Leather'.
118. Larsen et al., 'Paper Deacidification Process
119. René Larsen et al., 'Bookbinding Leather in the Papersave Swiss Process', in Save Paper! Mass Deacidification: Today's Experience-Tomorrow's Perspectives, International Conference, 15-17 February 2006, Swiss National Library (Bern: Swiss National Library, 2006), 176-89.
120. Horie, Materials for Conservation, 80.
121. Horie, Materials for Conservation, 80.
122. Haines, Surface Coatings.
123. BLMRA, The Conservation of Bookbinding Leather, 39 and plate 17.
124. BLMRA, The Conservation of Bookbinding Leather, 40.
125. BLMRA, The Conservation of Bookbinding Leather, 40 and plate 16.
126. Haines, Surface Coatings, unpaginated.
127. Larsen, Vest, and Nielsen, 'Determination of Hydrothermal Stability';
128. Kathleen Mü hlen Axelsson, René Larsen, and Dorte V.P. Sommer, 'Dimensional Studies of Specific Microscopic Fibre Structures in Deteriorated Parchment Before and During Shrinkage', Journal of Cultural Heritage 13 (2012): 128-36.
129. Axelsson, Larsen, and Sommer, 'Dimensional Studies'.