Adhesive removal from old photo

[Chrissie P]

Some years ago when attending a Family History Fair in Scarborough I bought a small bottle of solvent which was recommended for removing old sellotape from photos, (sadly my mother in law stuck all her of photos in an album using sellotape across the front!)

I scanned the photos first just in case of damage but I used all the solvent very successfully with no damage to the photos at all. The bottle has no label so I don't know which solvent it is. Can anyone recommend a brand I can buy which they have used and does not damage the photo.

Chris.

[Peter Goodey]

The technical term seems to be "sticky stuff remover" .

Searching with that term, throws up several products but I'm afraid I've no idea which might fit the bill for you. I take it you didn't recognise the smell of the original product?

[Chrissie P]

Sorry Peter, I didn't recognise the smell of the original and it was in a small unlabelled bottle (not at all Health and Safety!) I know there are lots of products that will remove the adhesive but I need one that won't damage the photos so was hoping someone else may have tried this.

[Lesley Robertson]

A bit of a long shot, but if you know who organised the Fair, you might be able to get a list of the people selling stuff there.. Hopefully, the right candidate would have an obvious trade name...

[Chrissie P]

Good idea Lesley, I will try and find out who organised the Fair. In the meantime I'm going to try lighter fuel that someone recommended but on a photo that isn't important!.

[Lesley Robertson]

Be careful with solvents of any sort, they often damage the glossy finish of the photos.

[Megan Roberts]

A well known cookware store, that also sells household products has something called sticky stuff remover - whether it is safe on photos I have no idea. They have an on line store as well as local ones.

The store in question takes its name from an area of the North West of England. If this is still too cryptic for you, then send me a private message and I will send you the name and a link.

[almach]

Perhaps this will help

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a...itive-tape.htm

[Peter Goodey]

Perhaps this will help

Looks like useful information.

Ethyl acetate by the way has a distinctive smell, usually described as pear drops.

[mikejee]

Ethyl acetate is a very strong solvent, and it looks like the files referred to in the article were mainly/entirely printed.typed paper, rather than photographs. Therefore I would make sure you test it out on something that is not important first. Also remember that nowadays photographs are printed using inks, whereas in old photographs the image would be silver, so make sure you test on an old-style printed photograph on silver coated printing paper. I would have thought actually that the silver image might be more resilient than the modern print.