Judy said:
Message text written by Judy Seigel
>I've never seen them have a
>problem with unevenness or anything else coating Van Dyke Brown. In my
>experience, coating kallitype is quite similar to coating VDB.
This is hardly surprising as VDB is one of the variants of the kallitype
process.
> In other words I was surprised when you indicated that your beginners had
problems,
>leading to the use of Ilfatol.
Problems of coating can usually put down to the paper with which one is
working. I have found that the most consistent results for all the
'solution' processes can be obtained with Saunders Waterford and Fabriano
Artistico papers. I also found that adding wetting agents exacerbated the
problem of uneven coating. A 1 % gelatine size provides even and
consistent results.
>I hesitate to guess about this, since clearly you are a maven* of
>kallitype, but what are you using to apply? We use foam applicators (I
>used them for palladium, too), since they handle easily and don't soak up
>too much emulsion (especially if you dampen them in advance with a cc or
>so of distilled water). Could the problem be due to the glass rod?
Whether one uses a rod, a foam applicator or a brush is a matter of
personal taste. For me a dampened hake brush is the most effective tool.
Incidentally I am grateful to Judy for introducing me to 'maven'; a very
useful word.
Terry King