Drying paper back to back

Hi all!

If what I'm going to tell here is common knowledge please excuse my presumtiveness:
Being frustated with hot presses or blotter books for drying fiber paper, I tried a new to me method that gives me nearly flat pictures. You hang them two apiece, back to back, from a line with clothespins at the two top corners AND the two bottom corners fixing the two sheets together. Forces making a single sheet bend while drying cancel themselves out.
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Thought you'd like to know.

Christoph

It probably is common knowledge, but what matter! It's a good way to dry prints. I dry them this way and leave them under a press for a couple of days to flatten 'em completely. Regards, B.

It works well and better than drying prints isolated, but really flat FB prints only come from a dry-mount press.

Hi Ralph, haven't seen you in a while.

I don't agree with the back to back drying method for a few reasons. First the emulsions dry faster than the base side on a single print anyway, hence the curl. By drying them back to back you are keeping the base sides, the slow drying sides from getting any air circulation, which is going to make them dry even slower while the emulsion is still getting total air exposure. Another big reason is that slower drying increases the possibility of mold taking hold on the print.

Best bet for drying prints in my opinion is still a drying rack.

Seems like a hassle, but if it works, hey, why not. I set them on top of my washing machine and dryer face up on my useless scratched ferrotype plates after a squeegee and they dry very close to flat. They are going to be perfectly flat when dry mounted anyhow, so I don't worry about it. I am going to build a simple rack with a screen in the near future, however.

I have been hanging them back to back as described here for about 20 years, always works well for me. After taking them down, if they are not stored under pressure, the sides will re-curl to some extent, depending on the humidity. When I go to frame, I give them a few minutes in the warm press, then either dry mount, or hang loose under an over-matte. As mentioned above, the only long-lasting flatness is from dry mounting. Even under the over-matte, the edges will eventually try to lift up, if a large loose print.
I used to use screens, but felt that the hanging is clean and simple.

Early Riser said:

Hi Ralph, haven't seen you in a while.

I don't agree with the back to back drying method for a few reasons. First the emulsions dry faster than the base side on a single print anyway, hence the curl. By drying them back to back you are keeping the base sides, the slow drying sides from getting any air circulation, which is going to make them dry even slower while the emulsion is still getting total air exposure. Another big reason is that slower drying increases the possibility of mold taking hold on the print.

Best bet for drying prints in my opinion is still a drying rack.

Click to expand...

I've gone back and forth. I had a bunch of drying screens but now I hang the prints from clips. I only put them back to back if I have a lot to dry at once. The biggest downside of back to back drying is that the prints are easy to drop before they are hung up because of the slippery emulsion on both sides of the package. Just requires care.

I had problems with screens. The problems were erratic which was even more annoying. Sometimes, when I dried them face down on Zone VI screens, the emulsion would take on an embossed image of the screen. If I dried them face up, then the moisture would "pool" in the middle and sometimes leave drying marks. Also, the screens take up real estate and have to be clean and dust free.

In the end I went with the vinyl clothesline and stainless steel clamps. Interesting how everybody does it a little differently.

Phaedrus, thanks for posting your method, especially with the photo.