I didn't realize.
However, wood is a nasty storage material.
I'm close to Berkeley, here in Oakland. When I go into a typical turn-of-the-century wonderful wooden Berkeley home, I'm hit in the face by the strong smell of aging wood. Its a fabulous smell until one realizes all the valuable artworks that are being bathed in the wood deterioration by-products. The home I'm thinking of had photographs from the same era with silvering-out issues. I believe the acidic gasses were, at least, contributing to the problem.
In addition, I've have opened plenty of frames [less so these days] that used wood-slats for the backing. The damage to the print(s), usually a "popular" chromolithograph on poor-quality paper, was often in unrecoverable wood-grain-stained, condition. There is noting worse than direct contact with wood. But a room full of wood degradation by-products will do damage over time to paper. Even if you coat the poplar hardwood shelving (an expensive low off-gassing material), the vapors from aging will make it through the coatings.
The diffusion rate is slow, but the evolution of deterioration by-product vapors is also slow. There is no coating, except a thick layer of wax, which will even slow the diffusion. Mark Williams, furniture conservator, responds on this list; I'm sure he will concur, there are no coating that will halt diffusion. Wax and Saran are the best at slowing diffusion, but wax is unworkable for shelving and Saran is difficult and expensive use. You'll also have to coat the board ends; the vapors will just move through the "coated" parts of the wood and out the ends; the path of least resistance.
I'd try to afford the metal shelves, or, go digging for a local supporter to fund the upgrade. It will be more beneficial in the long run.
Another antidote: I was about to purchase a small table saw to build a suction table for my practice. At $140, the small 10" saw at a national tool chain fit the budget. When I went to buy it at a recent 25%-off sale, I just couldn't do it. The memory of those $200-250 big-name-Japanese-tool-manufacture 10" table saw, with all the features (and nice fences) was better in the long run; but it was a budget buster. I'll wait and do it right.
Tim Vitale
Paper & Photography Conservation
Oriental Scrolls & Screens in the Western Manner
Digital Facsimiles & Digital Image Restoration
Remastering still Film to Digital [distorted too]
Archive & Collection Surveys
Video & Film Preservation Surveys
Preservation & Imaging Consulting
Vitale Art Conservation
2407 Telegraph Avenue #312
Oakland, CA 94612
510-594-8277
510-508-4162 cell
510-891-1602 fax
[log in to unmask]
Website: http://vitaleartconservation.com/
Resume: http://vitaleartconservation.com/vitale_long-resume_v21.pdf
Video Preservation: http://videopreservation.conservation-us.org/ (2007)
Albumen Photography website: http://albumen.conservation-us.org/ (2001)
Brief History of Imaging Tech: http://vitaleartconservation.com/bhit.pdf
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