Investigating Pt/Pd papers

[rogein]

According to New York Central, all Whatman's save the Cold Press 140# are discontinued by the mill. Have you ever seen the CP and if so how rough is it?

Neal

That's a shame -no I haven't seen the CP...

Roger...

 

[rogein]

Roger, who is your UK source?

Hey Kerik,

Last time I ordered it was from Ken Bromley Art Supplies - but it's been a while since I've checked their website.

Roger...

 

[Dana Sullivan]

Sorry for ignoring this thread (and APUG in general), we've been extremely busy recently. Here are our latest updates:

We are now stocking Arches Platine in 22x30" and 11x15" sheets!

Light kozo paper is available again, as soon as our distributor gets another batch in. I bought the last 100 sheets they had in stock, and a customer bought all of it from me that same day!

I am holding off on the Stonehenge until I'm satisfied that it's consistent. Some batches work great after a short oxalic acid bath, others don't work regardless of what I do.

Buxton should be here in the late summer or early autumn.

Fabriano Artistico looks promising, we will probably start stocking it shortly.

 

[Dana Sullivan]

If you're a fan of the Weston diploma parchment, I would recommend stocking up on it now. Southworth Mill purchased Byron Weston Papers from Cranes, and I just received a sample batch from the new mill.

To be blunt, it doesn't look promising. The new paper has a much softer surface, and the image it produces lacks a good Dmax. I haven't tried treating it with oxalic acid yet, but I'm not optimistic about it holding up well.

I have about 1500 11x14" sheets left from the old Crane's mill, so order some now if this is a paper you covet! I will check our stock of the 28x34 sheets this weekend.

I'm scrambling to find a new economically priced paper that works as nicely. I will keep everyone posted on my progress....

 

[sharperstill]

Any update

Hi Dana,

I've received a few emails from John Zokowski of Butler-Dearden Paper wh has been trying to assure me that Weston Diploma Parchment is as good as ever, or better. Below is his last email to me. I'd love a second opinion before committing to a purchase, especially as the Aussie dollar has sunk.

The Crane Paper Company of Dalton, Massachusetts,(the firm that owned the Weston mill)
discontinued the manufacture of paper at the Byron Weston Paper Company mill in Dalton,
Massachusetts in ealry 2008. The only thing that the mill manufactures today is pulp. Matter of fact,
Crane brand papers themselves, for the most part, are manufactured by other paper mills.

Crane sold the Weston brand, customer list and paper formulas to the Southworth Paper
Company of Turners Falls, Massachusetts. The Weston products sales representative (who was with the Weston mill) is a long time business acquaintance of mine, and we collaborated to bring the paper back to
the alt. market.

As this is a rather intense and very costly undertaking, I have been appointed the sole worldwide
distributor of the reincarnated Weston Diploma Parchment, which has an appendage added to
its name--Plat-Pal.

The WDP Plat-Pal is made to the same specifications as the original paper and does in fact
respond to chemistry very nicely.

When I introduced the original Weston Diploma Parchment to the alt. community, I did so
only after considerable scrutiny by the man (John Marcy) who originally asked me to look
for a PT/PD sheet that he and 21ST Editions could use for their projects. At the time, an awful
lot of people had fallen away from the alternative processes because there hadn't been any new
papers introduced to the community in a very long time. It's ironic that Weston Diploma had
been manufactured for some 50+ years and no one ever tested the paper for PT/PD.

Over the last several months we have had several paper trials at Southworth which John Marcy tested at his
Northampton Photographics studio, with success finally achieved earlier this fall. John pronounced the
paper acceptable for PT/PD and here we are.

"acceptable for PT/PD" doesn't sound great.

Regards,

Jon

 

[donbga]

Hi Dana,

I've received a few emails from John Zokowski of Butler-Dearden Paper wh has been trying to assure me that Weston Diploma Parchment is as good as ever, or better. Below is his last email to me. I'd love a second opinion before committing to a purchase, especially as the Aussie dollar has sunk.




