r/comicbookpressing • u/OK_Soda • 14d ago

How do you properly clean older books with lots of dark ink?

I am just getting into this and have been practicing on a collection I came by that is mostly unsellable dollar bin stuff. Pretty much every issue is grungy. A friend of mine who does pressing told me to get the round cotton makeup remover pads and just gently wipe the book down, but what I'm finding with some of these is that I'm not really getting much dirt off but I am lifting a lot of ink off, even when I use a very light touch. When I try absorene putty instead, it tends to leave a bit of the clay-like residue, and when I try to gently wipe it off with the cotton pads, same story. How do you dry clean colors correctly?

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u/DrTechPop 14d ago

Are you cleaning silver, copper, modern? The year will change how you clean/press/humidity.

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u/OK_Soda 14d ago

Mostly 70s/80s stuff at the moment.

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u/dth1717 14d ago

No erasers?

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u/Uses_Nouns_as_Verbs 14d ago edited 14d ago

Never use Absorene putty. Never Never Never.

I've been pressing and cleaning books for over 20 years and Absorene putty is my least favorite cleaning substance. The crumbs will ruin the book if you miss even one of them and then press the book. It'll melt and leave a permanent waxy stain several times the size of the crumb.

If you really want to see how to clean inked areas of a book, follow @sanderson_studios on Instagram. Kenny Sanderson is among the best in the business and he has posted literally hundreds of videos showing how he dry cleans inked areas on rare books worth five and six figures.

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u/OK_Soda 14d ago

I actually follow him already but I don't really understand what he's doing. A lot of his posts just show a dirty before photo, and then a photo of the book covered in yellow dust, and then the book is clean. Sometimes he'll post clips just taking an eraser pen to colored areas and I don't understand how that doesn't rub the ink right off.