The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I'm late responding to this discussion. I would not use cloth or plastic tape. The reason is the adhesive will eventually wear off leaving a residue. The plastic or vinyl tape just won't look right. I guess these Victor albums are cloth covered. What I have done was go to the fabric store, bringing the album with me. I would look for cloth in the right texture. I would cut the cloth in thin strips between ¼" - 5/16" wide and the length of the album. Then I would use contact cement to apply on the cloth strip and the album. After it dries, and the album is intact, I would use Kiwi shoe polish. For the early Victor maroon albums, I would use Kiwi Cordovan. For the later cloth albums, I would use Kiwi Brown. The Kiwi shoe polish will hide any imperfections in the albums. When the polish is dry, then buff lightly it like you are shining shoes. If you do to much buffing, then the album will be to shiny. This method may be a little more time consuming, but you will have a realistic looking repair.
Harvey Kravitz

For the desired result, look for a product that specifies "archival" and by all means avoid the use of contact cement!

I use contact cement only on the outside cloth. I wouldn't use it on the paper pages. My suggestion was to repair the out side of the binder.
Harvey Kravitz