RA-4 emulsion transfer?

Hello,

In a very old lab magazine from the 80s, I read an article about softening the emulsion of an RA-4 print and ironing it "wet in wet" on normal paper or wood.
Unfortunately, the chemicals were not described, because the author wanted to sell the kits. I think he is dead now, because I could not find any further information about the process or the author. The other problem is, if you search for 'emulsion transfer', you get 10000s of articles about Polaroid transfer stuff.
I just could read something about a 'strong alcaline solution'. I tried a strong and warm sodium hydroxyde solution. The emulsion softens very good, so you can scratch it with the fingernails very easy. But when ironing the picture on the target paper, some parts stick on the target and other parts stay on the original print.
I can see that it works but there is some 'magic' missing, so that the emulsion isn't sticking that hard on the original RC-paper. Adhesion on the target material should be stronger than adhesion on the original PE substrate.
Has anybody ever tried this with success? Maybe 30 years ago?
The parts of the picture I could transfer to watercolour paper looked very nice, so I want to transfer a complete print.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Joachim

Was the reciever sheet wet or dry? Higher temps may help also, for the olutions. Keep us posted!

EdSawyer said:

Was the reciever sheet wet or dry? Higher temps may help also, for the olutions.

Click to expand...

I tried both, wet and dry reciever sheet. There was no big difference.
The article in the old magazine told that the receiver should also be soaked in this alcaline solution.
My hydroxide solution was about 40°C

Keep us posted!

Click to expand...

Well, I hoped to get some suggestions from other guys here.
Nobody ever tried this?

Joachim

Not much to add except to say that a.) I'm very interested in this idea, and b.) perhaps if you shared the name of the author/photographer and the magazine, maybe it would help others help you.

Does anyone know how the gelatin is attached to the paper base? Does it stick by itself or is there some glue layer? If there is a glue layer and we know what it is made of, we might find a compound that will soften this layer and thereby solve your problem. If it is the gelatin alone, you could look for compounds that will soften it more than plain alkali: Thiocyanate, Thiourea, Urea, Cysteine, ... there are several compounds which allegedly reticulate film because they soften the gelatin too much.

There used to be a Konica RA-4 paper with peel-apart emulsion. I remember a roll on e*ay uk not selling for a very long time, and in the end it went for very little. The exact description and code of the paper eludes me at the moment. Perhaps the successors of Konica RA-4 paper manufacture (DNP) may have a possibility of producing it again.

Only partially relevant to this thread but I hope sufficiently relevant for this post not to be interpreted as a highjack but isn't there a way to do this with B&W paper as well which may or may not be equally applicable to RA4?

You'd think that somewhere in APUG since it started in 2002 or thereabouts there has been posts or even a thread about this.

pentaxuser

Back in the '70s when I was working on Ektacolor Paper at Kodak, I visited the large portrait operation, Olin Mills, and they stripped off the emulsion on large portrait prints and mounted it on canvas. It made a very nice looking print. It involved using a razor blade to separate the emulsion from the base at a corner and then rolling the emulsion up on a dowel. They made it look easy; I guess the mark of a true artist is the ability to make complicated things look easy.

Does this actually mean some sort of separation of the plastic layer (upon which we have the emulsion(s)) from the paper base material? What Prof_Pixel saw does sound a bit like the paper being removed from the plastic+emulsion, rather than the emulsion from the plastic. Would this have the same effect for the purposes of the OP? The emulsion alone would obviously be thinner, and perhaps more colour-rich, but also much more fragile.

And I'm curious about the options for black-and-white papers too. I still recall my surprise when I left an unwanted test-strip in the holding tray for a few days, many years ago, and the emulsion slid off intact(-ish) when I went to tidy up. I can't remember if that was fibre-based paper, or exactly how long it was submerged. Worth a trial now anyway.

I have done it inadvertently with B&W fiber paper, in a too-hot water bath while washing. Made for some really cool prints!