Dan
In gum printing, where necessary, I use three paper negatives to cover
different tonal ranges. The shadow detail print, which is so dense that it
has a 'salt' tonal range, will only have a short exposure for gum but when
used for a salt print it gives a beautiful range of tone with subtlety
and detail. The exposure was of the' put under the lamp and go away for
the weekend' variety but it is beautiful large print and as good as
anything I would have got from film.
As an alternative to the stripping method, which as Pete points out, arose
from the fashion for large coloured portraits transferred to canvas, a
simple and effective approach is to use a light cooking oil such as Flora.
The stripping method is, for me, not only over complicated but associated,
in my mind, with kitsch or even schluck
Terry