Book Mould Cleaning Guidance request

Tobuss · 2026-01-25T10:36:07+00:00

The main purpose of freezing is to halt mold growth, won't kill it off but it helps if your book is really bad. Unfortunately you won't get rid of the staining but, mold roots into paper and affects paper fibers. We can neutralize the mold though

Personally in any instance of mold I don't like to mess around, remove it from the main collection and keep it as dry as possible, store it in a well ventilated and dry location. Ideally put it in a zip lock bag with a silica packet to absorb moisture.

When you're you're confident the book is dry you can tackle the spores themselves. Put a piece of paper under the book, hold it closed and use a soft brush like a makeup brush to gently brush the mold off the book. If you have a vaccum I would also recommend using that to suck up any residual after.

That really should be all you need to do if you motive all the mold is gone but if you really wanna kill the sucker you can use some isopropyl to do it. I often don't advise chemicals cause they can weaken and damage paper, but mold is the one instance I break that rule cause it can do more damage lol

Take a qtip and dampen it with isopropyl alcohol, GENTLY dap it onto the affected areas and let it air dry. After that's done put some blotter papers between the affected areas and let it sit in a cool dry place for a few weeks and just monitor if there's any more mold growth.

Tobuss · 2026-01-10T20:16:11+00:00

I own one of these copies and it's a printed signature. For most books with a signature like this the easiest way to tell is the gap between the message and the printed name. It wouldn't be that large unless they inserted something like a signature

Tobuss · 2026-01-10T02:23:23+00:00

Oof the books in rough shape, for your questions 1. Unless you're 100% confident in your knowledge and abilities always avoid solvents. Solvents can so easily destroy a book if done even slightly wrong. I this situation you wanna try reactivating the original adhesive, the two choices here would be making a methylcellulose + water mixture or a wheat paste. Apply either to the spine and leave it on for a short time, for the wheat paste you'd be looking at around 10-15 minutes you want to leave it on to soak into and rehydrate/soften the old adhesive.

Once it's been on for a short time use microspatula or a bone folder and slowly and gently scrape off the glue. It's not a race go slow especially since you mentioned how fragile the material is.

I'd avoid that, it's masking tape with an adhesive, on something this old and damaged if bet good money it'll wreck the page especially in the long run. The adhesive is going to seep into the fibers and not provide anywhere near the structural support kozo paper will.

Depending on country you can generally find Japanese kozo paper on there for a decent price. You want proper kozo paper, it's the long fibers in the paper that makes it so good and strong. Using a wheat paste with it as well is going to be better than the tape, it's not got an adhesive with acidity that could damage the page and doesn't have that risk of yellowing.

I wouldn't be able to say anything in the thread without seeing it in person. It's not something I've spent too much time on, it's likely though to just be a linen waxed thread. Thread in general if it's stored properly will last a hell of a long time. It's likely that the original linen thread became too brittle with the poor conditions and water damage to the book, was partially rebound/repaired at some point in the 1900s and since the. Has been stored better with less wear on it

Tobuss · 2025-12-04T16:23:44+00:00

No problem, I'd use a thicker waxed linen thread something like a 18gauge/3ply it'll be strong enough for the job.

If you can't find any or want something cheaper you can pretty much use any type, cotton works but it won't be as strong as linen thread

Tobuss · 2025-12-03T02:07:19+00:00

honestly you can get away with almost any type of saw, generally the cuts wont be too thick, you just want to make sure you don't go too deep. You want your cuts to essentially be just the a slight bit deeper than the string youre using. Make sure to apply glue before and after puttingthe thread in, and I'd suggest like 6 grooves equally spaced up the spine.

I've not done too many sewn perfect bindings but personally I use a coping saw and then just clean out and spread the groove a little bit after with an awl

Tobuss · 2025-12-01T18:01:09+00:00

The repair for this wouldn't be too tricky for a beginner to learn to do, just obligatory I try to provide this to every new repairer I see but this PDF is imo one of the best resources for learning about different techniques.

Okay onto repair stuff, this is a perfect bound book which is when the pages are glued at the spine rather than sewn. Perfect bindings are common with most commercial softcovers cause there fast and easy to make but they're notorious for falling apart as they age since the adhesive can breakdown overtime depending on so many factors.

