I'm in the process of designing a display case for my baseball cards from the early 1900s (T206s). I want the case to be antique looking and provide maximum protection for my collection. I'm a little stuck in 3 areas and any feedback would be great.
Does anyone know of a site/woodworker where I could send my design for some feedback?
I have some design elements that I'd like to incorporate into the piece but I'm not a designer so I need some suggestions and input into what is practical and what would really look "vintage".
Any feedback regarding materials (wood/glass/stain) would be great.
For an antique looking wood, choose any good quality hardword that has already been distressed or weather aged. Usually resawed boards from old buildings or barns will work. Just be sure that when mounting the cards use acid free backer board, corner pockets, and to keep the cards out of direct sun light. It may even be best if you can creat a door or shudders on the display.
Make it from white oak, ammonia fume it, then finish with shellac over oil. All common stuff, all easy, all web searchable.
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site (sometimes a flakey server!) lots of useful advice on conservation-grade mounting and framing.
Wandering a library or bookshop will find you lots of "Arts and Crafts" style advice. It's an easy style to manufacture, looks good and has aged well. it would fit well with any pre-WW1 collectables.
This may be a local issue, but in the UK it's important to avoid "acid free" backer board.
Good materials are not just acid free, they're buffered with a base (little more than chalk filler) so that they _remain_ acid free over time. Only the worst sorts of woodpulp paper still contain acid from the fibre digestion process, the problem for archival work is when celluose degrades over long times, so as to _form_ an acid residue. It's usually this that does the damage, unless you're trying to conserve newsprint, pulp paperbacks etc.
(There's also an issue with colour film and print paper in that they don't like excess of bases either, i.e. "buffered" materials. Read the usual resources on how to deal with these.)
So when you buy archival materials, don't just look for "acid free", look for "buffered" materials. Good quality mounting boards, Daler- Rowney etc. will be no problem.
However there's now some "cheap crap" mounting board on the market (guess where it's from). It's labelled as "acid free", and in fact the labelling and packaging looks better than the good stuff's does! However "acid free" here means no more than "not made with acidic woodpulp" and it's certainly not long-term stable. Don't trust it, certainly don't use it for archival-grade work or with anything valuable.
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