handling of brushes for Pt/Pd coating

[TheFlyingCamera]

I was trying to coat more than one piece of paper today to do a paper-stock comparison test with palladium printing, and I ran into a problem. After coating my first piece, I washed my brush. I thought I got enough water out of it to coat the second piece, but as it turned out afterward, I was quite deceived. My second piece of paper was woefully under-coated, and so I had poor coverage and weak dmax. What do people do to solve this problem? Do you not wash between coating sheets, and just wash at the end of the coating session? keep multiple brushes around? I'm using the Richeson "magic brush" which does a gorgeous bang-up job of coating when it is dry.

 

[clay]

I always use the Richeson brush wet. I keep a beaker of distilled water in the sink, and completely soak the brush before coating - giving it 4 shakes to get rid of the really 'loose' water in the bristles. The nice thing about using it wet all the time is that you don't need more than one brush. It also takes less solution to coat a sheet if you use the brush wet. Everyone I know who uses this brush uses it wet. Give it a try!

I was trying to coat more than one piece of paper today to do a paper-stock comparison test with palladium printing, and I ran into a problem. After coating my first piece, I washed my brush. I thought I got enough water out of it to coat the second piece, but as it turned out afterward, I was quite deceived. My second piece of paper was woefully under-coated, and so I had poor coverage and weak dmax. What do people do to solve this problem? Do you not wash between coating sheets, and just wash at the end of the coating session? keep multiple brushes around? I'm using the Richeson "magic brush" which does a gorgeous bang-up job of coating when it is dry.

 

[sanking]

The technique that many of us follow with the Richeson brush is to wet it, then shake out the water, but not so much that the bristles separate, and then coat. You repeat the wash and shaking between the first and second coats, and/or for subsequent papers.


Sandy

I was trying to coat more than one piece of paper today to do a paper-stock comparison test with palladium printing, and I ran into a problem. After coating my first piece, I washed my brush. I thought I got enough water out of it to coat the second piece, but as it turned out afterward, I was quite deceived. My second piece of paper was woefully under-coated, and so I had poor coverage and weak dmax. What do people do to solve this problem? Do you not wash between coating sheets, and just wash at the end of the coating session? keep multiple brushes around? I'm using the Richeson "magic brush" which does a gorgeous bang-up job of coating when it is dry.

 

[Mateo]

Maybe you aren't using the magic brush properly. The way I use it is to have it loaded with distilled water before coating a sheet. I soak the thing and then flip/snap/fling the excess water from it and use it to drive/push/chase the chems that are poured from a shot glass onto the paper. If you're dipping the brush into your chems and painting the paper with it, you're wasting chemistry.

 

[wm blunt]

I use the same brush that you are using but use it WET. After coating a print I rinse in hot tap water then put in a container with clearing agent for a couple minutes, then rinse again . I then use a rinse bottle of distilled water to rinse again then hang up on a closepin until next sheet. For the next sheet I use the distilled water rinse bottle to wet the brush and shake out excess water. This may be overkill but it works for me.

 

[wm blunt]

I got to learn to type faster!!!

 

[photomc]

Maybe you aren't using the magic brush properly. The way I use it is to have it loaded with distilled water before coating a sheet. I soak the thing and then flip/snap/fling the excess water from it and use it to drive/push/chase the chems that are poured from a shot glass onto the paper. If you're dipping the brush into your chems and painting the paper with it, you're wasting chemistry.

Yep, that's the way I learned to use it (from this same guy ). And will admit that I was trying to paint the substrate on when I first started and it DID use a lot of chemistry. Now, like Mateo said...soak, flip/snap/fling - pour the chems on the paper and drive/push/chase..oh yeah, make sure the surface IS pretty level (duh?) or the chems will run all over the place. Inbetween, it goes into one of those semi-disposable containers with the blue lid...with distilled water. Don't forget to take the brush out after the session is over and give it a nice cleaning. YMMV

 

[Mateo]

I got to learn to type faster!!!

Me too. Should knowed someone would be already answering.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Many thanks all... I was somewhere in between- I did pour the chems on the paper, then pushed it around with the brush. I guess the brush was just soaking up too much chemicals because it was dry. I'll give that a try the next time I coat!