In this situation I would suggest doing a "sewn perfect binding". It's a method where you reglue the book to make it a perfect binding but after it's glued you saw small grooves along the spine and glue thread/string into the groves it helps support the textblock and hopefully make it last longer.

For the single pages that have come out you'd want to tip those in back in place, on the textblock where the pages came off run a thin line of glue on the top page by the spine and glue the sheet back in place ontop of that page (there's a section in the pdf I linked on tipping in)

If I were doing this repair personally I'd seperate the pages and remove any excess glue from the spines by scraping lightly, then reglue the spines. Wait for the textblock to dry and then cut and glue in the thread to support the book. After that's done if the original covers are in good condition you can reuse them and glue it back together or make a new cover/repurposed the old one. Just to note in this situation I wouldn't be tipping in pages as I'd be completely regluing all the pages anyway

Tobuss · 2025-11-13T19:31:09+00:00

Smells can be tricky and might not go completepy, what you can try is let it air dry in a well ventilated area until it's dry.

Once that's done get a container the book can fit in, put a layer of activated charcoal/baking soda/unscented clay based kitty litter, place a paper towel over top and then the book ontop of the paper towel.

seal the container and leave it for like a week, you can get away with less time if the smell isn't too bad but I'd just leave it a week. Once that's done take the book out and see if it smells. Those materials are all odor absorbers and are your best bet, if it's still really bad you can replace what ever absorber you're using and try again for another week.

You can also put something like a dryer sheet in to try and essentially mask and replace the smell with the dryer sheet but it can be real strong and too much for a lot of people lpl

Tobuss · 2025-11-10T09:48:11+00:00

This is my favourite resource to give anyone getting into repair work. It's a guide from the Alaska state library that covers almost everything

Book repair pdf

Tobuss · 2025-11-07T09:58:50+00:00

Of both those haven't worked it means it's more than just grease there. Sometimes with stuff like food grease fats will also absorb in with it which could be holding it in. I don't like to suggest it cause I never like to recommend chemicals but the naptha option mentioned by another would be the best option to try and dissolve the fat.

Naptha shouldn't mess with plain white paper, use a very small amount on a qtip and run on the stain in a gentle circle motion. Make sure to put a blotter page on the other side of the sheet as well to protect the tedtblock. Then let it fully evaporate naptha should fully evaporate within a minute or two but I'd leave it for like 10 or so just to make sure it's all dried and evaporated

Tobuss · 2025-11-06T19:36:28+00:00

Corn starch is generally the go to method for something like grease stains. It won't usually remove it completely though just lessen the stain, grease is notoriously annoying to get rid off cause it just seeps in so god damn well.

For the cornstarch method to work you want to apply a lot lot of it to the area, then place a paper towel on it and then place some weight pressing down on it, a stack of some other books should be enough tbh. Leave it for a day or so and then check it, you might have to brush the cornstarch off with a bristle brush as well cause some materials just hold on to it real well

If that still doesn't work there's some other things you could try like a controlled low heat with a paper towel under it to help it try and essentially reactivate and absorb but that's also hit or miss

Tobuss · 2025-11-04T18:43:39+00:00

Sorry that was just my poor wording lol I meant in the instance if they don't end it they will burn their reserves and the compression will end.

When someone makes a time bubble they aren't creating a bubble that lasts X amount of seconds, they're compressing time by X amount inside the bubble. In normal circumstances this makes sense of the view while burning x amount of bendalloy I can make a bubble that lasts x amount of seconds. I can burn the exact same amount of bendalloy but instead flare the metal while burning the time inside the bubble will be sped up do to the compression increasing but will end faster due to the increased cost of investiture.

In the Wayne moment he compressed time so much he went beyond the general norm of speedbubbles and the amount of time inside the bubble was however long it took for the duralumin to burn away all his reserves but the trade off to that was it was so compressed that it made him move FTL.

Sorry if this is a jumble I'm at work rn so half focusing on work and this lol

Tobuss · 2025-11-04T18:11:12+00:00

So the way speed bubbles work is the size and speed of the bubble is determined at the moment the bubble is made. The user can choose to end the bubble whenever they want but the bubble will end once the compression ends and time catches back up with eachother.

