Hi -
I'm experimenting with some alternative emulsions. I'm looking for some suggestions for hardening additives that will help gelatin adhere to paper well, and hopefully not demolish the image too much over time. A vast body of research has been done on this ( see US Patent 4612280 at the gov patent search site for a good list and discussion of it), however I'm not looking to produce a new commercial product or buy complicated machines and a team of scientists to do it like Fuji did ). Actually, reading the patent was interesting for its discussion of issues - those guys really know their stuff!
Surely, there are some tried and true gelatin hardeners that work pretty well for manual coating, no? Please post suggestions if you have some. Chrome Allum? Others? I do expose with UV, so possibly UV activated solutions could be interesting too. Also, I have some LPE512 that I will try tomorrow as a direct addition to the emulsion instead of in the first clearning bath ( tried that tonight, it helped a lot, but didn't quite work in the end ).
I make an abosolutely rich and lovely brown print with a perfect color tonight on heavily gelatin sized paper, however it washed off the paper ( don't laugh at me to hard ) - I think I'll have something terrific if I get a nice hardener that still allows iron to be removed in a wash. The look of the print was really special, so I'd like to get this nailed.
Also, if anyone has sized paper with Agar Agar or other gelatin substances with good results, I'm curious to hear about that.
Thanks in advance for suggestions!
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