To the OP if you are using Pt Pd like some of us to have your prints last for Centuries, I would be cautious with Store Brand overcoats. back in the 70's 80' a product called Pro Texture was applied on prints to make them sparkle , and sparkle they did, but over time this product severely affected the print and is no longer a product people use.
Hmmm...I'd tried PT/PD many years ago, and came away wanting just a bit more D-Max with perhaps a bit of sheen (which Albumen did provide but I liked the PT/PD tonality and delicacy a bit more). Never thought about applying a bit of Renaissance Wax to a PT/PD print...and seeing as how I'm dusting off my 11x14 gear...maybe I'll give this a try!
But oh that delicacy...would such a waxing/varnishing have, potentially, a negative affect on this?
Well, the product at least claims to be for sake of paper, so that is off to the right start, at least for experimental purposes. Whether it is actually "timeless" or not will take till the end of time to verify. I always time test anything at least a decade or two before I trust it. But one has to start somewhere. There are thousands of kinds of acrylic resin, experimentally developed, looking for an appropriate application. Many are proprietary. Of course, the resin itself will come from a major plastics manufacturer, and then might get licensed or exclusively sold only to a particular blender and marketing entity.
Having been involved with coating industries for quite awhile, I learned that about 80% of them apply a BS coefficient quite heavily to their products. Then there is a far lesser quantity of companies who work especially hard to protect their long-term reputation for quality and honesty. Art supplies are no doubt analogous. I see they offer a Gesso too. Most art store gesso isn't much better than toothpaste, as my Aunt would contemptuously say - someone who really really understood her materials, and even held a phD in Art History.
You could also do comparison experiments with gelatin overcoats, also Renaissance Wax (microcrytalline paraffin). But what will collectors think?
Beeswax is voodoo. You don't want that even on wooden furniture, traditional or not. That's actually common knowledge. For every pint of varnish my naysayer has ever used in his life, I've probably sold $20,000 worth at a time, and to some of the most finicky historical restorations you can think of, along with the tech advice. No - I don't have any specific experience with the product line you are currently trying. But what advice I can give out of sheer analogous experience is worth its weight in gold - test, test, test!
Salt Prints were often waxed in the 19th C, and it seems to have helped protect the from deterioration from environmental contaminants. PL/PT is much more stable than Salt though, so, maybe not necessary, but perhaps benign if done properly.
Originally Posted by John Layton
Just for the record,
I have seen an enormous number of Pt prints in museum archives that are pretty faded.
It is possible to abrade the surface when applying wax and remove some of the "delicacy," so you do need to do so carefully with a soft cloth.
No, it's not. Beeswax and lavender has been used to "varnish" salt prints since they were first invented. Most historic salt prints in collections/archives have been finished with beeswax.
People from that past era also performed Civil War amputations using unsterilized bloody handsaws. Yes, beeswax is the kind of wax they easily had access to, so it made sense in those days. But way better options now exist. Wax and varnish are totally different categories anyway, though blends of both still exist, as anachronistic as those are - now mostly air quality or fire code prohibited in the US. I had to jump through hoops to import them for that handful of customers who wanted a particular vintage authenticity. Antique wood cameras were often coated with analogous oil n' wax blends. Voodoo is an understatement when it comes to their fire risk, especially if linseed oil is mixed in. Many many a shop has burned down due to it - the very year I retired there were two fires on the very same block from that source totaling around 20 million dollars in damages.
Thank you for the information. I just ordered some Renaissance wax and will try that too.
Faded due to what?
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