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Stephen Tashiro
12-10-2009, 3:03 AM
A friend of mine got a few spots of WD-40 on portrait drawing that was done on heavy paper. The question is how to get these spots out. Will they simply evaporate? I've never found WD-40 to be a very permanent lubricant, so it wouldn't suprise me if they evaporated.

Rob Young
12-10-2009, 10:21 AM
There is just a smidgen of oil in the WD-40 can so you may see some oil spots long after the solvent/carrier has evaporated.

I have no idea how to get that out of a paper drawing without damage.

But, I have slathered paper negatives (Calotype, an "antique" photographic processes where we coated paper with the photo emulsion to create the in-camera negatives) with baby oil to make the paper more transparent for making the positive contact prints. It seems to have no long term effect on the paper negative other than it becomes a bit more delicate and tear prone. I've also used a mixture of mineral oil and bees wax to make it a more permanent transparency change. Doing this would "hide" the oil spots by making it one giant oil spot.

But be warned, I was less concerned with the longevity of the negative than with increasing its transparency to make the positive print. In the end, the positive print was the goal, the negative would never be displayed.

David G Baker
12-10-2009, 11:28 AM
If you value the drawing have the spot removed by a pro anything else could make the situation worse.

Stephen Tashiro
12-10-2009, 2:27 PM
But who would be a "pro"? Not a dry cleaner, I assume.

I suppose one fortunate aspect of this situation is that it's not hard to set up experiments. We can take scrap paper and put WD-40 spots on it and test various methods. Perhaps there is a way to put a coating over the spots and draw on top of them.

Russ Filtz
12-10-2009, 3:15 PM
Put duct tape over the spot. The two should cancel each other out!

Rob Young
12-10-2009, 3:16 PM
But who would be a "pro"? Not a dry cleaner, I assume.

An art conservator. If there is a local museum or even a university with an art or art history department/faculty, contact them for a start.

If you can't find anybody else, PM me and I'll ask the folks at the Spenser museum here at KU. They have a rather large collection of Japanese paper prints and screens to deal with.

Russ Filtz
12-10-2009, 3:17 PM
Seriously, maybe try rubbing some cornstarch on and brushing off. Or get some old school spot remover if you can still buy it (the kind of stuff that will kill you if you breath it!)

Carlos Alden
12-10-2009, 3:55 PM
Seriously, maybe try rubbing some cornstarch on and brushing off. Or get some old school spot remover if you can still buy it (the kind of stuff that will kill you if you breath it!)

That would be carbon tetrachloride. I would not use that because it might discolor the paper. I agree with contacting an art conservator. Any major city with an art museum would be a good initial contact.

Carlos

Roger Newby
12-10-2009, 7:19 PM
Chalk dust is a very benign try for all of this. While cornstarch would work, it is organic. Chalk is an inert mineral and more easily removed.

Stephen Tashiro
12-10-2009, 11:19 PM
In this case, preserving the color of the paper is important. It's a colored sheet of paper. It's somewhat like posterboard but of a better quality.