Thanks. :) I'm having fun with the project. It is time consuming but not as time consuming as I thought. Check your local thrift stores or used bookstores and find a book that you can try it with. If it doesn't work, or you get bored, you can always throw the pages into the blender and make paper. ;)

Mostly just to practice. The book itself has virtually no value. I wanted to try some of the techniques I'd read about without having to worry about wrecking a valuable book (valuable in the emotional and/or monetary sense).

I was curious to see exactly what happens when you submerge a page under water (it doesn't fall apart, although it is fragile). How crinkled do pages get when you dry them (not very if the are evenly wet to begin with and dried hanging or lying flat). Most of the process I found myself hrmphing to myself and saying, "Hm. Interesting."

I haven't run across any of the chemicals for deacidification that are described in the books I've read. I'll probably have to order them from an online distributor. And that requires space on the VISA card. ;)

I find it difficult to track down recent information on conservation though. It doesn't seem to be captured in books on bookbinding which means I'd probably have to get the information either from journals or from paper engineering texts. Either way those are not sources of information that I can easily get my hands on...and their procedures are definitely not going to be targetted at me.

I'm glad you enjoyed the site. I'll post updates here when I have the binding pages up.