Re: Paper negative
David, I find it at the drugstore on the open shelves near rubbing
alcohol and the like. It's used, apparently, as a laxative.
It's also used by people who make wooden salad bowls and the like, as
a nontoxic substance to oil and polish the wood; in fact that's how I
discovered it in the first place. I had been using a vegetable oil
that turned rancid and made the negatives first smell bad, then turn
brown and eventually disintegrate into a pile of brown bits. I was
telling my brother, a woodworker, that I needed to find a better oil,
and he suggested the mineral oil.
I just looked on Wikipedia because I wasn't sure I was remembering
right about the laxative part, and found a whole long list of uses
for mineral oil. One thing I hadn't known is that baby oil is just
mineral oil with added fragrance (that "baby oil" smell). No wonder
it makes my hands feel so nice.
kt
On Dec 4, 2007, at 4:40 AM, Henry Rattle wrote:
David – there’s a wonderful and very long list in Wikipedia of
synonyms for mineral oil. In UK I used to call it liquid paraffin –
a misleading name at a time when we still sometimes used paraffin
(that’s kerosene in the US) for heating!
Best wishes
Henry
On 4/12/07 11:50, "davidhatton@totalise.co.uk"
<davidhatton@totalise.co.uk> wrote:
Hi Katherine,
I'm sorry. Can you explain what else mineral oil is used for? In
the UK mineral oil is what we put in our car engines.
Thanks
david H
On Dec 4 2007, Katharine Thayer wrote:
On Dec 3, 2007, at 11:56 PM, Robert Krawiec wrote:
>
> --- Katharine Thayer wrote:
>
>> I've tried all
>> kinds of treatments but long ago settled on mineral
>> oil as my
>> favorite treatment for negatives. It soaks in
>> nicely and makes a
>> very transparent negative, dries to a nice finish,
>> maintains its
>> tonality over years, doesn't go rancid (as some
>> vegetable oil I tried
>> once did) and it makes my hands feel soft after I've
>> used it, too.
>>
>
> How do you coat the paper? Both sides?
Rob, here's my whole procedure: I put the paper on a sheet of glass
or in a flat-bottomed tray, pour a couple of tablespoons of oil over
the paper, and spread and rub the oil into the paper with my hands.
When one side is permeated with oil, I turn it over and rub oil into
the other side until the paper is soaked through with oil. Then I
move the oily paper to a blotter (I keep a blotter for this purpose
that I don't use for other things) and heat it with a hair dryer on
hot setting while with my other hand rubbing with a paper towel to
distribute the oil evenly as the heat helps the paper absorb more
oil. I start with an oily paper towel to make sure the paper is
soaked through and finish with a dry paper towel to wipe off any oil
that hasn't been absorbed and finish the negative to a crisp dry
surface. When the negative is dry, I hang it in a warm place
overnight; in the morning I do a final polish with a fresh paper
towel. Then the negative can be stored indefinitely, although
because of the possibility that oil could transfer, I keep oiled
negatives separate.
It's messy, but when I was doing this routinely I'd do 10-15 at a
time, and it goes pretty fast. It takes longer to tell you how to do
it, than to actually do it. When I move the first negative to the
blotter, I spread the oil that's left on the glass/tray out evenly
and put the next negative on the oily surface so it can be passively
soaking up oil while I'm heating/rubbing the first one. It only
takes 15-20 minutes to do a whole batch of negatives.
kt
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