Separating the pages of fully flood-soaked books , that later totally dried out?

That is what he says he's tried.

Steam damping, as mentioned, makes more sense for plan B - think wallpaper removal. Good luck

Not sure how you'll keep separated pages apart as they dry or keep the pages flat, though. Sheets of acetate?

Hope that it isn't Encyclopedia Britannica !

PA

Resoak the pages and try to tease them apart while they are still damp? Could help - or could be the worst ever thing to try ;-)

The drying out is the simple bit. I use a fan heater on cold , blowing over the pages so they flutter about. Then when still very vaguely damp , close up and lightly weight down with pieces of newspaper interleaving every 2 or 3 pages, checking every few hours and then overnight and then for days. For steaming i think I'll find a gas hob kettle , so it can run at low tick-over ,via some tubing, into a box of some sort.

Buy replacement books.

Bill

Are you sure the newspaper ink won't partly transfer?

Probably too late but I suggest soaking in cold water then following

Unfortunately they are unobtanium but at the same time , of no value, so no professional restorer fees available.

Re: newspaper. I'd previously used newsprint in the drying process after de-acidifying old going-friable brown paper , spraying with washing soda soulution. But just in case of bleed-through, I'll try getting some blank newsprint from my local chipie. It seems to be the right sort of absancy unlike copier paper and thinner than blotting paper.

If its been a long time you may well be out of luck, as the ink itself may have no idea where its suppose to be. There was a program some time ago on trying to read what was in old books like you describe using sectionalised chopping up and a special electron microscope to try the read the text.

Maybe need to talk to some restorers, but expect a large bill and not 100 percent success. Brian

I might try confining steam under a bit of pressure and forcing it out of a hypodermic needle. Perhaps playing it on a corner would start to cleave apart pages rather than rip or mush the pages .

The best tool I found was a draughtsmans plastic scale rule, very thin and tapering to the edges, but not sharp edges, and rounded corners. After spraying, soaking in/ partially drying and finding ereas where I could get the ruler admitted. Then slight waggling of the leading edge of the rule separated the pages quite well, especially when I'd cleaved an initial run down the long edge of a book. Or sometimes the binding edge became more free and could push the rule thru, the length of the page and then waggling. Initially separating small blocks of pages , then going individually