Announcement

**Stahlhelm** · 06-13-2008, 06:24 PM

Hi, John:

Well, here's a few of my own thoughts and opinions on the subject. I'd say here's a case where you're going to have to be creative, resourceful, and, above all, patient. First, you obviously have to start by choosing all archival materials to create such an album. I would look for something that certainly has mylar pages. You may even need to buy the pages seperately and choose the album or folder serperately. From there, I would find acid-free cardboard support inserts for the mylar sleeves. As far as how you'll attatch all your things to the insert, that's another issue (which I've addressed more in the last paragraph). Again, being resourceful and creative enough with the various suitable archival materials is about all you can do. Once you figure out how to attach everything archivally, I would just hope that there's enough room within the sleeves to store and display everything without bulking it up too much.

Since I keep talking about creativity and resourcefulness, I'll try to finally give you at least one concrete example from my own experience. I am also an avid coin collector. Everytime I buy an acrylic display frame for a coin, even though they are made for various coins sizes and denominations, they are rarely a perfect fit. I routinely have to carve and sand out the insert areas for perfect fits, when the holders are too small. My biggest challenge was in finding an archival material to fill the gap when the insert area was too large. I finally decided to cut small strips of mylar from extra archival mylar coin sleeves and painstakingly insert them, with tweezers, between the edge of the coin and the acrylic edge of the frame. This I, of course, needed to do to stop the dreaded, abrasive moving and shaking that a rare coin will otherwise experience in an oversized holder. Nobody ever told me to do any of this; I didn't read it in a book, and there's nothing specifically made for any such purposes.

Yes, I know these types of alterations and modifications are not the easiest of things to do. However, it always becomes necessary when there's nothing out there made especially for our requirements. Yes, if only more people in the world wanted to do some of the unusual things we do, then mass-marketing would surely offer up what we need cheaply and abundantly enough.

Okay, back to reality. Well, I know that isn't the best help, but it's honestly the best I can think of at the momnent. At least it's maybe a few new ideas. Hopefully, someone else will chime in here with something else even we haven't yet cosidered. Who knows? Maybe there is even some mass-marketed product out there that I don't know about yet. Only future responses will tell.

So, in conclusion, my advice is to get yourself some mylar sleeves with binder holes, slip some acid-free cardboard sheets inside, and do your best to creatively attach all your pieces within, using and/or modifying some other type of archival material. Right now, I'm wondering if there's any archival thread that you could run through the cardboard and around some of the cufftitles, patches, etc. That would seem to be the least invasive thing you do to hold everything in place. I know you can buy archival, mylar, photo corners for mounting photos, so that shouldn't be a problem. I use those myself. Paul R mentioned a type of acid free tape you could also use to connect the ends of the mylar sleeves at the top, if necessary. That's an idea to consider, as well.

Good luck, and I hope this helps at least a little. Let us know what you do.

Sincerely,

Chris

Announcement

Displaying cloth insignia

Displaying cloth insignia

Comment

Users Viewing this Thread