Hand Coating Blades available

[Photo Engineer]

The hand coating blades have been tested and calibrated. They will initially be available by the end of May through the Photographers Formulary. Other dealers will be added as we progress.

The 4" blade will retail for $275 and the 8" blade will retail for $550.

They are made of 308 stainless steel and are highly polished for insuring scratch free coatings. These blades are intended for making paper coatings, but can be used for film. The blades will come with a complete set of instructions on calibration and use.

All blades are double sided, so that each blade is really two blades. If one side becomes damaged, flip the blade over and recalibrate and you can continue coating.

Initial orders will be taken by the Formulary. Additional blades will be available at the workshop in June.

PE

 

[Donald Qualls]

Excellent! Good luck, PE -- hope they sell well for you! And hopefully the workshop will go well, also.

 

[psvensson]

I'm curious as to what these look like. Could you post an image?

 

[Photo Engineer]

Try here for pictures:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

I'm trying to get more, but they are so shiny that the flash pictures don't turn out well.

PE

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Do you have a schedule for an 11" blade? If I want to try one of these for albumen, it's more of a challenge and more expensive to coat a large sheet than a small sheet, so the larger size would be of greater use to me.

How does the viscosity of the emulsion affect the use of these blades? I'd imagine that the silver gelatin emulsion that you're making in one coat is more viscous than the silver nitrate solution that I coat onto the salted albumen layer. Would it still work in the same way?

 

[Photo Engineer]

David, there is no schedule for the 11" blade. I have exactly one of them at the present time. I can get you one but the cost will be in the range of $700 for quantity of one.

I also have a 16" blade planned. The problem is that the end cap design has to be matched to coating width.

Viscosity is not as much of a problem as you might think.

The answer to the albumen will come my way soon. George Eastman House purchased one 8" blade and will be trying it with albumen in one of their courses.

PE

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Thanks, Ron. If the price of silver keeps going up, a $700 blade may just be economical. Maybe I'll try it out at the workshop in the Fall and we can take it from there.

 

[reggie]

David, there is no schedule for the 11" blade. I have exactly one of them at the present time. I can get you one but the cost will be in the range of $700 for quantity of one.

I also have a 16" blade planned. The problem is that the end cap design has to be matched to coating width.

Viscosity is not as much of a problem as you might think.

The answer to the albumen will come my way soon. George Eastman House purchased one 8" blade and will be trying it with albumen in one of their courses.

PE

Hi PE:

Do you have a 12" blade planned for 12x20 coating?

Thanks.

-R

 

[Photo Engineer]

Reggie;

Sadly, I do not have a 12" blade planned. Since they are very expensive to prototype and hard to build, we plan only the major sizes. 4", 8", 11" and 16". I have a 5" blade, but there has been little interest in it.

If you are willing to pay the price, I can get one made with about 1 - 2 month lead time and a cost of about $800. This estimate and the estimate for the 11" blade come from exactly no data, only extrapolation from the existing prices and from our one-of-a-kind prototypes.

Just FYI, I shipped 4 of them today and it cost me over $40 due to the weight and insurance. At this rate and at the current list price, I will need to sell over 300 of the blades to just recoup my costs. Development is an expensive process.

PE

 

[reggie]

Reggie;

Sadly, I do not have a 12" blade planned. Since they are very expensive to prototype and hard to build, we plan only the major sizes. 4", 8", 11" and 16". I have a 5" blade, but there has been little interest in it.

If you are willing to pay the price, I can get one made with about 1 - 2 month lead time and a cost of about $800. This estimate and the estimate for the 11" blade come from exactly no data, only extrapolation from the existing prices and from our one-of-a-kind prototypes.

Just FYI, I shipped 4 of them today and it cost me over $40 due to the weight and insurance. At this rate and at the current list price, I will need to sell over 300 of the blades to just recoup my costs. Development is an expensive process.

PE

Most interesting. I will PM you to carry on the discussion privately.

Thanks very much!

R