Using Gluteraldahyde; was: Glutaraldahyde activation?

Keith and Ryuji,

Since Keith brought up the subject of gluteraldahyde (hereinafter "glut") I
thought that I would mention that I have finally had a change to use it to
harden gelatin for gum printing.

The results for me have been nothing short of excellent. No staining or
speckling occurred. NONE! The gum coats are smooth and there is absolutely
no grittiness in the exposed and unexposed coatings.

I'm using the 2.5% dilution with pH of 3.5, kindly prepared for me by Ryuji.
I've only had time to use the glut hardened sizing on Fabriano Artistico
Extra White HP as soon as time permits I will test other papers, Rives BFK
being the first.

Just for the record I was very cautious handling glut. I only used .9ml to
mix in with 100 ml of 2.8% mix of gelatin.

I used about 2.5 ml of the glut/gelatin mix for an 8x10 size piece of paper
(pre-shrunk) and rod coated the sizing. I simply made to passes across the
paper surface and pushed the excess onto a sheet of news print that lay
beneath the FAEW. Coated sheets were then hung to dry.

I wore a respirator, one made to absorb fumes from paint, not the specialty
respirator that Kerik uses for formaldehyde. I also had good ventilation in
my coating area and also wore eye protection. I did not sense any sensations
or ill effects from the glut. I did make sure that the beaker of gelatin and
glut remained covered.

I would like to use less of the glut by hardening smaller volumes of gelatin
at a time. Kerik mentioned that he adds six drops of formaldehyde to 10 ml
of gelatin. I'm curious to know how he mixes the two uniformly.

Thanks to Ryuji and Chris for working with me and encouraging me to use
glut. I'm sorry I waited so long. The prints I made this past week were the
first prints I've made in a long time where I "felt" the magic of print
making.

Don Bryant
Received on Thu Sep 29 18:17:45 2005