Re: sizing paper

j.r.anderson (j.r.anderson@mds.qmw.ac.uk)
Tue, 1 Oct 1996 08:17:38 +0100

>I am most interested to read that -- I'd always assumed that the reason to
>pay $18 for a "Puddle Pusher" that could be made from 25 cents worth of
>plastic rod and 3 drops of methylene chloride was because there must be
>some kind of capillary action of the sensitizer along the glass that would
>not occur along acrylic....
>
>Am I now to understand from this and subsequent posts that you don't have
>to have a *glass* rod to spread platinum emulsion? (I do not expect to
>spread platinum emulsion ever again in this mortal coil, but you never
>know when you need to know a thing like that ...)
>

>Judy

I know of at least one person in the UK who uses both glass and acrylic
rods for coating exquisite platinum prints on Platine, with no particular
preference as to which he uses other than what he has around at the time.
He does say, however, that one needs to be fairly careful about the acrylic
- I'm not a "plastician" ;-) , but he says that CAST acrylic rods tend to
have a much more imperfect surface, and will sometimes leave
scratches/imperfections on the paper - he uses EXTRUDED acrylic rods, which
are more expensive but he feels work much better. I don't know how absolute
this rule is, but no doubt others on this list will agree/disagree with it
in detail!

Jonathan Anderson