The problem today isn't that the music roll paper isn't as good as it
was ninety years ago, it's rather the opposite -- most of it's too good.

There's a perfectly straightforward paper variety suitable for rolls,
basic white "Kraft" paper as used for food wrapping and a million
other applications.  It's one of the basic staples of the paper-making
industry worldwide.  For rolls, paper of about 70 grams per square
metre weight is needed.  It's got no residual lignin ("wood free" in
paper trade parlance) and I believe that environmental legislation,
in the USA at least, means that no chlorine bleach is used so all the
production now meets acid-free standards.

Plain white Kraft paper would do for music rolls.  Dry-waxing (the
melting of paraffin wax into the body of the paper) reduces its
moisture absorption, hence makes it more dimensionally stable with
humidity change.  However, original piano rolls were never dry waxed --
the glossy rear of the paper is obtained by 'machine glazing', achieved
by running the paper over a heated roller in the mill.  It's sold as
"MG bleached Kraft".

There's a more modern way of dealing with water absorption, though,
which is to add various resins to the paper that (I assume) bond its
fibres so preventing it changing shape readily.  I suspect that "wet
strength" Kraft would do the job nicely.  This type of paper can be
placed in water for days and not change shape!

The difficulty is getting anybody who's prepared to sell any of the
above to end-user consumers.  Here in the UK we've tried at least
a dozen paper merchants, and not one has followed up whatever they
promised over the phone.

Dry-waxing is normally done by separate "paper converters", so there
is indeed very little choice of mills offering waxed Kraft directly
and prepared to deal in manageable sizes -- indeed, Burrows Paper is
reportedly the only workable choice in the USA, and even they only deal
in tons now.  This isn't quite the same as there being only one maker
of "roll paper" left, which you do hear said from time to time.

Another common supply is ordinary laser-printer paper.  The problem
with it is that these printers need fairly stiff paper that will feed
positively through the mechanism, while older music roll paper tended
to be notably floppier.  This is a shame, from a roll-making perspective,
because laser printer paper is readily available in reels of the right
width and, this being an end-consumer product, many companies will
eagerly sell it to you for next-day delivery.  It's also of superb
quality, acid-buffered and with an archival life of between 100 and
250 years according to the grade you buy.

Meat wrapper paper is designed with very high "burst strength" to
prevent bones poking through it, and is self-healing -- so it doesn't
punch well and holes tend to close up.  "Peach butcher paper" (and
other colours) is widely available and quite cheap, and has been used
for rolls: suspect any of recent production on coloured paper, and
check carefully to make sure they have holes large enough to operate
the machinery.  Many don't.

Julian Dyer