Re: Newton Squashed Under Pressure (photogravures)
SusanV wrote: Bundles of joy, eh? I've never heard of this. Newton Ringworms...Hey Jon, The reason I'm so sure about this is that the other day when drying a plate I noticed a flaw, so I looked at the hardened plate with a 10x loop under really bright light, and there they were... the same little mottled areas I see on my prints. They were on the plate, no doubt. They are actually little squiggly lines. The Newton rings aren't round rings at all... they are irregular in shape and as they all bunch together as they shrink under vacuum they form those little ... squiggles. These are the same squiggles you were referring to in your step test on your blog, right? If it's on the plate, it's sure to wind up in the print. I'd think more pressure would make any aberration more pronounced, not less. Where do these squiggles occur - in light tones only or all over?As for why I could use less pressure... I'm getting good results with what I consider moderate pressure for intaglio... except for the darned squiggles. I changed to harder blankets and cranked the press down tighter, and it got rid of the squiggles. It's just pressing so hard that it's eliminating them in the press. Without the marks on the plate to begin with, I can go back to less pressure and my regular blanket setup. If it's not blanket noise or lack of pressure that's really causing this, I wonder if all my plates have it too? Once I realized cranking the pressure solved the problem I stopped investigating. Now that Keith's trick has my plates more durable I'm not as concerned about too much pressure -- but it would be nice to go with less for sure. As yet another mystery unfolds...
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