"acceptable for PT/PD" doesn't sound great.

Regards,

Jon

If it is the same paper it will work very well. I have confidence in John's assurances that the paper is and does what it is advertised to do.

 

[Vaughn]

I have used the "old" WD Parchment. What I found interesting is that both sides look identical to me, but one side was definitely harder than the other. Licking my finger and lightly rubbing each side, one side would "pill" up very quickly and the other would not. I could not brush coat the soft side without creating a mess of paper fibers coming off the paper. The other, harder side, could be carefully brush coated. If the new paper is soft on both sides, it will be relative useless for pt/pd.

Vaughn

 

[jzokowski]

Vaughn:

Switch to coating the Weston Paper with a glass rod; it will
take the chemistry just fine.

If you wish to reply to me, please do so at jzokowski@comcast.net, as
I do not regularly monitor the APUG site.

Thank you,
John M. Zokowski
Butler-Dearden Paper

 

[Vaughn]

Thanks, John. I still have a short stack of the old -- waiting for time for use with a specific project.

Vaughn

 

[WarEaglemtn]

http://www.butlerdearden.com/Default.aspx

Try the address above and on the lower left you will find a box to get information on Weston’s Diploma Parchment – Plat Pal
For Platinum-Palladium Photo Printing
And Other Alt Processes.

I used the earlier iteration of this paper and it was very good. Then, the mill was closed. After a couple years the company has a new mill and this paper is the result. It should be good but I am a couple weeks away from testing in my own darkroom. Some I respect have said it is very good for pt/pd and that is why I have some to test.

John Zokowski of the company knows paper well and has been working with this for the past few years to come up with a good pt/pd/Alt process paper. Sounds very promising.

 

[wilsonneal]

Platine test

I need to make a half dozen PtPd prints as Holiday gifts using 16x20 paper (two ganged 8x10 portraits). In that size, no matter how careful I am, I screw up the Weston. I priced the COT320 in that size, and it was just too much money (over $5 per sheet). I went to New York Central Art Supply (great paper counter, by the way) and bought Arches Platine. Out of the $6.31 22x30 sheet I get one 16x22 and a couple of 11x14 sheets. That works out to about $3 or so for the 16x20 I need, and about $1.65 for each 11x14. That's a big savings over COT to me. I like the deckle edge on two sides, too.

Quality was great. My first experience with Platine. I had read horror stories about black flecks, and haven't experienced that yet. The smooth side is super smooth. The exposure and contrast worked out to be the same as COT, as did dry down. It doesn't clear quite as fast Weston or COT, but it did clear in two baths of Citric and a bath of Sodium Sulfite in about 10 minutes total.

I also bought 5 sheets of the new Stonehenge. I am going to test it and see if it performs like the old stuff and will let you know.

Neal

 

[wilsonneal]

Stonehenge II test

Just a quick follow up. I finally got around to testing the new Stonehenge. It cleared fine, but it was A LOT slower than Platine. I made an exposure with identical coating/time that worked for Platine in the same session, and the Stonehenge print was significantly lighter and the blacks were grainy. I didn't have time to do further testing, which I will, but the initial test led me think that the new Stonehenge wasn't behaving the same as the old stock.

I am liking the Platine and will probably buy some more.

Neal

 

[HMFriedman]

Just a quick follow up. I finally got around to testing the new Stonehenge. It cleared fine, but it was A LOT slower than Platine. I made an exposure with identical coating/time that worked for Platine in the same session, and the Stonehenge print was significantly lighter and the blacks were grainy. I didn't have time to do further testing, which I will, but the initial test led me think that the new Stonehenge wasn't behaving the same as the old stock.

I am liking the Platine and will probably buy some more.

Neal

My results were similar to Neal's. Exposure times for Stonehenge from a new lot were more than three times that of older stock - unacceptable. Happily, I was able to return the new 30X22 sheets in favor of 44X30 sheets that remained from the older stock. I bought out much of my local shop's inventory, which should keep me busy for a while.

Henry