Questions
Questions we actually get asked
Ordering
Do I need an account to order?
No. You can check out as a guest. An account is only useful if you reorder often and want your addresses and order history kept.
Do you take institutional purchase orders?
Yes. Email support@syngyns.store with the PO and a billing contact and we will invoice against it. Libraries, archives and universities are a large part of what we do and we are used to the paperwork.
Can I get a quote for a large or repeat order?
Yes — send the list and quantities. If you are buying cloth for an edition, tell us the total metreage up front so it can come off one roll and one dye lot.
Do you have a minimum order?
No. A single spool of thread is a perfectly good order.
Shipping
When will it go out?
In-stock lines ordered before 2:00pm Central on a business day go out the same afternoon. Everything else goes the next business day. Made-to-size boxes take ten working days and say so before you order.
Do you ship outside the United States?
Not at present. We are not set up for export documentation and the customs questions that leather and some papers raise, and we would rather decline than deliver badly.
How does a press get delivered?
Palletised, kerbside. The carrier brings it to the kerb and no further. A floor-standing press is genuinely heavy — arrange help and a route into the building before the delivery date.
Something has not arrived. What now?
Email us with the order number. If tracking has not moved in three business days we chase the carrier ourselves. We do not ask you to do that.
Materials
Buffered or unbuffered — which do I need?
Buffered for paper. Unbuffered for wool, silk, leather, parchment and gelatin-binder photographs, and for any mixed collection where you are not certain. The standards page sets out why, with a table.
Which adhesive should I use?
Wheat starch paste for anything touching an object, because it reverses with water alone. Methyl cellulose where you want a weaker, more forgiving bond. Neutral-pH PVA for boxes, cases and spine linings — strong, flexible, and not reversible, so never on the object itself.
Do you sell repair tape?
No, in any grade, under any description. There is no pressure-sensitive tape that belongs on an object. Kozo tissue and starch paste do the job and can be undone.
What weight of tissue do I need for a tear?
Match the tissue to the sheet, not to the damage. 9 gsm for thin papers, 16 gsm for most book papers, 26 gsm where the sheet is heavy. A repair heavier than its host tears the host.
Will the buckram take starch paste?
Poorly — the pyroxylin fill resists it. Use PVA with buckram, or specify the starch-filled cotton cloth, which is made to take paste.
Can I put a pastel drawing in a polyester sleeve?
No. Static in the film lifts friable media — charcoal, pastel, flaking pigment. Those want a folder.
Product care
How do I look after a bone folder?
Warm water only, no soaking, nowhere near heat. It will take a personal edge as it wears, which is the point.
My new paring knife is not sharp enough.
It is supplied sharp but not finished. Every binder settles the final bevel to their own angle; that is the first job with a new knife, not a fault.
How long does made-up paste keep?
Three to five days refrigerated, strained, in a clean jar. Dry starch keeps indefinitely.
Returns
Can I return cloth I had cut?
Not as a change of mind — the roll has been cut for you. If it is faulty or not as described, yes, at our cost.
How long do refunds take?
We process within five business days of the goods arriving. Your card issuer then takes a further three to ten.