Re: salted paper and Arches Platine

[Lukas Werth <lukas.werth@rz.hu-berlin.de>]

On another note about sizing: It is said in the literature that starch
sizing gives warmer image colours with salt prints. I made a salt print
yesterday on Fabriano Artistico which I had salted in a corn starch
solution (10g corn starch and 15g sod.chl. in 500cc water). Comparing the
print with another one made on the same paper, with the same salt, but
without starch I can see no difference. neither appears the image to be
more brilliant, as noted by Reilly, albeit for salt prints with arrow root
size (by the way: where does one get this stuff?).
How much difference does a starch size make in others' experience?

Lukas


>Lucas and all,
>
>The Fabriano papers are pretty hard and they have a good gelatine size built
>in.  The gelatine or starch in the salting solution is not a sizing agent.
>There simply too little in solution to do any good. The addition of starch
>of gel in the salting solution is simply to prevent the solution from
>sucking too deeply into the paper and help the salting chemicals cling to
>the paper fibers.  Below is sizing procedure that is pretty common, but
>works great.
>
>Joe Portale
>Tucson, AZ
>
>
>Dissolve 30 grams of gelatin in 1 liter of cool water. Allow the gelatine to
>swell for 10 minutes.
>
>     1.   Heat the gelatine solution to 100-120 degrees F.
>
>     2.   Pour the warm solution into a clean photo tray.
>
>     3.   Soak the paper in the gelatin solution for 5 - 10 minutes. Flip
>the paper over a couple of times to insure complete coverage.
>Break any air bubbles that may develop on the paper.
>
>     4.   Pull the soaked paper from the tray and place on a piece of clean
>glass. Using a glass or hard acrylic rod, squeegee the
>excess sizing off on both sides of the paper.
>
>     5.   Hang to dry. As the paper is drying, wipe any accumulated gelatin
>solution that may be collecting along the bottom edge.
>
>     6.   Warm the gelatine solution in a water bath to temperature.  Add 25
>ml of a hardener, either 25% Glyoxal or Formalin to                 each
>liter of solution.
>
>     7.   Repeat steps 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. The difference is that a hardening
>agent is added to the warm solution.
>
>     8.   Discard the solution after the Glyoxal or Formalin has been added.
>
>     9.   Repeat if necessary
>