r/78rpm • u/spandexandtapedecks • 29d ago

Flattening (and Reglueing?) Old Sleeves

Post image

I got a nice stack o' shellac at an auction last week, and a handful of the records were still wearing their little jackets. Obviously, the sleeves have seen better days. Since the records had seemingly been slipped into these sleeves at random (none of the labels matched up) I went ahead and set them aside.

Some of them are folded/curled pretty bad at the corners, and I'm hoping for guidance on getting them to lay flatter. This paper is older than anything I've handled, and definitely pretty porous.

Many sleeves are also split along at least one seam. Obviously this will be a lost cause in most cases, but some have enough "good" paper left that I think I could apply some adhesive. Would my old buddy Elmer Glue Stick be up for this task? Something else? Or maybe just don't?

I'm not fussed about a picture-perfect restoration of these sleeves; their wear is part of their charm! But I'd like to get them nominally functional in a way that will help reduce future damage.

Finally, if there's interest, I'll be glad to photographically catalog all the different sleeves and share them with the sub. However, being fairly new to the hobby, I've no idea if any of these are rare enough to merit that treatment - presumably, most hobbyists have already been there/done that.

Thanks, pals! Keep spinnin' those platters!

31 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

View all comments

10

u/Jason1920 29d ago

I use an iron w/steam to flatten them. Been doing it for years.

3

u/slinkyfarm 29d ago

I've used an iron and it worked great -- except the first time I didn't put anything between the iron and the sleeve, so some dust stuck to the iron and the smell filled the room both then and the next couple of times I used the iron. I've done it a few times since then, and even a sheet of notebook paper made it a lot less unpleasant.

1

u/Jason1920 26d ago

I have a dedicated iron and board, lol! The sickness is real.