On July 23, 2024, Jim Quashnock asked about sources for archival
mending tape. My living-room collection of about 300 piano rolls
are mostly 70+ years old, and at the beginning I noticed that they
rapidly developed edge-cracking, even those from new old stock.
(Many of them started out as a crumpled mess.)

I am a piano teacher, and the rule in my house is that everyone
can play any roll as often as they like. Controversial as it may be,
for the past four years I have used "JVCC Crystal Clear Book Repair
Tape," available from https://www.findtape.com/ You need a large-core
dispenser to handle the tape.

The polypropylene carrier is 1.1 mil thick, making a total thickness
of two mils including the acrylic adhesive. (Other standard repair
tapes I have looked at are 2 to 3 times thicker.)

The quarter-inch size is actually six millimeters wide, allowing it
to miss all pedal perforations near the edge. One rewind perf at
the very end must be restored if desired.

Since lining the full length of both edges of every roll and locking
the left-hand flange at 1/32" from the pack, I see no roll failure
whatsoever. I see very little bulking out near the flanges, and
absolutely no oozing, yellowing or shrinking so far.

I have not been able to find information proving what this tape will
look like fifty years from now, but a roll that can't be played risks
being put in the cellar or barn -- and we all know what that means!

Thank you for considering this.

Jim Neher
Pennsylvania

[ A "mil" is a unit of thickness equal to one thousandth of an inch
[ (.001 inch). Typical piano roll paper thickness after punching
[ is about 2.7 mils, therefore an added strip of mending tape may
[ noticeably increase the thickness. -- Robbie