Er:YAG lasers in conservation

Abstract

This special issue of the Journal on the use of Erbium:YAG lasers in conservation came about after a conversation in late November 2018 between the Editor and Gerry Alabone, the UK National Trust’s Senior Conservator for Furniture and Frames at Knole House, Kent. Gerry suggested that now seems to be ‘the moment when [the use of] Er:YAG [lasers] is becoming more accepted for treatment in the US and UK, and on a variety of materials’ and although more established in Italy ‘there too it seems to be increasing in its applications for treatment’. Because of Gerry’s positivism and abundant knowledge, both of the subject and of various teams working with Er:YAG lasers, both in the UK and abroad, th..