Stupid Question

[xcortes]

I've seen recommendations never to ff or rewind old acetate tapes because they break easily. Why not? Is the tension when ff or rewinding higher than when playing? I don't have specific specs in front of me but I don't recall that being the case with my Tascam (not sure with the Technics).

I don't have many of these tapes but the ones I have I have rewound them using the Spool funtion on the Tascam without any issues as long as I rewind all the reel (I did brake one when pushing the stop button during spooling) .

Any thoughts?

[ironbut]

OMG Xavier! Sometimes I just don't know about you!
Just pulling your leg buddy.
 
Acetate doesn't stretch like all the other backings and on top of that, it gets a little brittle if they get old and dried out. The worst I've seen would break if you tried to bend a crease into it. That's pretty extreme though and I didn't even bother to save the reel.
Because it doesn't stretch at all, if the brakes bind at all during stopping it can break the tape.

It's not like they're totally delicate but just delicate enough to warrant special handling.