Using Ozone on Musty Dana Girls Books

On March 6 on Facebook, I wrote:

I have another bulk lot of musty books.  This time the books are tweed Dana Girls books with dust jackets.  These books have a moderate musty odor.  The odor is not the worst I've smelled, but it is fairly strong.  I use an ozone generator in a closed box on the porch of an outbuilding.

I had a deadline of the next evening for finishing up with the ozone treatment because of incoming rain.  I also had to work. 

I got the books set up in the box with the ozone generator and started it at around 7 PM on March 6.  The ozone generator has a three-hour timer, and I reset it at around 10 PM.  The next morning, I started it again for the third round before I left for work.  When I got home that day, I started it on the fourth round and then a fifth round.  I then got the books inside before the rain moved in.

The books were treated to ozone for 15 hours total, and I knew that I overdid it a bit.  The books smelled extremely strong of ozone, so much so that I couldn't tell if they were still musty.  Logically, I knew that they weren't still musty, but the ozone odor was so strong that I couldn't distinguish exactly what I was smelling.

I moved the books to the garage, which is mostly climate-controlled.  The books would be fine.

I cleared enough space on shelves to get the books fanned open.  I checked on them a week later, and they still smelled unpleasant.  I periodically checked on them, noticing that the odor was improving.  

April was a terrible month, so I didn't check on them.  Today, I finally did.

As of now, the odor is soft and is a pleasant remnant ozone odor.  The books have no musty odor.  The ozone odor will continue to fade, but it's now down to what people would perceive to be similar to a "new book" smell.  

If I had treated the books to ozone for a shorter period of time, it wouldn't have taken as long for the ozone to fade.

For more information, view this post:

Using an Ozone Generator to Remove Musty Odor

Using an Ozone Generator to Remove Musty Odor

Getting rid of musty odor is usually a losing proposition.  Some people will insist that they've gotten rid of musty odor with dryer sheets, carpet freshener, or cat litter.  But did they really?  Or did they just substitute one odor with another?  

Other people swear that wrapping books in newspaper works.  Or placing in a container with charcoal.  Or using essential oils.  Or using baking soda and placing the books in the freezer.  Or microwaving the books.

I've tried most of these methods, and they don't work. 

Carpet freshener

I used carpet freshener on books that had a strong mothball odor.  The books then smelled like mothballs and carpet freshener.  Yuck.  I couldn't keep the books.  This method is a very bad idea.

Baking soda with or without the freezer

This does fade the odor, but it doesn't go away.  It also tends to return.  This method doesn't work.

Wrapping in newspaper

One time I did get rid of cigarette odor this way and failed another time.  I've never tried with musty odor, but if this method failed with cigarettes, then it won't get rid of musty odor.

Microwaving the books

I have microwaved books.  This method temporarily reduces the odor, but it comes back.  The books can also scorch if you're not careful.  Ask me how I know.  Don't microwave your books.

I have never tried charcoal or essential oils.  Charcoal is too messy, and using essential oils is odor replacement.

There is one more method: using an ozone generator.  I purchased an ozone generator in 2021.

Ozone generators are dangerous.  If you ever use one, you must be very careful to use it away from pets, animals, and people.  Ozone is toxic to the lungs.

This bears repeating: 

Ozone is toxic to the lungs.

Now that I've made that statement, I used the ozone generator on some musty books in 2021 with partial success.  I don't think I exposed the books for long enough.

On May 25, 2023, I posted this on Facebook:

This poor book smells strongly of varnish.  It's an okay odor which is far preferable to a musty or cigarette odor; I'd just like it to be a bit less strong.  I can smell the book from four feet away now that I have it propped open with zip ties.  This book is an exciting Kay Tracey purchase which is an upgrade to an earlier printing than what I've owned for years.  I'd turn the book around and photograph the front, but the zip ties would fall out.

This is the book.

I treated the book with ozone for an indefinite amount of time.  I don't know how long, because I don't remember.  I got rid of the fragrance, but it was replaced with an ozone odor.  I still didn't like it, but it was an improvement.  What I thought was varnish was gone.  

Sometime later, the seller asked me if I'd "smelled the roses."  It turned out that what I perceived as strong varnish was from a rose-scented box that the seller reused to ship the book.  She was proud of herself and thought it was great.  

If you ever sell books, never use any kind of fragrance in or on the packaging.  Buyers like me will hate you.  While I wouldn't leave negative feedback over a fragrance, many book buyers would.  

