Getting out the smell of tobacco. The need to have knowledge at our fingertips is critical in the future and could well be the determining factor of the success of this nation in a time of trouble. Loading manuals, machinist books, and gun books are critical pieces of knowledge that we may be hard pressed for in the future. This brings in the reality that such valuable pieces of information may need to be available in a less than desirable condition.
Tobacco Smoke seems to plague some of us that do not
smoke. Not to infringe on another man’s right to smoke but sometimes our paths
cross in the strangest of places. Some of the most desirable books to own are
old loading manuals and some of these were owned by former smokers. Some of us
have wanted to get our hand on some of these old books for some time. This
brings up some interesting problems as some pages are inundated with the smell
of tobacco smoke many times. Unlike a novel where the person reads it once. A loading manual is studied, perused over, and looked at when you have a new
idea. In looking on the web, people have suggested putting the book on a rack
over baking soda. In looking at the problem part of the difficulty of the
smell is air exchange and a closed book has no air exchange. The ideal thing to
do would be to leave each page open for several weeks which is impractical. I
planned a 3 step approach. 1) Get some air to each page. This was done by
cutting up junk mail sales fliers, that the wife would through away anyway, about
1 inch wide. Leave the circular closed and cut it up in strips. Now open the
strip to the center page and make your accordion folds and you will do a whole
bunch at one time. 2) Lace the folded strips between each page from one end of
the book to the other and set the book on end and let it set for about a month.
This should do as much as possible by normal air flow. 3) After the month of
air exchange the book is left in this position place baking soda in a
cardboard box and a cookie rack wire mesh over the baking soda (I used some boards from an old pallet as it was free). Baking soda
absorbs the worst of smells. 4) After another week (mine were left for three weeks) remove the book and the
baking soda is removed and put in a cap full of cheap men’s cologne under the
rack and put the book back in and close the box again and leave it set for a
few days. I will use a men's spray colon as I had some available.
Warning –Nearly all things are leaning toward the acid or base side of
their PH. Good books are generally made
from acid free paper or they are PH balanced. The baking soda is a
base and must not come in contact with the pages or your book will deteriorate. Richard W Norman
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| Box- Baking Soda- and Boards |
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| Large Loading Manuals |
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| Small loading manuals |
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