Re: safe way to flatten gum prints?
Luis Nadeau (nadeaul@nbnet.nb.ca)
Sun, 12 Mar 1995 12:56:38 +0300
>To flatten gum prints on heavy papers I would suggest the following procedure.
>It works fine for my carbon and carbro prints, and should for gum
>bichromate also.
>
>After the prints has been cleared of the bichromate stain, wash it thoroughly
>and allow to dran for about five minutes. When all of the surface droplets
>of water have gone, place the print on a piece of 1/4" masonite (or on some
>other suitable flat surface). Uge gummed tape of the wettable type and fasten
>the print firmly on all side, overlaping the paper of the print about 1/4"
>or slightly more. Allow to air dry. As the print dries, it shrinks,
>causint the
>support to bow; the print is pulled flat from the resulting tension, and dries
>flat.Trim away the tape and the print is ready to mount. The only negative
>of this procedure is that you loose about 1/2" on each dimension from the
>paper. This is no problem for me since I always transfer my carbon and
>carbro relies to oversize paper (8X10 to 11X14, 11X14 to 16X20, etc.)
Yep. Sandy's method above is the ultimate cure all. It has been used in the
conservation of papers for many years in situations where you apply backing
material to thin papers.
I have personally used a dry mounting press with great success. Warm up the
press to a moderate level of temperature, with two pieces of archival
boards in it. Then, put your print(s) between the boards and close the
press, though not completely. Just the weight of the top platen is
sufficient. After about a minute, open up the press and look at your
print(s) briefly. This will give a chance to the moisture to escape. Repeat
this process a couple of times, then, ideally, close the press and turn the
heat off. Wait several hours before you take your print(s) out of it.
If you have many prints to flatten, take the archival boards (with the
print between them) out of the press and put this "sandwich" on a flat
table with something flat and fairly heavy on top of it. Put other archival
boards in the press and repeat the whole operation.
Luis Nadeau