The ozone smell was not permanent, which I knew.  I shelved the book and hadn't checked it until working on this post.  The book now has no odor other than the smell of paper.  It smells great!  The ozone worked.

Fast forward to November.

I purchased a rather cheap bulk lot of Nancy Drew books, most of which have dust jackets.  When I opened the package, I discovered that the books had a very strong musty odor—a very pungent, dreadful musty odor.  Imagine the worst musty odor you have ever smelled, and that was how these books smelled. 

Many of the books were solid blue and tweed Nancy Drew books from the early 1950s with good quality paper and in dust jacket.  These were books that I hoped to sell.  The musty odor was so awful that I could not possibly sell the books for much of anything.  Despite the hassle involved, I had to get out the ozone generator.

I do this outside away from the house.  I have an outbuilding with a porch that has a roof.  The building does have electricity and is about 100 feet behind the house.  I found a large cardboard box and placed on the porch.  I used zip ties to prop the books open.  The books and the ozone generator went into the box.  Here are pictures.

The ozone generator has a three-hour timer.  This is because it's not safe to approach the ozone generator while it's running.  It must shut itself off.  I kept the ozone generator unplugged while I prepped the books.  When I was ready, I turned the dial to three hours and shut the box.  I plugged in the ozone generator, then I walked away quickly while holding my breath.  I took no chances.

I waited until I felt certain that the time had expired, and then I waited a bit longer, maybe 20 minutes.  Ozone has a short half-life and dissipates quickly.  When I checked on the books, I made sure that the ozone generator was off.  I held my breath, opened the box, and moved away.  The wind was blowing on this day, so any ozone left would have disappeared fast.  

I then repeated the process, over and over.  Each time I cycled the books, I checked one.  At first, the books still smelled musty.  It was at about 12 hours that I thought the musty odor might have been removed.  I wasn't about to go to this much trouble again, so I continued cycling the books.  All told, the books were treated to ozone for 21 hours.  By that point, the books had a strong ozone odor.

In case you're wondering what ozone smells like, I'd describe it as smelling like the vinyl lining of an above ground swimming pool.  Other people say that it smells similar to chlorine.  It's a clean smelling odor.

Once I was finished, I got the books in the house and up on shelves to air out the ozone.

I'm not sure how long I left the books on the shelves.  At first I thought it was for a day or so, but now I think it was probably for one week.  The ozone odor did not decrease, and I needed to speed it up.

I moved the books to the garage.  Outside air enters the garage, and any books placed in the garage air out quite well.  I have a hygrometer in the garage, and the humidity stays between 45% and 55%.  The humidity level is fine for books.  

Here are some of the books in the garage.

The other books were scattered between other items on the shelves.

I finally checked on the books at either 2 1/2 weeks or 3 1/2 weeks since they were moved to the garage.  I detected a very light ozone odor and removed the books from the garage.

I stacked the books and waited a day.  I wanted them to be fully room temperature before I checked again.  The books smelled lightly of ozone, light enough that the paper smelled like a new book.  It was pleasant.  

These are the books.

These books are also from the bulk lot, and they have significant water damage.

The rest of the books are fine with no water damage.  Old Clock has a damaged dust jacket.  Some of the other jackets have water stains that are visible only from the reverse side.  Altogether, this is a nice group of books.  They will be sold.  I have written "ozone" on a sticky note placed inside each book.  The books get mixed in with other books that will be sold, and it's important that I keep track of these.  I will disclose that the books were musty and now aren't, just in case some allergens remain.

Conclusion

The horrific musty odor is gone.  The remnant ozone odor is pleasant and may fade completely given enough time.  Even if the ozone odor remains, most people would just smell paper.  

Some people use ozone generators inside their homes when they deodorize books.  They seal off a room where they run the ozone generator.  I cannot do that since my home has central heat and air.  There is no possible way to seal off a room.  Air will be pulled into the central unit no matter what.  My only solution is to do it outside or in an outbuilding.  I prefer outside so that I know that the ozone has dissipated.  Ozone is the best way to remove odors from books, but make sure that you know what you are doing before you proceed.

Protecting My Nancy Drew Action Figures

Last year, Wandering Planet Toys had a Kickstarter.  I was one of the backers, and my action figures arrived on June 1.  If you missed out on the Kickstarter, some action figures should show up eventually on the secondhand market.

I had left the action figures in the shipping box until tonight.  I didn't want them to collect dust, and I hadn't felt like getting them protected.  

Here are some pictures.

