Light weight paper for salt printing.

Can anyone suggest a paper about 200gsm which they KNOW is suitable for salt printing. I normally use COT320 which is of course fine.
I have a project which requires some thinner/lighter paper and which has a fairly smooth reverse side as both front and back would be printed on.
I have tried COT 160 but the reverse is too rough for my purpose.

I haven't come across a paper that is identical on both sides - which in regular paper manufacturing seems virtually impossible to achieve in the first place. However, identical may not be your requirement. Still, when trying both sides of papers with alt processes such as salt prints, the differences in overall look and contrast between two sides of the same paper are always quite obvious to me.

For salt prints, my favorite paper so far is Schut Simili Japon 225gsm, which seems to come lose to what you're looking for. However, one side is noticably smoother (hot pressed or calandered?) than the other, although both sides can be made to work for salt printing. It's also available in 130gsm, but I've only tried the heavier kind. So far, it's been my go-to paper for alt. processes as I get good dmax, evenness and smooth tonal ranges with it, it's easily available where I live and it's very affordable.

koraks: thanks for the information, I see I can get some in the UK at a bookbinders supplier. I'll give it a go.

I'm interested to hear your experiences with this paper. That's the thing with alt processes; you have to give several papers a try to see if they work for you.

Your title indicates you are interested in a light weight paper. I don't consider 200-225 gpi lightweight. Cranes 20 lb linen stationery is what I use to teach students to handle light weight paper.It is also oneo fmy favorites.

ColinRH said:

Can anyone suggest a paper about 200gsm which they KNOW is suitable for salt printing. I normally use COT320 which is of course fine.
I have a project which requires some thinner/lighter paper and which has a fairly smooth reverse side as both front and back would be printed on.
I have tried COT 160 but the reverse is too rough for my purpose.

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HI ColinRH,
You might contact cliveh and / NedL both member here. Both are experts at making salt prints and photogenic drawings. If I recall, cliveh has experience with Talbot's Original Salt Fixer method. They might be able to
point you in the right direction for paper, and cliveh being in England might be able to give you local suppliers as well.

Best of luck !
John

I've been using Strathmore 500 drawing paper ( single ply, not bristol ), which was suggested to me by Phil Schwartz ( Photrio member pschwart )

It's 100% cotton, 125 gsm, works well for salt. It might be quite a bit thinner than you are thinking of though. The color is not bright bleached white, but slightly toward cream.

It comes in a plate finish which is very smooth on one side and a "vellum" finish which is lightly textured. The back is reasonably smooth, but there is some texture. I haven't tried to print on the back. Honestly, the way I make salt prints, they spend so much time in liquid that by the end the fibers on the "plate" side have swelled and the front and back don't look as different as they do on new calendered dry paper. If you look very closely you can see the plate side gets a slightly "puffy" look. The plate finish can get light "crimp" marks if you don't handle it carefully ( they sometimes appear when the paper bends, and often they are on new sheets ) but they disappear during processing. The vellum finish version does retain its texture through processing.

I think it does have a little buffer, but only makes a few small bubbles if you acidify it ( compared to lots and lots of bubbles with many chalk-bufferred papers ) and it can be used without acidifying.

Have fun!

PS I'd be interested in trying the Schut Simili Japon that koraks mentioned in the 130 gsm version. I'll keep an eye out for that.

Thanks for your suggestions.
I've overcome my problem now; I was wanting to make a book of some salts and had to have paper long enough to fold in half, as per book page, and then print on one face "open the page" and then print on the other page which, when you work it out, is the reverse of the paper.
I ended up using COT320 paper which although rather thick gives a good quality feel to the project.
Trouble was encountered, though, getting good clean images printed without all the extra drips and splashes of solution. Still, I was happy enough with the project - obviously just a one-off. A nice looking, properly stitched and bound hard cover book.