Re: One more for the road

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From: Jeff Buck (jeffbuck@swcp.com)
Date: 12/31/02-03:50:31 PM Z


Sandy: I feel pretty sure about what Clay is saying here. The idea is to
gloop the coating as near to the surface of the paper as can be. Platine
and (I guess) COT are papers that naturally lend themselves to this, due to
nature of the fibers and the sizing, and that is why they produce a "clear"
looking image. It's also why they "take so long" to coat. In this
connection, these suggestions: Once you get the coating grossly spread
(Richeson 9050 "Magic Brush") around what's to be the image area (no
puddles etc.), which should be done quickly, make your passes slower than
you would think, giving the coating a chance to get a foothold in the paper
fibers. With all papers I use nowadays, I hit the paper w/ cold air real
real immediately after finishing the coating and go at it aggressively
(hair dryer) for the ~3 minutes it takes the coating to "set" in most
papers (looking at the surface of the paper at an extreme angle, the "wet"
sheen is now gone, though the paper is still plainly moist). Same intended
result: Arrest the absorption of the coating any farther down into the
paper. Gloop it close to the surface. -jb

At 03:00 PM 12/31/2002 -0600, Clay wrote:
>Sandy:
>
>My un-scientific two cents worth: I think the grain alcohol does the same
>thing for coatings that your alcohol spritz does for your carbon tissue
>making. It sort of evens things out and make a solution disperse evenly. I
>think the idea of tween is to make a solution more easily absorbed by the
>paper fibers. I'm not totally convinced that this is good, as witnessed by
>the washed out appearance of an unsized salt print. The best behaving
>paper (in terms of contrast and 'snap') in my opinion is Platine, and it
>is not very absorbent. It seems heavily sized and the solution stays on
>top for some time as you brush it. My theory is that the alcohol just gets
>everything dispersed evenly and smoothly as it slowly sinks into the
>paper. That is the same reason I add some polyvinyl alcohol AND everclear
>to my mix when I use platinotype: the PVA keeps the whole solution on the
>surface for a longer time and inhibits absorption while the everclear
>makes everything smooth. Of course, I may just be kidding myself.
>
>Clay
>On Tuesday, December 31, 2002, at 02:40 PM, Jeff Buck wrote:
>
>>Sandy: I've never had a benefit worth writing about from Tween. The
>>grain alcohol, on the other hand, is helpful, as discussed in other notes. -jb
>>
>>At 02:35 PM 12/31/2002 -0500, Sandy King wrote:
>>>Don wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> > I seem to get less streaking and a more even coat. It may be wishful
>>>>> seeing, but it doesn't seem to hurt either. The brand of Everclear I
>>>> > use is called 'Rabbits Foot Lucky Placebo'
>>>
>>>
>>>Everclear is available at most liquor stores in South Carolina by the
>>>name Everclear. It is 200 proof, or very close to it, grain alcohol. I
>>>suspect most liquor stores everywhere have something similar.
>>>
>>>>
>>>>And what about using alcohol in other processes such as VDB, cyanotype or
>>>>ziatypes?
>>>
>>>
>>>I have not had any streaking issues with VDB or kallitype with the
>>>papers that I use. On the other hand, I recall that Carl Weese mentioned
>>>that he got some streaking with kallitype on Lenox paper. I now have
>>>some Lenox paper so I am going to test it by adding a few drops of
>>>Everclear to the sensitizing solution to see how it works as compared to
>>>the sensitizer with no Everclear.
>>>
>>>I guess my question for those with some experience with both Everclear
>>>and Tween would be how do they compare. Does one substitute for the other?
>>>
>>>Sandy King
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>


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