Speaking of "hard" water & dichromates, here is a puzzle in case someone
has a clue:
A few years ago at an SPE regional meeting, Rudi Dietrich gave a gum
printing workshop which included "clearing" the print of dichromate stain
(in a bath of I suppose postassium metabisulfite or its cousin).
I had been doing -- and teaching -- gum for a while and had hardly ever
"cleared" a print, my students either.... With long soaks and care not to
over-expose, we had little or no residual dichromate stain. Yet it was
obvious that workshop demo prints needed clearing.
Several of us tried to puzzle out the difference (paint, paper, chemicals,
ratios, times, etc. were the same). Finally someone suggested that the
difference was the water, and I took home a couple of litres of west coast
water (truly so hard you needed an airbag to shower) to test. My first
tests were inconclusive, and I messed up the second test, at which point I
had depleted my western water supply & other puzzles moved into the
territory......
Has anyone had a similar (or contrary) experience? (Of course NY water IS
famed.......)
Judy