Good tape, bad tape?

Nancy S.

Grumbler
Joined
Sep 22, 2004
Posts
40
Loc
Tennessee
Please don't let this get your conservation juices going. I am certainly not advocating taping textiles...just curious about the tapes in this particular case.

I recently opened two frames that were each about 12 years old. I didn't do the initial framing but both frames were done during the same year.

Both contained quilt pieces that were stretched over regular foamcore. Each piece was taped to its mat, two to three pieces of tape on each of the four sides.

One was taped with regular masking tape, the other one with a tape that I am almost sure is an acid-free, supposedly non-yellowing framing tape (at least it looks exactly like one I have in the shop).

What really amazed me is that the masking tape, although thoroughly dried out and starting to crumble (really ugly), came off without leaving the slightest bit of discoloration or residue on the fabric. The other tape had yellowed the fabric and left a really gummy residue.

I would have thought that the opposite would have occurred.

Was there a supposedly acid-free masking tape 10-12 years ago, or is this just one of those things that makes you go hmmmmmmm? :confused:
 
The pins must have been stainless steel, there were no problems there.

I removed the pins and found absolutely no affect from the regular foamcore either.
 
As pressure-sensitive tapes age, they first soften
as their plasticizers migrate out of the adhesive
and then they harden as their adhesives oxidize.
The aging you observed probably shows two tapes,
aging at different rates.

Hugh
 
FACTS has a tapes and adhesive committee headed up by Rick Bergeron, a framer who will walk the slippery slope it will take to complete the task. Lots of manufactures are also on the committee. There are so many glues, tapes and adhesives and they age so differently that to set an all-inclusive directive is impossible. I think the standard itself will be that it be reversible, leave nothing behind when removed and basically do no harm, but the most the committee can do, or so it has been suggested, is to provide a glossary that describes types of glue and gives information about them which at least would give us a basis to start from in making decisions about use.

Nona Powers, CPF
www.nonapowers.com
www.artfacts.org
 
Thanks Nona and Preservator,

You do so much to progress the science behind the art of framing.

I have learned a lot from you in the last year or so.

Nancy
 
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