Best method for drying fibre paper?

AgX said:

How comes that hot-ferrotyping has only be mentioned once in this thread so far?

Click to expand...

It is great at its best, but that can be difficult to achieve. I used a big Paco drum drier in college. The teaching assistant did all the drying so the students wouldn't make a mess of anything. I've used a two-sided hot drier at home, but it was slow and finicky. Air drying may be slow, but can done overnight. It is also reliable. When I dried prints in my bed (post #14), 32 would be dry by the time the next 32 were printed. It was effective and efficient.

Well, we'd all love a dry mount press (and the space to keep and use one)...

For up to 11x14, I'm very pleased with the widely available canvas flip-flop dryers. Yeah yeah, everyone says "dirty canvas, contamination" but why give up on something that's fast and effective? Pop off one of the metal sheets, remove the arms, wash the canvas, re-install it wet, close the arms, let it dry.

Cut a few sheets of heavy, new canvas to fit. Place your print emulsion-up on the cool plate; add a layer or two of canvas, close it up, heat medium for 10-15 mins. The heat forces the water (and any stuff left from lazy washing) through the paper and into the canvas. Wash or toss the canvas sheets after a time if you're worried. An extra layer or two of canvas keeps edges from frilling. (I'm pretty serious about washing my prints so I'm not worried).

AgX said:

How comes that hot-ferrotyping has only be mentioned once in this thread so far?

Click to expand...

I have a drum dryer but as with most things of this age it's kind of a pain to maintain and requires the same level of maintenance whether you dry 10 prints a week or a couple of hundred. If you're talking ferrotype sheets on a flatbed dryer, in my experience, you're much more likely to get cockle marks and glazing defects than with a drum dryer. When achieved, that super glossy surface is incredible, but is only really required for reproduction, and today that's all done with scanners and digital, rather than process cameras and plate burners.

Espreially that idea of low temperature flattening seems interesting.
But 920 € net. is quite a price. But it seems to be a very advanced model.

Notes under the video tell more.

I only ever print max 4 fibre prints at a time. I have a largish piece of toughened glass (actually the front of an old B&O TV) and tape down using brown tape. Perfect results every time. I do have a hot press, but find no matter what I do there is usually a subtle change to the print surface when using it.

I have recently adopted an extra step in my process. After washing my prints, I soak them in a solution of 60 cc of glycerol mixed with 940 cc of water for 5 minutes. The prints then dry face up on a screen. Compared to without soaking in the solution, my Adox FB paper dries very flat. The prints the sit under a set of heavy books to flatten them completely.

In the 70s, I had one of those heated driers with chrome glazing plate and canvas cover.

Once in a while, I managed a good glossy print with it but the failure rate was high. I like the extra glossy look for some prints, is there a way to get consistently good result results from those machines?

wash the prints well ( rinse fix remove, full wash to make prints "archivally washed )
windsheild wiper blade and plexiglass ( or giant plate glass ) squirt water on glass
put print on the glass, squeegee front
flip, continue.
put prints on drying screen until they are dry
flatten them the way you want, under books and cookie sheets,
in a nipping press between masonite
in a drying book with weight on top ...
works every time.

John, Are you face up or down on your drying screens?

Doremus Scudder said:

My prints are also all made on fiber-base paper. I squeegee with a new, proper-sized windshield wiper and dry the prints face-up on fiberglass screens (which have only ever seen thoroughly washed prints; a partially fixed print for evaluation gets dried elsewhere). I am one of those who have got screen markings when drying face-down, so never do that anymore.

The prints curl; slower drying = less curl. They then get flattened under weight, but I don't worry too much about flatness since I dry-mount all my work to cotton rag board.

Best,

Doremus

Click to expand...

Try it the old fashioned way squeeze them face down onto a clean sheet of plate glass, and when they're dry they'll drop of.

I have used fiberglass screens, but use mostly Paterson print drying racks for 8x10's now. Rinse well, stand in the racks, and let them dry. They will curl. No problem. When mounted with the Seal press, all is well.

ChuckP said:

John, Are you face up or down on your drying screens?

Click to expand...

If that question was for me, neither at the moment. What little printing I've this time around is RC paper dried in a Paterson vertical rack.

Like many, I keep an eye on fleabay for cheapo kit that 'might come in useful'.

I'd like to be able to get old fashioned shiny FB prints from one of those heated chrome and canvas jobbies but could do with some how to info before spending money on it. Don't mind if the process is awkward, just as long as it is possible.

Sorry that was for jnanian just before my post. I've always done face down for many years. I don't any problems but I'm curious if there is a majority preference for up or down. I figure that if say 75% do up maybe I better look closer at my own prints. I can certainly see why people who have had a problem doing facedown would never do it again. Work all day in the darkroom getting your perfect print only to find out the next day it was ruined by the drying screen. That only happens one time.

'Best' method is going to depend on what kind of finishing process and overall result you're after. Ferrotyping is perhaps the most tedious, nit-picky process you could ever want to approach as a primary finishing process. If you're just shooting for a decently flat print, you've got to understand something: fiberbase paper curls because the uncoated paper side drys more quickly than the gelatin and emulsion-coated side, hence the curling. On thinner papers, the effect is more pronounced than with thicker doubleweight papers.

If you're after a dead-simple method of drying fiberbase prints that turn out significantly more flat than you're used to, look into a 'print flattening solution,' which is typically a 10%-ish solution of glycerine in water. Soak the print in that for a couple of minutes as a final step, then gently squeegee excess water and lay the print on a screen to dry. The glycerine solution absorbed into the print dries at a comparable rate to the gelatin side. Sure, its one more step in wet processing, but if you want a result, you've got to put in at least a little effort...