Paper flatness after coating

N O Mennescio · Aug 18, 2004

Hi all. I recently bought some Cranes paper from B&S to use for pt/pd printing. It arrived and was to my surprise only 120 gsm (very thin). When I coat it it becomes all wavy and it is more or less impossible to get good contact between paper and negative. Any ideas on how to get it flat again?

Dave Miller · Aug 18, 2004

You could try the watercolour artists method of of preparing their paper by pre-shrinking it on a board.

clay · Aug 18, 2004

Your best bet for better print quality and relief of flattening issues is to buy some of their COT320. It is a much better, heavier weight paper. Or invest in a vacuum frame. You probably don't want to pre-shrink platinotype because it loses its nice finish and a lot of the minimal sizing it contains.

Robert Kennedy · Aug 18, 2004

A tip I got here was to attach the paper to a board with washout tape. It works VERY well. And, after development if it goes wavy again, you can just rewet, reapply the tape, dry, and it works!

You do have to cut the tape off, so plan for a margin....

mark · Aug 18, 2004

What is washout tape?

shinn · Aug 18, 2004

yeah, what's wash out tape? I've been using Seal's releasable sheets with good luck...not too releaseable though.

Happy Days

Robert Kennedy · Aug 18, 2004

It is also called watercolor tape. It is basically brown paper tape that has an adhesive side. Dunk it in water and the adhesive becomes active. When it dries, it sticks hard. When wet, it "washes out". Very useful trick. I think Aggie turned me on to it.

cjarvis · Aug 19, 2004

Better yet. Stop using Kid Finish and use Cranes Platinotype instead.

Dave Miller · Aug 19, 2004

Robert Kennedy said:
It is also called watercolor tape. It is basically brown paper tape that has an adhesive side. Dunk it in water and the adhesive becomes active. When it dries, it sticks hard. When wet, it "washes out". Very useful trick. I think Aggie turned me on to it.

That's what I told him to do but it wasn't well received, although it's worked for the watercolour brigade for many years. The worst that can happen if this method is tried is the loss of a sheet of paper. It's the same method that I use for preventing drydown with FB paper prints.

N O Mennescio · Aug 19, 2004

Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately the taping down only works if the whole paper is equally wet. I would rather not coat a larger area than necessary.
But thanks anyway.

wmlaven · Aug 27, 2004

If you're not getting good contact between the neg and paper its because your printing frame isn"t very good. A good frame will squish wavy paper with no problem. Best is a vacuum easel. Even with flat paper, some print frames do a bad job. Check that before you start jumping through hoops unnecessarily with tapes, paper flattening, etc.

Paper flatness after coating

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