Re: Sizing paper with gelatin

I'm sizing paper with Knox Gelatin mixed at 4 packages per 1 liter water.
Just like Judy is doing, soak in a gelatin bath and then squeegee... I pull
the paper through two closely spaced wooden dowels at an oblique angle.
Repeat the gelatin soak. Then soak dry paper in a formalin/water solution
and hang to dry. I've always had good results so I don't try anything
different. "If it isn't broken, don't fix it".

As for staining on certain papers, maybe decrease the amount of pigment used
or switch to a paper less prone to staining.

Best regards,
Dave Rose
Powell, Wyoming

----- Original Message -----
From: "Judy Seigel" <jseigel@panix.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Tuesday, December 27, 2005 11:34 AM
Subject: RE: Sizing paper with gelatin

>
> On Mon, 26 Dec 2005, Loris Medici wrote:
>
> > I plan to use 6% gelatine solution and a separate hardening bath. If it
> > can be made without having a messy & hard to coat gelatine solution, I
> > would like to learn the way of sizing the paper with gelatine +
> > formaldehyde in one step.
>
> Loris, my tests with % gelatin solutions showed 6% is too heavy -- it
> doesn't give a good gradation. However the bloom of the gelatin is
> another variable -- the food gelatin we use (Knox) is, if memory serves,
> 200 lb bloom. I tested 300 lb & something or other else, none of which
> gave the scale of the food gelatin.
>
> Again, my tests (and I'm NOt the only one -- happened to come across some
> notes from Ernestine Ruben yesterday, saying the same thing) show that a
> BATH in gelatin with light squeegee afterward (illustrated P-F #9) gives a
> much better coat, in ease of handling the paper, durability, evenness and
> just general feel. I suppose brush size is less trouble initially, but so
> is 1-hour photo.
>
> Another test, while you've got your 21 steps out, is with hardener in or
> as separate bath. That's one I never tested, and I so dislike the idea of
> hardener in the gelatin I'm not sure I could be my usual objective self,
> but it does waste gelatin since only good for a day. I size a big batch &
> find, contrary to received wisdom, the paper keeps.
>
> And a PS to Kate getting pigment stain on -- was it Montvale? Is it
> possible something else could have gone wrong with this batch? A new
> source of paint, or gelatin or something else in the cookery? I've tried
> some pretty evil papers (including, I think, Montvale about 20 years ago,
> which is no proof of anything since they change them without our
> permission) and do not recall one that when properly sized still pigment
> stained.
>
> I'd suggest just giving another coat of size and (separate !!!) hardening
> bath. I've also found that a fresh size on top of a destroyed size (say,
> from being cooked, or too weak, or from rotted gelatin) restores it.
>
> PS.I changed the subject line from "sizing with gum and dichromate" -- I
> will say, however, I still have no idea why one would want to do that.
>
> Judy
>
>
Received on Tue Dec 27 22:13:14 2005