Conservation Quick Facts - Sticky Tape

Looks yellow

Looks white

 Adhesive oxidises with time, in several stages:

• Goes gooey
• Oozes from under the carrier, so it gets dark, sticky edges
• Darkens and seeps into paper fibers
• Oxidises completely and loses stickiness, carrier peels off.

Adhesive doesn’t degrade as much. Does not change collour.It:

• Goes slightly gooey
• Seeps from under carrier slightly, so it gets sticky edges.

• Severe yellow staining
• Brittleness.

• Slight staining
• Can cause inks to become feathery, especially non-water soluble ones (red, blue biro).

Gooey/Ooze stages:

• Apply heat (hairdryer)
• Remove carrier by sliding a blade between it and the paper
• Remove adhesive residue using a crepe square. If there is a lot of very gooey adhesive, balling it up using a scalpel blade can work.

Dark/oxidised stage:

• Peel carrier off with hand or scalpel
• Scrape off adhesive residue with scalpel blade
• Staining can be decreased removing some of the residue using solvents or mixes of solvents, many of which require a license to purchase.

• Apply heat (hairdryer)
• Remove carrier by sliding a blade between it and the paper
• Remove adhesive residue using a crepe square. If there is a lot of very gooey adhesive, balling it up using scalpel blade can work
• Leftover adhesive residue can sometimes be removed swabbing with solvents or mixes of solvents, many of which require.