> I have been using Fabriano Artistico NOT for cyanotype, salt and kallitype and
> HOT for platinum/palladium for
> ten years now. I have got clear differentiation of every step on AGFA twenty
> step step wedges or all twenty one steps on the Stouffer product for platinum
> /palladium. There are eighteen clear steps on examples in front of me as I
> write which were prepared to compare two year old and new home made ferric
> oxalate.. I also use the HOT paper for gum.
I tested Artistico HP 140# last week using my standard printing
procedure as I have outlined previously and my results were very
disapointing. On the Stouffer step-tablet I can discern 19 steps but
the steps are full of minute pinpoints and Dmax is rather anemic.
Perhaps the additional sizing Terry has mentioned as part of his
procedure is a critical factor for this paper. Are you indeed sizing
this paper Terry?
> All these papers I use at 300 gsm for lateral stability. My own tests, which
> have been proven in practice for some years, show better results from these
> papers than from those more usually recommended. Some have suggested that there
> is inconsistency in performance from the Fabriano papers but I have not found it
> so. I also use the HOT paper for gum. The Italian equivalents for NOT and HOT
> are patinata and satinata. I also use Waterford HOT pressed as it comes in
> larger sizes enabling 20x24 inch platinum prints on 3 foot by 4 foot six paper.
> I was going to say metre by one and a half metres but it is naughty to mix the
> conventions. Waterford is made by GP Inveresk at their Wells paper mill in
> Somerset where Bockingford paper is made which I have found produces high
> success rates for beginners in gum printing given its tooth. All these papers
> are mould made, have neutral PH and are appropriately sized. The weight of these
> papers is 140 lb which is 300 gsm as near as dammit. Be careful not to order the
> 300 lb Bockingford as it expensive but lovely stuff.
I have just received some Saunders Waterford and will test it this
weekend along with a few others.
Keith