Quick sticky-shed question

[Muckelroy]

I saw firsthand the absolute worst case of sticky shed I've ever seen, in a 7" 1/4" reel of Ampex 407 (it's a 1 mil tape, supposedly pretty good quality).

The first few feet of tape were fine. Soon after, the entire binder was becoming seperated from the backing at a frighteningly fast rate. I of course, stopped it, and manually unloaded the takeup reel.

Which leads me to wonder - I've never seen sticky shed on Scotch 203, Realistic Supertape, or other "consumer" hi-fi brands. The binder on these tapes is a very dark, almost black color, whereas the upper grade tapes have a distinct light brown binder, and a black backing. What are those Scotch, and Realistic "black" binder tapes made of, and why do they not suffer from sticky shed so readliy?

just curious.

I may have to bake this old ampex if I'm ever gonna know what's on it

[MadAudio]

If the binder and oxide are pulling completely off the backing, then it's probably too far gone for baking. I used to do a lot of preservation work, and I've seen a couple of tapes that bad. We couldn't save them.

[Muckelroy]

Well, not COMPLETELEY, I'd say about 60 percent of the binder was sticking to the layer beneath it. Kinda an over statement.

[MadAudio]

That's still pretty bad, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Might as well give it a shot. I'd suggest at least 8 hours of baking time.