Hello MMD.  To de-rust a badly rusted pair of flanges it's necessary
to remove the roll from the spool.  Having done that I remove the worst
of the rust with sandpaper and maybe a wire brush too, and then paint
the flanges with Feronite, a proprietary rusty metal primer made in
Australia.  Its formula includes wattle bark extracts and it works
extremely well.  I painted it on some rusty patches on my roofing iron
several years ago, did nothing else and the rust is only now starting
to reappear.

If Feronite isn't available a more conventional Phosphoric acid rust
converter is quite satisfactory.  After the primer has dried I give
the flanges a coat of black model paint, if they were originally black.
If they were brass-plated I just varnish them; the "gold" paint one
gets in little tins looks really tacky on roll flanges.

The main problem is getting the roll off the spool core without losing
too much paper.  If there's plenty of paper after the end of the music
you can just cut it off; if not, the paper can be unglued, but you need
lots of patience.

This method was suggested to me by George Fleming of the PPG in the
UK, for salvaging labels off wrecked roll boxes, but it works for
de-spooling rolls too.  Make a pad of several layers of cotton material
(I use a piece of an old singlet or vest) and wet it thoroughly.  Lay
it along the core and apply a hot iron and let it sizzle away. Remove
the iron and re-wet the cloth before it starts to dry out.

After a while inspect to see if the glue has started to let go.
It probably hasn't; the glue the Aeolian Co. used, at any rate, is
amazingly tough.  It's very easy to rip the paper if you are impatient,
but eventually the paper will come away from the spool.  It can take
ten or fifteen minutes!  Yes, I know I'm completely mad but I can't
help that.

If you are really fussy you will de-rust the heads of any metal tacks
in the core and the metal bits of the Aeolian sliding fittings at the
left-hand end of the core, and then cover them with little bits of
Filmoplast tape to prevent future rust stains on the roll paper.

It's my belief that much of the edge damage to rolls is caused by
too tight spools so I always make sure the Aeolian sliding fitting
stays in the widest position by inserting a sliver of toothpick into
it, to jam it open.  In an MMD of a year ago or so, some-one
recommended putting a neoprene O-ring onto the shaft of the left-hand
spool end to increase the spool width.  That's a good idea, but hard
to do if the spool end isn't easily detachable.  In that case I run a
piece of thick string around the shaft (6.5 cm is about right for
Aeolian spools).

This can be done without detaching the roll paper.  I used to glue the
ends of the string together, to make a string O-ring, but have found
that isn't really necessary.  The first couple of turns of paper and
the pressure of the flange keeps the string in place.  Re-attach the
roll paper with just one bit of tape in the middle; this gives the
paper more flexibility than a big daub of glue would.

Being a complete fanatic, I also de-rust the D-rings on the leader
tags.  If the roll has a tie-string the D-ring is almost certainly
rusty, the string having acted as a wick for moisture for about 80
years.  It's actually easier to remove the string than it would seem,
at least for Aeolian rolls. That's because the string had a half-hitch
put in it before it was secured to the D-ring with another half-hitch.

A needle set into a bit of wooden dowel makes a very useful tool for
unteasing these knots and for lots of other roll repair jobs too.  Once
the string is removed you de-rust the D-ring the same way as for the
spool ends.  If Feronite is used it ends up looking brown and shiny but
that's a hell of a lot better looking than brown and rusty.

This doesn't do anything for the rust inside the tag but sometimes it's
best to let sleeping dogs lie.  Eventually the rust will completely rot
the end of the tag and the D-ring will fall off.  If that's about to
happen, get in first and cut the D-ring off before it gets lost.  Now
you can de-rust it completely.

Of course this presents you with a little problem in playing the roll,
and who hasn't seen examples of the most extraordinary "solutions"
in the form of sewn-on washers, cotton loops, sticky tape with a hole
punched in it or most commonly a jagged hole ripped through the leader,
probably right through the label?

You can do better than that.  All you require is a short length of
book-binding cloth whose colour doesn't clash with the tag.  Cut it to
the width that fits the de-rusted D-ring, fold it lengthways and check
that you can push the ends up between the tag and the leader paper.

Your trusty needle-on-a-stick may be necessary here, to widen the gap
between tag and paper.  I use the famous No. 320  Player Piano Co. glue
to fix the cloth strip in place on account of its flexibility when dry.
In the excitement of gluing, don't forget to include the D-ring.
Voila! A repaired tag.

By the way, if you wish to completely remove a tag without ruining the
leader, perhaps to replace a missing paper fastener, that can be done
too, by a combination of wet-ironing and steaming.  Replacements tags
can be cut out of book-binding cloth; you just need to make yourself
a pattern to cut around. I think they look much better than the modern
self-adhesive tags, which look all wrong on old rolls.

Talking of steam, I think I've just run out of it.

John Phillips in Hobart, Tasmania.