This post consists of some of my past Facebook posts on what I did to remove or reduce smoke odors from books. Each date links to the original Facebook post, where comments can be read.
August 18, 2018
August 18, 2018
These Hardy Boys books arrived in the mail today. They were priced very cheap, in fact way too cheap. When I saw the listing, I assumed that there was a catch, because the price was illogical. The seller mentioned no flaws, but I knew that there had to be something wrong with the books. Since the books were so cheap, they were worth purchasing if even flawed. The books were actually cheaper than if I had found them in a local thrift store. I couldn't lose.
Now I know what was wrong. The books smell strongly of smoke, the kind of smoke that comes from a burning structure. They have been in a fire. I was mystified to smell such a strong odor yet not see soot on the books. Finally, I discovered that Crooked Arrow has a charred area at the top.
As I sit here with the books four feet away, I can smell a faint odor of smoke. I am going to find somewhere to place these books fanned open.
I placed the smoky Hardy Boys books (see post from yesterday for details) on shelves in the garage along with household items. They will be okay there for now, and I don't want them near other books. I had the garage door open for a while today to air it out.
Last night, the smoke odor had spread to over half of the garage. I could smell the books from at least six feet away. Now, I have to get within 12 to 15 inches of the books to smell the odor. This means that the smoke odor has already lessened, but the books do still smell just as bad up close. The odor should continue to lessen, especially if I continue to expose the books to fresh air periodically.
Smelly Book Update: I had the garage door open for an hour today with a fan pulling in fresh air. I previously reported that I could smell the smoke from six feet away on Saturday. Yesterday I could smell the smoke from 12 to 15 inches away. Today I have to get within two inches of a book to smell the smoke. The books still smell bad, but the intensity of the odor has reduced greatly in just two days.
Smelly Book Update #2: You might recall some smelly books that came into my possession in August. The books had been in a fire. They are still in the garage, still fanned open on shelves. Some of the books no longer have any odor. Others still have an odor, but the odor has decreased by 90%.
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These last two posts are about another set of books that smelled of cigarettes.
I purchased a bulk lot of Nancy Drew books in order to acquire some extra Wanderer books. I have an international buyer who is seeking them. The books are in really nice shape, but they smell strongly of cigarettes. 😩 Why do sellers not disclose odors in books? 😡 Over time, cigarette odor does fade, but I need to expedite the process.
I have heard of wrapping each book in newspaper. Supposedly, the odor goes away in a few days. We shall see. I am quite skeptical, but I am willing to give it a try. I have wrapped the books. There are some flashlight editions that came with these books that I did not show in my picture. I am not trying to get rid of the odor in those, so I will be able to compare their odor to the wrapped books in a few days and see if anything has changed.
Cigarette Odor Update: Four days ago, I posted about some books that smelled of cigarette smoke. I wanted to get the odor reduced quickly so I wrapped the books in newspaper. Someone who used this method said that the odor goes away in four days. It's been four days, so I checked one book.
Flying Saucer Mystery is one of the books I wrapped in newspaper. Red Gate Farm was not wrapped in newspaper, which means that I can compare the odor. The odor in Flying Saucer Mystery has reduced by around 75%. Flying Saucer Mystery smells overall okay, although it needs to go back in the newspaper a bit longer. Red Gate Farm smells strongly of cigarette smoke since I did nothing to it. Yuck.
Conclusion: Wrapping books in newspaper does reduce cigarette odor quickly.
1 comment:
Oh my! Fire damaged books! What memories this brings for me. And how interesting it is that smoke smells really do go away over time in books! It's really amazing what books can go through and bounce back from. I have some first hand experience with fire damage. Let's call it a 25 year lesson. I experienced an apartment building fire 25 years ago. I was at work and my boss came and said "You need to go home! The fire department has called and your apartment building is on fire.!" Sadly my apartment was one of four destroyed. Almost everything was either completely destroyed or badly smoke damaged or water damaged. I'm a teacher and I had a lot of books. All of my college books and all of my childhood books as well as plenty of teaching resources. People trying to help me sort through the remains urged me to toss everything away that remained. And that's what I mostly did except for a very few books that had survived but were blackened and smelt of fire! I was just so happy to find something that had survived that regardless of how I was encouraged to "Just get rid of it!", I held on to a few books. It's now twenty five years later and the only evidence of fire can be seen on the burnt covers. Actually within 10 years those few books that I kept had almost completely lost the smoke smell. Now 25
years later there is no smell at all. I did nothing special to those books except try to clean off the smoke from the covers. I put them in a box and that's where they stayed for 10 years. Then one day I decided to face that box of burnt books and finally maybe toss them away and to my surprise the smell was gone and only the burnt surfaces remained to remind me of the tragedy. Those books are sitting on shelves in my home now and books that I don't mind using at all. I would never sell them or give them away in their burnt condition but I use them. So it is true that the smoke smell does go away. I wish I had known about wrapping in newspaper. I would have tried that. Oddly time took the smell away from my books. I should say time in a paper box that had vents and did receive some air circulation. Sadly three years ago my mother was living in Paradise when the tragic fire happened there. I did the opposite in helping her go through the remains and encouraged her to keep books that had survived. It has been three years now and the smoke smell of those are also now gone. I'll end by saying that I am often sad that I didn't salvage more of the books that were not completely destroyed in the apartment fire. I had an entire set of 1970 Nancy Drew, my childhood books with my own name plate that I had collected over many years as a kid. I also had my Trixie Belden "uglies" (that I don't find ugly!) I still had those books and sadly all of those are some of the ones that got tossed out with people standing around me saying ..."OH those Nancy Drew books and Trixie Belden books are easily replaceable! Get rid of those for sure!" Oh my! I wish I hadn't listened! Now 25 years later, I realize it's amazing what books can endure and come through! And books can endure smoke damage much easier than mold and mildew for sure!
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