Re: wax negitives??


Kevin O'Brien (kob@paradise.net.nz)
Sun, 14 Mar 1999 08:49:36 +1300


Hi Garimo,
I used regular household cooking oil. Oiled the neg on the back , wiped both
sides dry and left it for an hour to soak through. Remembering back, they
were fairly wet until wiped. The negs being oiled were VD prints on a light
weight paper marketed for wrapping food. It had, as one would expect, a
high wet strength and was well sized for moisture resistance, but was not
waxy. I don't believe it was silicone treated either. They were rendered
really transparent and sufficiently sharp to justify questioning using
anything else.

No protection was used between the negative and the sensitised material in
the exposure. All my printing was done by sunlight. My notes show that,
even, weak sunlight gave a better (true) VD colour than a UV lamp, where the
image attained an equal density, but was sepia (more blue) instead. The negs
printed very fast and I found I had most control exposing them in a glass
frame inside, on the floor of the passage, abt 1½ metres from the large
outside window. Only when the sun was weak were they taken outside.
Exposure was to the point where the pink tinge just began to appear or was
about to. Beyond that the maximum density decreased.

The negs are still as new after 17 years.

Considered parafin wax, as I had some on hand, and rejected it in favour of
the simpler oiling. Wax is only a denser form of oil, so the oil was
preferred for ease of penetration. It was possible that there could have
been a reaction with the material being exposed but the negative when used
was dry to touch. Some experimentation may be merited to find a standard oil
for the purpose; parafin oil seems a likely candidate.

Kevin O'Brien

>Several times I have read to "wax" the paper for making a negitive.
>What process does one use to get good results...are some papers better
>to use for waxing than others? Does waxing leave streaks in the...ahh,
>Van dyke brown print? Does one dare to use waxed negitives when
>printing with the sun?



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