Mortensen's abrasion tone

["Christina Z. Anderson" <zphoto@montana.net>]

I am posting a quickie condensation of the Mortensen abrasion tone process
to the list in hopes that some of you out there might test it out and report
back on it, or in hopes of finding anyone out there who did/does this
process or knew Mortensen or went to his school or knew a friend of a friend
of a friend who knew him and did it...you get the picture.  Richard Knoppow,
for one, you are out in CA, correct, and might have been around there at the
time his school was in effect?  Oh hell, I could be off by a couple
centuries, cuz I think the school closed in 1955 according to Judy Seigel's
article in Photovision magazine (March/April).  But in one of your posts you
talked of the Wolff carbon pencil which is what Mortensen used.  Anyway,
here's the condense:
     The process, in a nutshell, consists of covering a print with pigmented
chalk or pastel, and then selectively adding highlights and shadows with the
help of erasers, pumice, a carbon pencil, and a razor blade.
Supplies needed:
. Ivory black and burnt sienna pastels
. A kneaded gum eraser
. A pencil eraser
. powdered pumice
. Cotton balls
. brush
. Spotone and spotting brush
. Carbon drawing pencil, BB (carbon black, not shiny gray graphite)
. razor blade.
. Print on matte paper
The steps:
1. dip a cotton ball in the powdered chalk/pigment, cover print
2. with the kneaded eraser, remove the pigment from the light areas of the
print.
3. use pumice to blend unevenness
4. clean up again with the kneaded eraser
5. add specular highlights and eye catchlights with the pencil eraser.
6. use carbon pencil and enhance darks, correct, etc. and blend with cotton.
7.with razor scrape away bits of the emulsion that you want to remove or
lighten or change in any way, in teeny 1/8 strokes away from your body
8. Spotone
     This is quite condensed from the book, but close enough.  I welcome
comments.
Chris