Sevenhelpfulhintsforuseinpaperconservation.docVIP

The American Institute for Conservation Seven Helpful Hints for Use in Paper Conservation by Cathleen A. BakerAssistant Professor, Paper ConservationArt Conservation DepartmentState University of New York College at BuffaloCooperstown, NY Grated Art Gum Eraser for Dry Cleaning: There are a number of commercial powdered erasers on the market today including Opaline, Skum-X, and Trace Clean. All of these appear to be made up of a powdered eraser and some of them have particle sizes ranging from a very fine powder to relatively large chunks of eraser. Sometimes this range can be found in one sample of a powdered eraser. The type of eraser powdered also varies within the same brand name. For example, I have used Opaline which looked, smelled, and felt different from another package of Opaline. Some of these eraser bits are so large and hard that I prefer not to use them for fear of abrading the paper. However, the idea behind a powdered eraser which you can simply dust on and gently rub over the paper surface to dry clean it is good and useful. The problems lie in the effectiveness of such an eraser to remove dirt without abrading the surface, and in its subsequent removal from the paper. If the powdered eraser is too fine a powder, it is certainly going to be trapped in the interstices of the paper surface, and be almost impossible to remove completely. Some time ago, I started to make my own grated eraser primarily using an art gum eraser, Faber-Castell #211. By simply grating the rubbery eraser against a metal or plastic food grater (the kind used to grate cheese or vegetables) one can get a very soft crumb-like eraser which rolls very easily over the paper surface with little or no abrasion. As it collects dirt it tends to turn color very quickly and it is easy to see how effectively it cleans. As it collects dirt, the particle size decreases, and you should remove the eraser crumbs before they become so small that they will be trapped in the paper fibers. Be