Re: storing sized paper

Robert Young wrote:
>
> I always harden and dry my paper for gum printing outdoors. With the approach
> of winter, I am considering sizing and hardening enough paper to get me
> through until the warmer months return.
>
> I am sizing Rives BFK with gelatin and hardening with glyoxal.
>
> My questions are:
>
> How long can sized and hardened paper be stored?
> How should it be stored? In sealed bags or open to the air?
> Is outgassing an issue with glyoxal hardened paper?
>

Hi Cameron,
I'm speaking up only because no one else has jumped on this and I know
it's nice to get an answer right away, so I'll just tell you what I know
from my own experience and observation and from my reading of the
list.

You'll find that opinions and observations vary widely on this subject.
The main issue is that sometimes the paper will turn ivory in color (if
you see discussions about "yellowing" with glyoxal, it is this ivory
color that is meant) after being hardened in glyoxal, but from
discussions here I don't remember seeing any counter-observations to the
observations made by several people that if the paper is rinsed in water
after hardening, this change in color will not appear. A good summary
of this issue from someone who has a lot more experience hardening with
glyoxal than I have can be found in a recent post (within the last
couple of weeks) by Judy Seigel; I recommend you find and read that for
a more in-depth treatment than I can give.

I did one small test with glyoxal last winter to see if I could produce
the yellowing: I sized, by brushing, four pieces of Fabriano Artistico
Extra White with gelatin, (two with .6% glyoxal mixed into the gelatin,
two with 1% glyoxal mixed into the gelatin) rinsed one of each pair and
put them away in a drawer on February 6, 2005. After seven months, none
of those four pieces of paper shows any yellowing whatever; they are
still indistinguishable in whiteness from a piece of the same paper
right out of the box.

Lately when I print on paper, I've been printing on Arches Bright
White, sized with glyoxal-hardened gelatin; the combination prints
simply beautifully. (The paper doesn't print well unsized; flaws in the
internal sizing result in speckles in the gum IME) But I did find that
if I don't rinse this paper after sizing/hardening, it does turn ivory.
(Although the yellowing doesn't occur if the paper is rinsed after
sizing/hardening). Observations differ about whether the ivory color
can be removed by soaking once the yellowing has taken place; for me,
the ivory on the Arches Bright White washes away completely in the
water bath after gum exposure, leaving the paper once again pristine
white. But the longest so far that I've kept this paper before printing
is about two months.

None of this will tell you, unfortunately, what will happen under your
conditions with BFK and glyoxal, or even with either of the papers I've
personally tested with glyoxal, because as I said, observations vary on
this issue. But I'd suggest rinsing the paper before drying it and
putting it away; if Judy and others' experience recounted here is any
guide, which my own limited experience with the Arches bright white
corroborates, the rinsing may well preclude your encountering the
problem entirely.

I store my glyoxal-hardened paper in a flat file with other papers and
haven't noticed any outgassing with the glyoxal.

It's not a definitive answer, but those are hard to come by in gum; all
we can do is report our own experiences, which often differ. Good luck,
Katharine Thayer
Received on Wed Sep 14 12:40:20 2005