How to clean DEC Tapes

I forwarded your question to Charles Lasner and asked if he had any recommendations. Here's his reply: "This is pretty straight-forward. Tape on reel, reel not in cardboard box or preferably cannister. Tape is probably quite dusty, but should not have any other problems. First wipe off the obvious surfaces carefully, not aggressively. Then unfurl the first less than two feet and carefully clean by placing within a small amount of cotton batting handplaced over the top and bottom and gently pull away towards the end. That way, you are exposing tape that will be totally clean other than the edges. Then gently place the end onto a takeup reel and carefully wrap the end gently around the hub until it obviously takes tension. [Note: the takeup reel should COMPLETELY clean!] Place some gauze and cotton over the head and then manually wind forward the entire tape off of the reel. Then completely clean the original reel, and inspect it for problems. Some reels age badly and crack; it really depend not only on how well handled, some plastic just will not last, while other batches will apparently last indefinitely. If need be replace it. Assuming the tape has important contents, just wind it back to original position now cleaned; expect a bit of oxide on the cotton above the gauze. [The gauze is to protect the head and in case the cotton slips off, hold it manualy with a free hand or perhaps it can be stuck on with a bit of surgical tape on some of the edges. The tape must be touching cotton and go smoothly on the tape movement both ways. If the pass onto the takeup reel shows a lot of dirt, of course replace the cotton, etc. If the tape is being recycled, consider reversing the tape completely. This is a little tricky because you want the tape wound the other way yet still oxide-side down. [It's easier to turn a DECtape into a LINCtape and vice-versa!] But it can be done with some half-twist tricks by using the most extreme reels on both drives and don't involve either head. This has to be done manually because you are trying to use two drives at once, etc. [Harder on a TU55 might need some external winder unless they are arranged side-by-side, often that is not the case. In any case, you now have the former "inner" end on the outside and it will likely have a pristine loose end. And of course never cut anything off the tape. However, if it is still there do cut off the 3M first 1 inch label. It can be sticky. Some of the tapes didn't even have this label. In any case, the point is we do NOT want it near the hub, but never cut off any actual tape! Remember a format is you just make the tape loop on the takeup reel and DO NOT WIND IT! Let the formatting program do the rest, don't "help" it; it has extra-end-zone logic already, etc. And if you do that right AND you happen to have a generous tape, you are entitled to make a slight patch to the formatting program and obtain a 3300 octal block long tape instead of the normal 2702 blocks octal. With a one-word patch to OS/8 PIP you can get 857 free blocks [records] instead of the normal 730 blocks [really records]." Hope this helps! Bob