Traditional Papermaking Techniques revealed by Fibre Orientation in Historical Papers

Abstract

This work aims to select adequate repair papers, based on fibre orientation information derived from paper objects during restoration, using non-destructive image analysis applied to micrographs of paper surfaces. Contemporary Japanese handmade papers exhibited high values of fibre orientation intensity, while contemporary Korean handmade papers exhibited low intensity values. This difference was assumed to be due to different sheet-forming actions. Model papers prepared in the laboratory by the still sheet-forming and flow sheet-forming methods had low and high values of fibre orientation intensity, respectively. Additionally, the screen side for the flow sheet-forming method had a value of fibre orientation intensity higher than the top side. This fact was logically explained in terms of fibre flow and dehydration rate, and consequently suggests its applicability to distinguishing the sides of ancient document papers. The application of this technique to the Shimadzu Family documents from 1606 to 1859 indicated high values of fibre orientation, suggesting that the flow sheet-forming method had already been established by the early seventeenth century in Japan. The papers of Korean Buddhist sacred books manufactured between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries exhibited low orientation intensity values, and the differences between the two sides were small. This indicates that the papers were manufactured by the still sheet-forming method concurrently with a sideways swing.