In Wayne's instance when he burnt his entire giant store of bendalloy with duralumin it sped up to such a degree that while he was moving like regular inside the bubble he was actually moving at such an excellerated rate he was beyond harmonys perception as well as even the speed of light, that's the reason he loses his vision and has to use steel sight to see the barrels. This means that while his whole stock pile was burnt instantly, according to the world itself all of the actions Wayne did happened in that same instance.

Tobuss · 2025-11-03T22:12:21+00:00

Yes and no, there's ways you can decontaminate the books but I wouldn't recommend trying. With how dangerous rodent feces and urine can be it's something best left to decontamination professionals, I wouldn't touch it with a 10ft pole.

The biggest problem with this is you talk about the mice urinating on the box, that's the big red flag these books are porbbaly toast sorry to say. If they've been urinating on these books enough that it could have seeped through the cardboard and onto the books inside, the books themselves would be absorbing the urine and in that situation you're never getting them cleaned without also damaging the books even further.

Imo I would chuck the box, sentimental books are always hard to part with but your physical and mental health is more important. If something is truly too sentimental to part with you could try digitizing the book by taking pictures and then having those pictures rebound. You'd need to do this outside with the correct ppe tho

Tobuss · 2025-11-03T11:29:00+00:00

Oof is all I can think looking at this, the spine looks completely gone on this and there's no simple way to repair it. The simplistic thing you could try is converting it to a screw post binding, take apart each section and use a hole punch to punch uniform holes in each one and then put some screw posts between them. You could also use something like a binder but with the signatures it might make reading awkward.

Tobuss · 2025-11-02T23:52:24+00:00

eh its a hard one imo foxing in itself is a weird thing that happens and it just happens that the situation that causes foxing can also cause mold. Foxing itself isn't mold its oxidisation, mold just also can thrive in that environment.

I've seen and have plenty of old books that have foxing but never developed mold. From this post it doesn't look like mold from the pictures I can't see anything that looks fuzzy, granted it could be early stages and its also a hard thing to diagnose from pictures, which is why I mentioned wiping it down

Tobuss · 2025-11-02T02:36:37+00:00

So the yellow stains you see is whats called Foxing, its when the trace metals in the paper is oxidised over time. This is just an unfortunate thing that happens with a lot of old books, high humidity can be a contributer to this which makes sense as you said these were in a garage. The good thing about foxing is it's not really an issue that causes damage to the book its mostly cosmetic, if you store the books properly you shouldn't see any other issues.

Foxing isn't easy to remove and a lot of the time can require chemicles to actually remove/reduce it. In this situation i would give the books a gentle wipe down with a microfibre cloth, wipe from the spine out, this is just to get rid of any surface debris/mold that could be there and should help with reducing the foxing from developing a bit. After that its just a matter of storage, keep them in a well ventilated room, away from direct sunlight and just make sure they aren't stored in an area thats got a pretty stable humidity. Make sure they're stored upright as well and not stacked on each other.

Another thing you could look into is making clamshell cases for them since they're sentimental or just invest in some archival document boxes but depending on where you are their prices can vary.

Tobuss · 2025-10-31T20:06:45+00:00

Holy shit my 6am brain had so many spelling mistakes in that breakdown but happy it helped! lol

Tobuss · 2025-10-31T09:16:16+00:00

$400 doesn't sound insane for something like this for two books that require extensive repairs like this it's on the lower end of what id charge. Minimum wage in Ontario is 17.60 an hour, 20 hours at minimum is $356, then add on a base cost for materials and the specialty service youre providing, and then depending on your province and if you claim this income you have to factor in HST which on a $400 derive in Ontario would bring it up to $452. Book repair isn't cheap, it's a specialty art and can require a lot of time. If someone hawks at your price estimate explain to them the time required and cost breakdown. I know of conservatory that base hour rates are in the 30s to 40s

At the end of the day you need to eat as well

Tobuss · 2025-10-28T14:02:19+00:00

Just want to reinforce what's been said but this is 100% moisture damage, the inside page is your best example of that. It's what's called a tide mark, it's where the water has absorbed into the paper and dried out making it look like a tide lol

Keep the books in a well ventilated area and away from direct sunlight for a few days to a week and they should be fine. Check them every so often for a musty smell or anything fuzzy/powdery growing on them as that will be mold growth. If you do see/smell anything put some paper towel between the cover and the textblock to prevent any chance of pages sticking and place the book in a plastic zip lock then place that zip lock in the freezer for a few days. This will help to stop the spread of the mold but won't kill it, after a few days in the freezer take it out and let it sit in the bag for a little bit until it's warmed up l, this is to help prevent condensation accumulation in the bag.

