Brian Thornton's post (MMD 150903) about music roll paper prompted me
to finally write on the same subject.  When I first started punching
busker organ rolls by hand, I purchased a single roll of dry waxed
paper from the Tonnesens and slit it to the correct width using a
home-made slitter which consisted of a winding mechanism and two Number
11 X-acto blades.  It was crude but it did the job.

With the coming of the automatic parallel punch I ordered paper from
Burrows Packaging Company, just like everyone else in the roll cutting
business.  Mine was slit to a six-inch width and the perforator trimmed
the final roll to five and one half inches -- the standard for the John
Smith roll.  At that time Burrows would sell you anything that they
made and the dry wax paper they always kept in stock was unbleached
brown in color, and used by a national window company for protecting
their windows in shipment.

When the six-to-the-inch perforator came on line I was not in what I
called Janet Tonnesen's paper queue; she ordered for everyone punching
rolls at that time except Play-Rite.  Since I had no dry wax, I went
to the automotive paint store and asked to see their rolls of masking
paper used in paint spray booths.  I chose a 3M product that was green
in color and gave great results.  I calculated that if the paper could
withstand all the harsh chemicals in a paint spray booth it could also
work well in a less adverse climate, passing over a brass tracker bar.

When I finally joined the group using paper manufactured by Burrows
Packaging I was extremely happy.  It came in twelve inch diameter rolls
whereas the paint store paper was spooled on a small core and was about
six or seven inches in diameter.

Music roll paper through the years has changed but one thing has not
changed and that is what it is really manufactured for and it certainly
is not perforated music!  Dry waxed paper is designed to keep the juice
from your hamburger from making its way down to your elbow.  That is
correct -- it is hamburger wrap spooled in a continuous roll.  Acid
free?  Hardly!  Archival?  Same response!

Burrows Packaging Company manufacturers the paper in their plant
in Little Falls, New York.  The batch is formulated from recycled
materials and Southern pulpwood.  Finished rolls are forty-eight inches
wide and weigh almost a ton.  From the factory the paper is shipped to
three other locations -- one in Illinois, one in Iowa and one in Nevada
-- to be "converted" into sheets for the food service industry.

The plant in Iowa is the only one equipped to spool the paper in
continuous rolls.  Currently their minimum order is ten thousand pounds
but they are making noises about raising that to twenty thousand
pounds.  Current quote per pound, which is the way it is sold, is USD
1.87 per pound.  A twelve-inch roll spooled on a three-inch inside
diameter core weighs about 42 pounds.  If anyone has ever calculated
the total length of a roll of paper I am unaware of it.

At some point someone discovered another product manufactured by
Burrows and named by them "Plastiwax".  The trumpets were sounded
for this new paper and the next ten thousand pounds was the new and
improved music roll paper.  It was thicker than the dry waxed and its
physical properties were hard on the dies and punches requiring that
they be replaced far more often than previously.

The biggest problem arose in the amount of paper that could comfortably
fit on the flanges then being used.  Medium flanges were now required
for rolls that previously could be spooled on the smallest flange.
I got tired of changing punches and stopped using the Plastiwax
entirely.

I now use hamburger wrap once again but I purchase it from Central
Coated Products located in Alliance, Ohio.  It is far superior to the
Plastiwax and now I can spool over forty feet of paper on a small
flange.  Most importantly I can order as much or a little as a single
roll.  Of late I have been punching style "O" rolls and they fit nicely
in the box.  The rolls made with Plastiwax often protruded above the
edge of the bottom of the box.

No one has ever been willing to take responsibility or take the time
to explain to me why modern day roll cutters specify waxed paper.
Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of rolls, were punched back in
the day on some sort of paper that has only lasted 100 years.  Some of
it was coated but it was not with wax.

Ed Gaida - Preserving music by punching holes in hamburger wrap!
San Antonio, Texas