Bostick-Sullivans UV-bulb and Crane´s platinotype paper

[Ingemar]

Hi,
I wonder if somebody has testing Bostik and Sullivans 15 watt blacklight uv bulb in Pt/Pd printing. How long does it take to print a Pt/Pd print. Is it a god idea to burn whith two lamps?
Ive read god things about Crane´s platinotype paper, then i have heard that is not god anymore. I woud like a coment on that.
Very glad for an answer!
Ingemar from Sweden

 

[Jon Harwood]

Hi Ingemar,

I use the B & S 27 watt compact flourscent lamps for cyanotype, argyrotype and gum. The lamps work but are slow with both cyanotype and argyrotype so you will probably get longish exposures with Pt/Pd. A 40 minutes exposure with Argyrotype at 6 inches is no surprise to me. I use two lamps in cheap hardware store type hoods and they work well. With these slow lamps it is tempting to put them extremely close to the print but that can cause hot spots that can be severe. I currently keep the lamps six inches from the glass that is over the print and in addition I rotate the print 90 degrees halfway through the exposure to try to keep the light even. With these precautions the lamps work well.

I have used the paper Photographers Formulary markets as platinotype although it arrives labeled as Crane's cover 90 lb wove. It works well with Argyrotype and is compatible with gold, palladium and silenium toners. It gets fragile in the wash so you have to be careful with the edges. It has a acceptable or good rating with some Pt/Pd printers so I would give it a try as it will help lower the costs of the process. When you get terrific with the process you could go to more expensive papers.

 

[Don Dudenbostel]

I use 6 of the 27 watt bulbs in a holder that I made and use it about 2 inches from my print frame. No problems with uneven lighting and my Pt/Pd printing runs 3 to 78 minutes. I'm using Fabriano paper and some Bergger cot 320 and my Pt/Pd mix is Pd 11:1 Pt. I previously used two in reflectors for 4x5 and the exposures ran the same.

 

[PVia]

Wow, Don...that's quite a range in exposure times. What accounts for that huge range...the DR of your negs?

Here in So Cal, I've been using the sun, which is almost always located in cloudless skies. Times are 6 - 7 1/2 minutes depending on the paper used, and this is with APHS enlarged negs and with negs from unmentionable sources ;-)

 

[dpurdy]

The cranes paper is not consistent. I got a good batch a year and a half ago then went to get another batch and it was full of the black specs and wouldn't give a good black.

 

[RobertP]

The "Black Plague" is the reason B & S stopped selling platinotype. As I understand it..it is caused from metal dust from the rollers that imbeds itself into the paper fibers. But of course if that is the case you would think they could remedy it. Who knows...It was a nice paper at one time. Cranes cover is a different paper.

 

[dpurdy]

The "Black Plague" is the reason B & S stopped selling platinotype. As I understand it..it is caused from metal dust from the rollers that imbeds itself into the paper fibers. But of course if that is the case you would think they could remedy it. Who knows...It was a nice paper at one time. Cranes cover is a different paper.

this conversation has been hashed to death I know but in the mid 1990s when Crane's platinotype was still pretty new, I talked with crane's technical people and customer service people and they said the Crane's cover and Cranes Platinotype were the same paper. Platinotype is an after market name. Dick Sullivan agreed with that. I also learned that the paper was being made from various sources of recycled cotton and the nature of the paper would change from batch to batch. Researching it again a couple years ago I was assured that the black specks are from some batches having minerals that go black As the paper is still being made from various sources and probably even various mills there are still some good batches and some bad batches. You really need to test before every time you want to buy some and make sure the test comes from the batch you are buying. Quite a lot of trouble but if you get a good batch the paper is hard to beat.

 

[RobertP]

I still have some good platinotype from the 90's that isn't inflicted with the black plague. Now granted papers from the same mill will change over time and even from batch to batch. But I also have a few sheets of Crane's cover from a more recent batch and if you lay both papers side by side they are different. Even the color is different. Now of course if I compared the platinotype with the crane's cover from the same time period they could very well have been the same. I've compared Swiss Opaline from a batch I bought that was milled 20 years ago to a batch that was milled 5 years later and the batch that was made later wouldn't even coat. Even though they looked exactly alike. So I guess consistencies from mills is not really expected from papers I've used over the years. With the exception of Buxton and Arches Platine,(and I wonder about Platine at times) none of these papers are being produced with the Pt/Pd printer in mind. So if you do find a paper you like, buy a boat load of it. The next run may be different.

 

[dpurdy]

I have 3 boat loads of the Cranes 90lb natural white. About 800 sheets 11x14 direct from Bostick and Sullivan that I inherited and another quite large batch I bought from a paper supply house in the 1990s and then a bunch of full sheets I bought from Photo Formulary maybe a year and half ago. None of them have black specks but the 800 sheets tends to mottle more. If you look through the paper at a bright light so you can see the paper fibers, there is a huge difference between the 3 batches. One being quite clumpy and another being spidery fine and one half way between. But the point is not to expect any paper to always stay the same.

 

[Brickbird]

I have purchased Cranes 90# cover from the local Crane paper distributor here in Dallas for a number of years. It is, or what was, Platinotype. Kind of like calling the old Coke "Classic" just to confuse people. If you've ever been to a paper mill you'll wonder how the stuff ever comes out clean looking to begin with. Text or cover paper was never meant to have 100 degree chemicals poured all over them. Having been in the printing business all my life, for the last 10 years I have purchased 120,000 lbs of 50# offset for one of my jobs and twice it has been sent back to the mill due to some kind of encapsulated crap in the paper. When the rolls would start to go through the web these little tiny craplets would burst and splatter ink all over the signatures. Like little IEDs put in the paper. I don't like black specs either but count your blessings that film AND paper are still being made. It may not be perfect at times but, but, but......get in the darkroom, start coating and quit moaning................TW