Waxing Prints

I wax my salted paper and VDB prints with a mixture of bees wax and orange oil, gives a subtle sheen to the art papers and smells good.

During the 1970s I waxed certain prints with a wax that I made myself. The only ingredient that I remember is beeswax. A British photo encyclopedia provided the formula. After a while I abandoned waxing.

Whiteymorange said:

By the way, it is quite easy to become allergic to turpentine. I am, after years of painting.

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This happened to my etching teacher. She became sensitized to solvents and had to wear gloves. That's a big handicap when it comes to wiping the plate, which should be done w/ the palm of your hand for the final wipe.

One can learn a lot about archival issues by studying paintings, since they've been around so much longer than photography. Myself, I'd be leery of putting anything, even wax, on the surface of a fiber print. Whatever you put on there will interact w/ air and the paper's surface, eventually sinking into the paper and whatever is behind it. Bees wax sounds like the safest, but it's still going to dry out and eventually crack.

A photograph doesn't have the lifespan of an art print or a painting, both of which should last many hundreds of years if mounted and displayed properly. So given that it's more difficult to make a photograph archival due to it's nature, I'm hesitant to put any kind of coating on a finished print.

I print kallitypes on cot 320. When dry I apply 2 coats of Liquidtex Gloss Varnish diluted 1:8 with water, drying print between coats. Doesn't give them a gloss or even a satin finish, but deepens the shadows to give them a "depth". Use a soft camel's hair/sable brush and a gentle touch so as not to abrade the fibers. Never have found anything to work on baryta papers.