Hopefully, this unfortunate event is not something most people will experience. It was quite by accident that I discovered how to apply this method of "dry cleaning" to paper damaged by oil.

One morning while cooking bacon I decided to try to do two things at once-- cook breakfast and read my newsletter. Well...., to make a long story short I accidentally dripped bacon grease onto the newsletter, making a large unsightly spot that not only looked and felt greasy, but smelled like bacon. I still wanted to use the newsletter at the next meeting, but not wanting to carry around a newsletter dripping with bacon grease, I remembered the "common sense rule" of removing stains from everyday (things)...like cloth, carpet etc., use "dry powder, or paste powder solution", to absorb the stain. Panic over, I began to work fast. I grabbed a handful of finely ground corn meal, and loaded the grease spot with the meal, and pressed it with an iron skillet for weight. I was through cooking and the skillet was washed and dried now. I repeated the dry powder application several times over the next two days, and to my surprise all of the oil came out! The newsletter dried so well I could not tell where the spot had been. Even the smell was gone! This episode was good preparation, because the very next week I received a book in the library which had been dropped in what smelled like motor oil.

The following information might be helpful if this ever happens to you. If you suspect that the dripping book in your hand has oil on it and you feel confident that you can handle the job with out any serious complications, proceed with caution.

 Procedure... 

• Determine the extent of the oil damage, and identify type of oil if possible.
• Remove book covers if appropriate.
• Place damaged material in a shallow tray to catch any drips.
• Blot with absorbent paper such as cosmos or another blotter paper to absorb as much oil as possible.
• Inter-leave the oil-soaked pages with finely ground corn meal, Malisa is the brand name I used. Continue to pack the pages heavily, especially where there is a heavy concentration of oil.
• Place the now stuffed book or papers in a press or under a heavy weight and express as much oil as possible.
• Leave over night or longer. Note that as the oil is expressed and absorbed into the corn meal or fine powder you will began to see a slight color change in the meal as the fine powder begins to take on the tint of the oil color. You will know that the treatment is complete when the paper no longer feels slippery and is dry to the touch.
• Take a soft bristle brush such a "hake" brush, and carefully brush the powder from between each page, being especially careful to clean out the gutter (inner margin) of the book. Stop and clean your brush frequently.
• For a final clean up use a soft brush attachment on the end of a vacuum cleaner hose to remove any fine dust missed by the brush
• For more intensive dry cleaning methods using dry cleaning chemicals etc., refer material to a trained conservator.

Prepared by Barbara M. Hammond who invites questions or comments via email.