Click on images to see them at a higher resolution.

I also received the Nancy Drew novela, Case of the Curious Collection.  The novela was only available through the Kickstarter.  I do have some extras, and eventually I will sell them.

Last year, I purchased a roll of cellophane on Amazon.  

100 ft Clear Cellophane Wrap Roll

The cellophane is fabulous.  It was exactly what I needed.  I had some larger collectible items that I needed to get protected, and the cellophane was perfect for my application.  The cellophane is crystal clear and very thin.  It is exactly like the cellophane that is wrapped around gift baskets and similar items.

I did not want my Nancy Drew action figures to be collecting dust, so I finally wrapped them in the cellophane tonight.  This way when dust collects, it will instead be on the cellophane.  I can gently wipe the cellophane to remove the dust.

In the next photo, all of the action figures are wrapped in cellophane.

While visible, the cellophane is not obtrusive.  I like knowing that dust will not collect on the action figures.

I highly recommend this cellophane wrap if you have any larger or irregularly shaped items that need protection.

Removing Smoke Odor from Books

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

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.

August 19, 2018

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.

August 20, 2018

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.

September 30, 2018

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%.

..........................................................................

These last two posts are about another set of books that smelled of cigarettes.  

June 26, 2019

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.

June 30, 2019

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.

March 2021 Selling Update #3

In my last post, I photographed books that I gathered together to list on Etsy.  I mentioned that some books might not get listed if I found something wrong with them.  I have had to set aside all of the hardcover Three Investigators books for now.

I had forgotten that most of them have a strong musty odor.  I had already attempted to reduce the odor by using baking soda.  I did that for around two months with no reduction in odor.  

For the record, I have never been able to get the musty odor out of any book no matter what method I have tried.

I do, however, now have an ozone generator.  I purchased it recently because of the appallingly strong scented odor of a first printing copy of Judy Bolton #1, The Vanishing Shadow, that I acquired late last year.  I want to keep it instead of the worse condition book that I have owned for years.  However, the fragrance is so strong that I find it gross.  I cannot put the book on the shelf with my other books.  Even a mild fragrance in a book bothers me. 

Many people like to cover smoky or musty odors with fragrance before selling the books.  Just be aware that quite a few of us hate fragrance as much as the other odors, so we won't see the fragrance as an improvement.  It's not natural for a book to smell like freshly laundered clothing.  The book should smell like a book.

I exposed the Three Investigators books to some ozone last weekend.  I now need to wait to see how much of the odor comes back.  I can tell that some of it is still there, but I want to see how strong it gets.  I will then treat the books again.  This process could take a few weeks.  At some point, I'll get the hardcover Three Investigators books listed on Etsy.  

I will give a report about the ozone generator, but that's a topic for another post.  I will say now that you should not purchase an ozone generator without first researching the risks. 

The good news is that every other book that I pulled to list on Etsy was listed.

Last night, I opened both stores back up.

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

The Etsy shop has my most popular books, primarily Nancy Drew, the Dana Girls, Trixie Belden, and the Three Investigators.  Those series do far better than any other series I have ever tried on Etsy.  The boys' series, including the Hardy Boys, typically do not sell for me on Etsy.  I have a couple of ideas about why that is the case.

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

I also list Nancy Drew in great quantity on eBay.  The Dana Girls and Trixie Belden books that I list are ones that are harder to sell on Etsy, like international editions.

I list everything else on eBay, from all the boys' series to any series that is less popular than the core series that I list on Etsy.

I will be listing a large quantity of books on eBay in the coming days.  I do understand that when many desirable books show up for sale at once that it can be distressing if you cannot afford all of them.  Unfortunately, I cannot do anything about that.  I haven't sold in seven months, and I have cleared well over 500 of my own books from my shelves.  I have a large number of very desirable books to list.  I must work on getting them listed.

I am trying to pull books of different types so that the books might be desirable to different groups of people.  For instance, around an hour ago, I pulled out a set of Kit Hunter books, some books by Margaret Goff Clark, and some Dana Girls Swedish editions.  I hope that the books appeal to different groups of collectors.

Cataloging My Collection

This summer I decided to catalog my collection.  I cataloged 4,485 books, which are most of my series books.  I did not do all of my books.  I wasn't concerned about getting everything cataloged.  I hadn't kept up my written records well for around 10 years, and I wanted to get a database that was more current.  I also wanted to get photographic documentation of my most important books and have the prices I paid for all of my books in an online database in case of loss.  It's not helpful when one's records are in the same place as one's books.  In the event of a loss, both the books and the records would disappear.

