Matt Board for mounting Kallitype prints

[Bruce]

Should you use Un buffred or buffered matt board when mounting Kallitype prints?

Thanks!!

 

[gzinsel]

IMO, you should 100% rag 4-ply matt board. Most mat board these days are buffered. If you can find unbuffered and sized, that is preferable. However some mat board, I think Rising, used to have a 100% rag 4 ply, that was unsized and unbuffered. I think mat board companies add a lot of stuff to their museum board. Optical brighteners, sizing, china clay, gelatin, carbonate, etc.. . I am very leery of such additives. I just checked the internet, ya !!! Rising still makes a 100% rag 4 ply museum board that is ph neutral. In other words that did not add calcium carbonate. If I remember correctly, these boards are NOT heavily sized. so be careful with cutting, - very sharp blade, and it scuffs easily. very clean hands.

 

[gone]

What gzinsel said. Wear white cotton gloves, or the mats will not look good for long from handling.

This is why I dry mount my prints. You can spend a fortune on mats, frames, glass or plexi, etc, and then you often can't see the image anyway for the reflections. But I must tell you, dry mounting means that most if not all museums will not accept the work (just in case you get famous). They want everything 100% reversible in case something needs restoration. Me, I want flat prints w/o glass or plexi so that people can see the paper texture and avoid glass reflections.

 

[NedL]

I don't know about kallitypes, but I just purchased one each of Crescent 2298 and 2299 unbuffered museum board to see if I like either color with my salt prints. My local art store ordered them for me. Here's a link to the crescent mat board brochure.

 

[pschwart]

If you can find unbuffered and sized, that is preferable.

This may be true for cyanotypes, but do you think this is preferable for kallitypes?

 

[Bruce]

I wrote Sandy King about this since he has used this process and written about it. See his article on Unblinking Eye.

Sandy said to use buffered matt board.

 

[DREW WILEY]

With Rising, the buffered and unbuffered Bright White look almost identical. I can't answer the primary question about which is correct for
Kallitype. Rising is a very high quality board that isn't buffered in the same manner as cheaper boards (which use additives), but can differ a tiny bit in thickness edge to edge, and is fairly resistant during cutting.