Industry
Does the paper damage record actually point to water more than workmanship?
No case studies are invented here. What published salvage and emergency guidance shows about water, preparation, and what the record cannot tell you.
What to take away
- Yes, the published salvage record ranks water as a leading documented threat to paper collections, second only to fire.
- Workmanship does not appear as a damage cause category in that record, so it is never ranked against water.
- The record counts events, not craft errors. A weak joint that fails quietly does not reach a salvage team.
- The useful part of the record is preparationan emergency plan, a hazard check, and a freeze-or-dry decision.
- The NPS Conserve O Grams give no percentage breakdown comparing water against workmanship.
The comparison the record actually supports
The National Park Service Conserve O Gram 21/3, Salvage of Water-Damaged Collections, states that water is the greatest threat to archival and museum collections after fire. Workmanship is not listed as a threat category at all.
How the record treats each cause
Cause category
- Fire
- Top threat
- Water
- Greatest threat after fire
- Workmanship
- Not a cause category
- Human incidents
- Listed with natural events
Published record
- Fire
- Often total damage
- Water
- Heavy, weak, urgent
- Workmanship
- Under-recorded failures
- Human incidents
- In emergency plans
At home
- Fire
- Water
- Workmanship
- Human incidents
That absence answers the title question. The record points to water more than workmanship because it does not count workmanship as a cause. It counts events: floods, hurricanes, fires, accidents, crime.
How the published record treats it
- Fire
- Named as the top threat
- Water
- Named as the greatest threat after fire
- Workmanship
- Not listed as a cause category
- Human incidents
- Listed alongside natural events
What it means at home
- Fire
- Smoke and char damage is often total
- Water
- Wet paper is heavy, weak and urgent
- Workmanship
- Binding and material failures are under-recorded
- Human incidents
- Accidents and crime appear in emergency plans
The NPS guidance on water salvage frames response as one part of a larger cycle. Preparation, prevention and response are the other parts. Its first instruction after flooding is to evaluate hazards before moving anything. The same order applies at home. The storage decisions that prevent slow water damage are covered in When does storage matter more to book arts than technique itself?.
Why workmanship is missing from the damage record
Salvage reports are triggered by events that damage many objects at once. A single book with a failed spine does not generate a flood response. It goes to a conservator or a rebinding bench, and it never enters the disaster statistics.
That gap matters for a home studio. Your own bad paring, weak thread or acidic board can destroy a book as completely as a burst pipe. The published record will not show it.
The Canadian Conservation Institute notes on bookbinding materials cover thread selection and material stability. They address craft choices directly. A maker who wants the workmanship side of the comparison should read those notes alongside the salvage guidance.
Named documents and what each covers
Three documents do most of the work in this record.
- NPS Conserve O Gram 21/3, Salvage of Water-Damaged Collections.Covers hazard evaluation, air drying, freezing and priorities. The note is at Salvage of Water-Damaged Collections.
- NPS Conserve O Gram 21/9, Emergency Operations Plans.Covers the plan itself, including natural and human-caused incidents. The note is at Emergency Operations Plans.
- NPS Conserve O Gram table of contents.Lists the full series, including notes on book cloth and its conservation. The index is at Conserve O Gram table of contents.
Steel and organic stock need separate boxes, as Storing bookbinding tools means separate boxes for steel and organic stock explains.
The home emergency card
The NPS emergency plan guidance is written for institutions, but a home version fits on one card. Write these five lines and keep the card where you store paper.
Home emergency card, five lines
- Shut off the water source
- Check electrical and structural hazards
- Move air with fans first
- Decide per itemair dry or freeze
- Call a conservator for irreplaceable items
- Shut off the water source.
- Check for electrical and structural hazards.
- Move air with fans before moving paper.
- Decide per itemair dry or freeze.
- Call a conservator for anything irreplaceable.
Air drying works for a small number of wet sheets. Interleave them with blotting paper and change the blotting paper often. Freezing suits a larger volume, because it halts mould growth and buys time. Bag each item separately and freeze flat. The drying afterwards will take longer than the freezing did.
What the record cannot tell you
The published record is institutional. It will not tell you whether a particular sheet is worth saving. It cannot price your time. And it does not cover the case where the damaged object is the only copy, with no conservator within a hundred miles.
Those are judgment calls. A home journal stash has its own spacing rules, and Storing handmade journal materials: avoid crowding, avoid contact damage gives them.
Common questions
Does the record show water is a bigger cause than workmanship?
Why are there no case studies in this article?
What is the first thing to do with wet paper?
Should I freeze wet books at home?
In this guide
- Five paper craft exercises need no press and no studio at allFive projects with no press and no studio: two papers, hand burnishing, dampening, a paper registration jig, and one process followed end to end.
- Paper craft case studies: 5 lessons from two Mainz BiblesPaper craft case studies from two Mainz Bibles, one written, one printed: five bench lessons on sewing supports, vellum, rebinding, page layout and slow work.
- A beginner examination kit: six cheap tools for looking, not makingBeginner kit for examining paper objects in 2027: six inexpensive items for looking rather than making, how to tell printing processes apart under a loupe.
- Paper craft materials: storage and housingPaper craft case studies materials: storage and housing guidance — enclosures, paper and plastic, buffered board, and the standards worth knowing by name.
- Paper craft case studies mistakes: 4 errors reading guidesPaper craft case studies mistakes: treating published guidance as a recipe, copying numbers without their method, and testing on the object you care about.
