Brian, You could be very lucky with the rag content of your papers. >From your comments, the manufacture of the involved paper may be on the cusp between complete rag content paper and wood pulp paper. I might suggest a < google.com > search for you on the history of paper making. I think, I believe and my memory suggests that it was the middle of the 1800s when wood pulp paper really became an active commodity. That memory also suggests that wood pulp paper did not reach the U S until the early 1900s. Properly and efficiently sorted used rages were still the major source of manufactured paper up to the middle 1800s although the Germans, the Swedes and the French, in particular, had been working on wood pulp paper for a number of years before those middle 1800s. The quality of the papers which you have may be excellent with their rag content and may need less protective measures than any of today's paper. djweber djwdjw@ix.netcom.com