♥ 0 | Good morning! I have started a project of recovering and relabeling our collections. While going through our juvenile books I am coming across many where the book jacket and the book jacket cover have been glued to the inside of the book. I am sure at the time someone thought it would be a good idea, but now I can’t get the cover off without ripping it and the inside cover of the book. Has anyone come across this or have any ideas on how I can get the jacket off without damaging the book?
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Private answer Hi, have you tried to warm up the glue at all? A hairdryer or press with a warm iron through extra paper may soften it? Good luck
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Private answer "A hairdryer or press with a warm iron through extra paper may soften it?" Be careful with the iron! After totally screwing up some documents, I learned that using scrap paper isn't sufficient enough to protect through the iron. Use baking paper (baking parchment? It has several names. Either way, it's sold in kitchen supplies.). Some ink is heat activated and will come right off! I gummed up an iron really bad when I forgot to put the baking paper between the page and the iron. Whoops! Same thing happened when I was trying to save money and use scrap paper instead of buying baking parchment. Once the ink gets on your iron, it will transfer back onto the page and smear all over the place. If you gum up your iron, you can clean with vinegar water. Works like a charm. I know that doesn't help the OP, but I wanted to share my oops so that it isn't repeated! Marked as spam | |
Private answer The heat answers are good and if it was really attached with a heat activated glue then heat will help with the separation. That said, in your case, with the limited amount of time that Public Libraries have to deal with books in circulation I might also suggest that removing the covers by scraping them off the paste-down and then ameliorating the paste-down might be the way to go. This is a sort of rip-off-the-bandage approach. You can test the attachment and see what happens when you start pulling it off. Sometimes only a light layer of the paste-down will come off and if it is a plain end-paper then that isn't so bad. A book repair knife or lifting knife would help. https://saveyourbooks.com/product-category/book-repair-supplies/ Can you include a photo or two of the problem area? Marked as spam | |
Private answer I attached two pictures. One has just the paper side of the book jacket cover glued, but the other is the actual book jacket that is glued to the inside cover of the book. I have not tried heat, but I do have wax paper so I will definitely try an iron. Right now I have been trying to gently pull the cover back, but it is stuck tight. Marked as spam | |
Private answer I tried the iron, but I did not have much success. I was able to at least get most of the book jackets off and ended up scraping off as much of the paper from the cover as I could. The spots were recovered when I put the new book jacket and cover back on. The more I look at them the more I think hot glue was used. Now I am running into the actual book jacket being glued to the inside of the book and nothing will loosen it without ripping the book jacket. Marked as spam | |
Private answer To be clear, do not use Waxed Paper with the Iron to reactivate and remove glue! You want to use Baking Parchment / Silicone Release Paper with heat. If you use Waxed Paper with heat you will transfer the wax into the paper and it won't ever come out completely. Just like trying to remove crayon from a book. Marked as spam | |
Private answer Sometimes, when dust jacket paper is stuck like this to a board it is possible to split the dust jacket paper and only remove a layer of it. However, if the glue has soaked through into the paper then there is no help for it. The best you could do to preserve the dust jacket (without taking it to a conservation lab) is to err on the side of removing paper from the board side. Once the DJ is free there may be more possible. Marked as spam | |
Private answer Sometimes, when dust jacket paper is stuck like this to a board it is possible to split the dust jacket paper and only remove a layer of it. However, if the glue has soaked through into the paper then there is no help for it. The best you could do to preserve the dust jacket (without taking it to a conservation lab) is to err on the side of removing paper from the board side. Once the DJ is free there may be more possible. Marked as spam |
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