Made a ground glass yesterday.....

[Daniel_Buck]

Daniel, what is in the glass etching compound that would etch glass? The classic etchant is HF, hydrofluoric acid, very nasty stuff. Using the vapor to etch the glass will yield a frosted appearance on the surface but it scatters the light poorly so yields a very hot center spot in viewing - my experience from actually trying it in a proper fume hood. I think direct wet etching of the surface with HF solution may be used for anti newton fabrication where there is virtually no scatter centers formed but just broad area etching to reduce the intensity of the interference.

Maybe some one here knows the details of the anti newton glass process.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

Nate, I have done glass etching in the passed, but not for the purposes of a viewing ground glass for cameras. The process is very simple and easy, I was just wondering if anyone's tried etching a whole sheet for the purpose of using it on a view camera. Maybe it doesn't work :-)

[Jim Michael]

Dick Blick sells a product called Armour Etch.

[Daniel Stone]

the "armour etch" product works well, but on smaller areas(like wine glasses). I purchased some from my local craft shop(Michael's), but due to having chunks of crystal in a soupy slurry, it was harder to apply, even to a 5x7" test screen I was making.

however, finding the glass cheap enough was easy: get the picture-frame glass in pre-cut sizes: 5x7,8x10 or 11x14. Pretty much exactly sized dimensionally, and darn cheap too when you use the 40/50% off coupons they have during sales(just print out multiple copies, and make multiple purchases )

rounds out to about $2-3 for each piece of glass, that's 1/3 the cost of getting it from my local glazier's shop, even with a discount !

-Dan

[JOSEPH ANDERSON]

Years Ago, A Photographer I Knew Used Fine Pumice Powder To Ground His
Glass. I Don't Think You Could Find Pumice In Powder Form Now. Has Anyone
Heard Of Using Pumice?
Joe A

[Randy]

just curious, I wonder if glass etching compound would work and provide a decent view?

I was wondering that very thing. I had watched an arts & craft show several years ago and they were using the compound to decorate some glass panals, and I wondered if the compound would work for making groundglass.

[IanG]

If you realised just how easy and the extremely high quality obtained by grinding your own screen you'd kick yourself for even thinking of using an etch process.

As soon as I've photographed the Half plate camera I bought 19 days ago I'll be making it a new screen. The glass is in place but someone tried to scratch a new screen, probably using sand paper or similar, but Ill grind that away and it'll be as new in less than 20 minutes.

Ian