I wrote an article about roll splits a year ago and re-read it and
still feel this the best permanent way [031106 MMDigest, Repairing
Folded Music Rolls].  If one inserts a mesh on the top or underneath
the paper roll when one rolls it up it will cause a slight lump and
this will become part of the flatness of the paper.

In repairing rolls the very least and really least amount of repair
material will last best. With the older scotch or magic mending tapes
they will shrink and buckle the paper.  If you tape along a whole side
of a roll you have to be sure the tape will not shrink.  It all looks
wonderful for a year or several but later the paper buckles. Thus if
one repairs bridges with tiny amounts of paper tape the repair is
compatible with the old paper.

If you do as I said last year you can take out a roll unplayed for
years and put it on and it will still play as new.  If you repair it
on the back you won't see it.  If you do as I say the notes will not
cipher. I have repaired 100's of rolls and they still work fine.
I have looked at hundreds of other repairs and found most are ruined
after several years.  Of course they play fine in the next few days
but later they ooze or lump up.

I have recently found in ironing rolls if you put the roll on a glossy
magazine to iron over it turns out better than on a hard surface.  My
whole goal has been to make rolls play perfectly and still look good
and the methods I described last November have worked.   Before
archival paper tape existed I used thin brown gummed paper tape and now
for the last 10 years have found it is often too heavy for really
rotten paper rolls.

The archival paper tape such as Filmoplast certainly works for tears
but is too thin for bridges, hence tiny strips of gummed paper tape
for bridges.  As others have suggested a piece of old roll can be
overlapped by 1/16 inch and glued on but even the glue and its
stiffness often causes a tiny buckle in the playing areas.

My only purpose of writing this is to try to stop amateur repairs
to rolls, which repairs ruin the roll forever. Eli Shahar asked the
question and I hope he will try the method I described in Nov. 2003.

Dean Howe