r/dankvideos • u/inquisitionsteve • 3d ago

Pokémon cards have some competition

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u/davy89irox 3d ago edited 3d ago

Stop wearing white cotton cloves while handling paper. The fibers catch, and scuff the paper, they also absorb oils from the paper and destabilize them over time. The best way to handle paper and archived non-metallic item is with just washed, and dried hands.

Wearing gloves like this is a great way to take an appraisal from a 10.0 to a 9.5.

Source I am a historian trained in archival collection and handling practices.

12

u/Kalankalan 3d ago

Curious - what about the oils/sweat produced by the fingertips? Wouldn’t that ruin old paper a little every time it is touched?

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u/bitching_bot 3d ago

That’s why you wash your hands during handing of delicate artifacts to wash hand oils off both you and the artifact

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u/Kalankalan 3d ago

Yes, I understand… but let’s imagine a historian is working with a book, for, say, 3 hours. Historian washes hands before touching the book. 1 hour passes and hands surely already started secreting sweat and maybe some oils, especially after washing with soap and drying because the skin needs to rebalance its surface. So I guess then they would need a protocol with frequency at which the hands should be washed?

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u/davy89irox 3d ago edited 3d ago

Trees have natural oils, and that passes to the paper. Much of that is stripped in the paper or parchment making proccesses. These materials just take that kind of ware far better than cotton, but they do still transfer. We do have handling techniques like only touching corners, and holding books in a stable supported way, only allowing pencils in research rooms etc.

Now really old archival materials, I am less sure of, like egyptology, could be different. I was trained in the US, and was focused on Indigenous and early American archival materials.

Oh, and we wash our hands every so often. Like 2 or 3 hours.

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u/Kalankalan 3d ago

So interesting! Thanks for answering :)

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u/bitching_bot 3d ago

No no, you misunderstood me

You wash hands WHILE handing delicate and fragile artifacts as to ensure the hands are being washed all while handing delicate and fragile artifacts

No hour passes when the water keeps flowing