While I was in town today I stopped at the comic book store and picked up a package of the comic book boards to try out. The girl that waited on me was super sweet and I told her how I was going to use the boards. As I was paying for them, she made a point of telling me only one side is buffered so to have it completely acid free I would need to put 2 boards together with the buffered sides out.

I've been reading the posts about using the boards and I got the impression everyone was using only one board. Did I miss the part where two boards are used? Or, are there different boards out there that are buffered on both sides?

Some people use 2 together, but I think most just use one.

What does the buffered side look/feel like? Is it the smoother side?

If your fabric will be stored for decades then use two boards. I use just the one board and not worried at all.

thanks for the information about using 2 of them to be acid free

The shiny side is the buffered side.

Thank you for this information.
I hope not to have fabric that long.......ha

How long can you safely store fabric on these boards before you need to worry about the unbuffered side?

Comic book collectors keep them there forever. I use them and I go thru them pretty fast since it is the smaller pieces on them. Never thought about one side. I thought it was totally acid free. I don't think paper will hurt the fabric anyway, it is when it is exposed to moisture that the acid free kicks in. IMHO. I love my boards.

That is a very good question!?!?! BeeNana makes a very good point - hopefully we will use the fabric in a timely manner. Notice I use the "hope".

Perhaps we need to be writing an " expiration" date at the top of the bolt when we wrap it?