Here are the series for which I own the most books.

Nancy Drew - 2,368
Trixie Belden - 281
Judy Bolton - 221
Dana Girls - 199
Three Investigators - 135
Hardy Boys - 111

I discovered that at least two books are missing, and I cannot account for what happened to them.  The first one is my copy of the first Girl Scouts book by Edith Lavell, The Girl Scouts at Miss Allen's School.

I suspect that I might have sold the book accidentally around four or five years ago when I had other Girl Scouts books that were extras, but I really don't know.

Even more puzzling is the disappearance of my hardcover book for Nancy Drew #130, The Sign of the Falcon.  I have in my written records that I have this book, but I cannot find it.  I would not have accidentally sold it.  This is a mystery.

Both missing books should have been on shelves on the same wall and would have been within five feet of each other.  Perhaps their disappearances are connected, but I can find no trace of either book and have no idea where they would be.  I have looked under and behind all bookcases.

I used LibraryThing to catalog my books.  Words cannot express exactly how little I relished the task of cataloging my collection.  I had put the process off for years, then one day in early July, I decided to force myself.  And force myself I did.  It was tiresome photographing thousands of books.  It was brutal trying to interpret my rather disorganized and incomplete records.  In some cases, I was never able to figure out what I paid for a book.

I found the process of entering the data on LibraryThing quite cumbersome at first until I figured out how I could enter the data very quickly.  I have a CueCat, which scans the barcodes.  Since I have a massive quantity of Nancy Drew books that do not have barcodes, I spent one hour compiling barcodes for Nancy Drew #1-56.  I did this by searching the internet for each Nancy Drew title followed by "UPC."  This brought up a page which has a barcode.  I took a screen capture of the barcode and created documents that I printed.  Here is a sample of a part of one of my pages.

I took the CueCat and scanned the printed barcode pages, thus speeding up the creation of my entries for my Nancy Drew books.  For other series, I had to manually search from within LibraryThing for entries, which was slower.  

By the time I had entered a few hundred books, I quit editing titles.  I decided to go with whatever showed up.  After all, I know what each book is, and the title doesn't have to be perfect.  While I'd love everything to be perfect, I wanted to get the data entered as fast as I could since I did not want to do it at all.  Remember, I had to force myself to do the cataloging during the entire process from start to finish. 

While leaving the title alone, I did add a photo of my book to each listing and entered the price paid and date acquired.

I found that I could enter the data directly from the following screen on LibraryThing, which sped up the entry of data greatly.

The above page can be changed to show what you want it to show.  Double-clicking in each box allows for the information to be edited.  As I stated, I did not edit most titles.  I usually did not edit the author's name unless I noticed something that I cared to take the time to fix.  I did try to edit all the dates to reflect the actual age of each book.

After quite a bit of debate with myself where I changed my mind several times, I decided to keep my books in a private library.  This is because I have had aggressive collectors use high pressure to try to get me to sell certain books to them.  Having all books in my collection cataloged publicly makes me very nervous.  I never thought that the small percent of my books mentioned here and on my website would cause problems.

I try to be very careful about how much information I make public online.  Sometimes I worry that I have shared too much in this blog or on Facebook.  Sometimes I have gone back and edited posts, removing some information.

The trend nowadays is for everyone to share everything with everyone else.  That works fine for many people, but I am much more cautious.  My Facebook account is nearly stripped of all personal information.  I use Facebook only to interact with other collectors in the groups and do not use it for anything of a personal nature.  Facebook asks me every few weeks where I went to high school and college, and I refuse to answer.  I'm so sorry, Facebook, but you don't need that information.

I know that many people refuse to use Facebook because they don't wish to share their information.  You can be like me and not share much of anything. 

Separating a Book and Jacket

I bought some Dana Girls books with the blue and red dust jackets.  The jacket for The Portrait in the Sand was stuck to the book as a result of major water damage.

I decided that I wanted to remove the jacket from the book.  The only way to do this was to use steam.  Normally, I would never use steam on a book or jacket, but in the case of severe water damage, a little moisture hurts nothing. 

I placed water in a pan on the stove and brought it to boiling.

I started with the back flap. The part that was stuck was the top couple of inches. I held the jacket over the steam, then used a knife underneath from the bottom part of the flap to gradually pull the flap free.

 Next, I went to the back panel. I began with the top edge near the back flap.