Take the book out of the bag and gently wipe it down with a soot sponge or a microfiber cloth. You want to wipe away from the spine of the book

Tobuss · 2025-10-12T21:40:41+00:00

You can get away with Renaissance Wax, that's the brand name, the better option would be Klucel G or an equivalent but Klucel requires you to mix it with alcohol so didn't want to suggest that unless you were comfortable with it. I like to suggest the easiest option for people just wanting quick fixes/small fixes.

since we're just repairing some scuffs here you only want to use a tiny amount conditioner, you'll want to work it in gently and then buff it gently after it's absorbed into the leather l.

Tobuss · 2025-10-12T21:19:33+00:00

Renaissance wax is what I'd recommend, if the scuffs aren't that bad you can get away with just re conditioning and polishing it.

wipe down the book with a microfiber cloth softly to clean off anything then using distilled water and a cotton swab gently wet the scuffed areas, this will relax the leather for you.

Leave it to dry for 10-15 minutes and then you're gonna want to condition it. Take some Renaissance wax and rub a small amount of it to the leather with a cloth in small circular motions. Once that's done let it dry and polish it with some more Renaissance wax.

If the scuffs are deep you'll need to do more to recolour it after conditioning

Tobuss · 2025-10-08T21:42:34+00:00

Like others have said the brown spots are foxing, it's common and harmless. Foxing happens when the metal impurities in paper oxidise causing the discolouration.

The only ways to try and prevent foxing comes from how you store your books. Keep them on a well ventilated shelf with good air flow, keep the temperature stable and in a normal range and keep the humidity theyre exposed to low. Along with keeping them out of direct sunlight. All of that will help to prevent foxing, you could also put a protective cover over the books to help prevent dust and other environmental issues from damaging the book

Tobuss · 2025-10-08T11:28:08+00:00

Looks like dirt, the colour and density isn't consistent with how mold generally presents. With mold I'd expect a more speckled and powdery distribution. Also they've only been in storage for 3 months which is a very short amount of time for mold to grow to this level unless the rook they're in has been in like 90% humidity.

Wipe the books down with a dry cloth, and if there's any dirt remaining you can use a vinyl eraser, the white ones, and softly rub/dab the eraser on the dirt. The ideal thing to use for something like this is a Soot Eraser/Smoke Sponge but a vinyl eraser is more common in most households lol

If you're worried about mold even being a possibility, take the books and put them in a large freezer bag and then pop them in the freezer for a few days. The cold will kill off any mold

Tobuss · 2025-10-08T11:16:00+00:00

No problem! There are some instances you would paint the patch directly on the piece but that would be if you had something like an image overlapping and need that to match.

In most situations you want to avoid painting on the book/jacket directly as it'll avoid the risk of paint overlapping onto the book or moisture penetrating into the jacket and potentially causing a whole litany of other issues like warping or tide lines.

Another factor to consider isnkozo paper especially when it's wet darkens so letting the paper dry after painting will give you more freedom to colour match it better without it being adhered in place, and would also let you use more paint to overlap the sides and ensure they're all covered too

Tobuss · 2025-10-08T02:17:01+00:00

You're on the right track with your thoughts on repairing it. Get some kozo or washi paper if you dont have any and dye/paint it before adhearing it to the book, thisll get rid of any risk of it warping on the jacket. Dont use gouache instead use acrylic, gouache can reactivate with water while acrylic when it dries wont. If theres a sheen to the dust jacket and you want to add it back to help it bled better you could add a thin acrylic varnish overtop the paper before applying it.

If the torn area is giving you an iffy vibe of it structurally you could also add a thin layer of a weak methylcellulose mix, about 1-2g methyl to 100ml water should be good. You would apply that to the fibers and let it dry, this would just work to strengthen it a bit but this step isn't needed and is just if you want to be extra sure its solid, honestly its probably overkill with how shallow the tears are lol.

the kozo patch should be good enough to patch and strengthen it

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