Hal Faulkner (faulkner@redshift.com)
Sat, 10 Apr 1999 22:27:15 -0700
Judy,
I just knew there was a reason that I love those old Ansel Adams Books so
much!!
In Book 3 (my copy is dated 1968) Ansel stated (p118)
"PRINT VARNISH
Proprietary varnishes are entirely adequate. The prime requisites are
purity of ingredients and good color -- rather, lack of color when applied
to the prints. Paul Strand has kindly given me his formula for surfacing
prints (in his own words): 'First one buys a small can of lithographer's
varnish No. 1.... This should last for years. Next one buys a bottle of
Carbona (carbon tetrachloride), the solvent for the varnish.... A good way
to get the varnish into the Carbona is with a swab stick, letting it run off
drop by drop, until the Carbona is a lemon yellow color after shaking. The
varnish is then ready to apply with a piece of cotton. Cover the print
thoroughly...then smooth the whole surface out by taking almost all the
varnish off by rubbing briskly with a piece of dry absorbent cotton.... The
varnish is slow drying (3 or 4 days)... and I have never noticed any
evidence of discoloration.' This print varnish is for matte, semimatte, and
semigloss prints."
Now that's not so terribly turgid is it? Try to find that in the new
series!
O.K. so Strand was talking about silver prints, but hey, maybe he varnished
his platinums too. Don't know if it would work on gums but it may be worth
a thought.
Hal
BTW, Word's spell checker wanted to change "semimatte" to "Semite"
-----Original Message-----
From: Judy Seigel [mailto:jseigel@panix.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 1999 3:27 PM
To: alt-photo-process-l@skyway.usask.ca
Subject: Kodalak/amyl acetate
In an old book on toning, I found a formula for a varnish supposed to
protect the surface of a toned print... Since I'm always looking for a
possible varnish for a gum print (no luck yet, but hope springs eternal),
I'm interested -- wonder if anyone has a clue:
Kodalak clear
amyl acetate
and wood alcohol.
I know what wood alcohol is. I could probably find amyl acetate (I take it
that's NOT amyl nitrate). But I wonder wnat Kodalak might be. Collodion?
Or? (The book was from 1939.)
I don't recall the old formularies listing by brand name, but maybe
someone has a clue, even of where to look...
TIA,
Judy
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu Oct 28 1999 - 21:39:30