I got the left top of the back panel free, but the next part was stuck really good. I paused and tried the front flap. The front flap was stuck good.

I went back to the back panel. I held the book over the steam and tried with the knife from the underneath. I could tell that the jacket was going to rip no matter what I did. I noticed that the jacket looked like someone had already tried to pull it free near the top of the back panel, so this meant that I was going to lose some of the jacket no matter what.

I then held the book over the steam some more and managed to free most of the back panel.

I then got the idea to try from the top edge of the back panel, which is the reverse of what logic would tell me to do.  Success! I freed the back panel.

Next was the front panel, which I thought would be really hard. Without using any steam, I pulled the entire front panel free.

Now I was down to the front flap, which I planned to pull free by pulling from the front panel.  I steamed the front flap and pulled some of it free. Working at it, I was finally down to a 2 inch by 1/2 inch area near the lower right edge. This part was stuck as bad as the top part of the back panel. I worked at this area for around five minutes, and finally, I pulled it free.

Yay! 

I'm sure some of you are looking at the photos of the dust jacket and book and are thinking, "Why bother?  The book and jacket are trashed."  First and foremost, I wanted the dust jacket in a mylar cover, which was going to improve the appeal of the book and jacket.  That was not possible with the jacket stuck to the book.  Second, with the dust jacket removed from the book, the possibility of getting another better condition book for the dust jacket now exists.

If I am able to find a better book in the very near future, I will make the substitution.  If not, then I will be selling the book and jacket together.  Even though the condition is bad, a number of collectors would not mind purchasing it.  These early jackets are scarce and difficult to find.

Book Press Trial #3

I placed a 40 year old book with strong spine slant in my book press. I am not certain how long I left it in there; I forgot about it for a while. The book was in the press for at least around three weeks.

I removed the book from the press and then flipped through the pages several times, backwards and forwards. By flipping through the pages, the spine is loosened up again, and I can assess what the spine's natural slant is. The book now has very minor spine slant. The book press did not remove every last trace of slant, but around 90% of it was removed. I can now conclude that book presses can be used to greatly decrease spine slant, but the books need to be pressed for a few weeks.

Book Press Trial #2

I placed some books in my book press a week ago. The books had a lot of spine slant, and I hope to sell them at some point in the near future. I think I will do better with these particular books if they have less spine slant.

I checked on the books today. They definitely have less spine slant than they did a week ago. I placed the books back in the press, and I plan to leave them in there at least a few more days and possibly a week or more.

The first time I tried the press, I only kept the books in for a few days. It is no surprise that the results are better when the books are left in the press for a longer period of time. However, the age of the books may be the more important factor. These books are not old books, unlike the books I used the first time I tried out the book press. These books have bindings that are still supple, so they are responding well to the straightening.

Book Press Update

Two weeks ago, I posted about my book press experiment. This is the photo of the books before I placed them in the book press: I had the books in the press for around three days, and then I removed them. The books had improved, but all of them were still slanted. I then placed three of the books (the bottom three in the photo) back in the press and tried to slant them the other way in order to try to cancel out the original slant. I had those three books in the press for around one to two days. I have forgotten the exact length of time, since it has been nearly two weeks.

 Here is what the books look like now:


 The top two books are the ones that were only in the press the first time, so they really do not look much different. The bottom three books still have slant, but all of them are improved. I feel like the Betty Gordon book improved the most. It is the second book from the bottom in the above photo.

I feel like I could improve the results by leaving the books in the press a bit longer than just a few days. At this point in time, I'm not going to mess with it. I will have more time and energy for this type of endeavor in June, so I will hopefully report back at that time with whatever results I achieve.

The last two weeks have been exhausting, so that is why it took me so long to report back on my experiment.

The Book Press Trial Run

I received my book press and selected five books to use in my trial run. I chose two tweed Dana Girls books, a Betty Gordon book, a UK edition Nancy Drew book, and Beverly Gray at the World's Fair. Two of the books are warped and slanted while the other three are just slanted.


   I found it difficult to manipulate all five books into position in the book press. It was hard to straighten the books completely without knocking the other books out of position. I stubbornly kept with my original plan of pressing five books at once in spite of the difficulty.

I am not completely satisfied with how I have the books positioned in the press, but it makes for a good trial run. I feel like it would be much easier to press just one book at a time. Aside from that, I have two ideas about different ways I could position the books in order to make the process easier for me.

I am planning to leave the books in the press until at least sometime on Sunday. At that time, I will remove them to see whether the books are less slanted.