>Don
>'t know why rag paper would be nasty, except for the smell during
>production. It is much tougher than most paper used today. I have some in my
>wallet which is 500 years old and as good as the day it was made. Nothing
>nasty about it.
Most rag paper that has survived is pretty high quality: that's why it has survived. It is a "garbage in, garbage out" situation. Rag paper, except as a hobby, is never made with new material -- it's all old scraps and cast offs (pre-consumer recycling). If the material is poor, the paper will be, too. For example, discolored rags require much more bleach to whiten, which affects paper strength. In Glorantha, paper is probably sun-bleached (except for the Mostali (and Uz), should they make paper), so this isn't a problem. It is one, however, for the 19th C paper industry trying to keep up with demand.
>I think the traditional rice paper is made completely without acid, and is
>of mulberry tree bark. It's called rice paper because rice starch is used to
>make it better. I don't see it as better than rag paper tho, unless you want
>really thin paper. Actually, there is stuff called abaca made from banana
>plants which I much prefer to anything else, altho I've never made rice
>paper. It comes out about the same as rice, and is a dream to work with.
Rice paper, to the best of my knowledge, properly refers to SE Asian writing suraces made by peeling a tree trunk. The term is not appropriate to Japanese papers, at least not in conservation circles. Japanese paper is made from three different tree/bushes (the names escape me, but at least one is related to the mulberry). I don't think it's better in theory, but the making of it was far more precise than European paper for most of history. Sort of like carbon black ink: in the West it was a home production or an industry, in the East it was more of an art. Abaca, eh? Sounds like something for Teshnos or Pamaltela....
>If you say so. I've never seen a parchment-paged book which looked like it'd
>last thru one more reading. They keep those in special conditions in
>museums, and even then they are fragile, even tho they are rarely even a
>Thousand years old. Rag paper doesn't need any special treatment. You can
>leave it around anywhere, wet or dry. It retains its strength over time.
Wet paper, no matter how well made, will eventually dissolve. Curiously, it will do this faster in a humid atmosphere than if immersed in water (it has to do with the chemical bond that hold the fibers together, and that's more than enough chemistry). Anyway, I'll stand by my claim that any of the ancient and medieval technologies could have lasted since the dawn, some probably more readable than others. I'm going to suggest we take this off-list if you want to pursue it further; I feel a little off-topic.
Peter Larsen
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