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 Originally Posted by jmal  Dan, Do us all a favor and post the specifics here rather than in a PM.
I'm interested. Also, are the corrugated boards simply cardboard or
are they something more sophisticated? Cardboard is nothing more than a heavy, thick paper.
Search Google for, corrugated board . Wikipedia has
a good amount of information and a very good
illustration. Scroll down some then magnify.
Note the choice of thickness. The A flute I've been
using has the greatest of air passage twixt the two
face sheets. Likely the reason it is termed A flute
Ventilator. C flute has nearly as much. B flute
by comparison has constricted air passage.
Any good quality A or C flute corrugated will do.
I think the board I've been using is water resistant.
Although the prints are no more than very damp
when placed on the drying sheets, the humidity
must be close to 100% while the prints are
drying; high enough to warp paper.
Likely I'll need to Email a source or two of those
VENTILATORS in order to know their source.
I'd like to see some larger sheet sizes
made available. Dan
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Pakosol used to sell a chemical treatment, and while it would make it ore flat than not using it, having a dry mount press is the easiest.
I have a 16x20 that I am not using, should you want to discuss acquiring it.
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Dan and Reinhold - thanks for your most helpful responses. One more question: if you are using a good facing material (as you describe) do you have to worry about the acid content of the corrugated material?
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Originally Posted by George Collier To rwyoung - I do the back to back hanging thing for all my prints (no matter what size), with all four corners clothespin clipped, the top 2 on the line. They dry flat enough, less so in dryer times of the year. I wash them back to back (but in separate compartments) in a Gravity Works washer, then I pull them out just an inch or so, line up the top corners with the separator in between, then pull both out together and hang together.
I don't squeegee them (too much risk for me) and I suspect that the curling happens in the final stages of drying, so squeegeeing might help shorten the drying time, but I think relative humidity has more to do with the amount of curl, or "frilling" of the edges than anything.
I have tried all of the suggested methods, and for years, blotters, with the corragated separators, which produced the flattest prints, by far, but I got tired of worrying about lint and accumulated contamination, careful as I am.
Screens were ok, but often left a pattern, also need to be cleaned, and had curl.
The back to back hanging is the simplest and works best for me.
I just now did a search on Google for "photo blotters" and found this article - which aligns with most of my experiences - http://www.heylloyd.com/technicl/drying.htm.
In any case, my experience is that no matter how flat they are (even if I flatten with a dry mount press after drying), if I store them in archival boxes, or old paper packets, the relative humidity the day I take them out to mount them is what really matters. Prints that were once perfectly flat might not be the day I take them out to frame them, so - I just hang them as described, and deal with whatever they are on the day I frame them. FWIW, I have had exactly the same experience and reached the same conclusions.
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George,
I use paper blotters, and Dan uses a synthetic non-woven, but we both remove all standing water off of the print before putting them into the drier. I'll let Dan chime in, but I'm totally confident that acid bleed is not a problem if your prints are truly free of surface water. The interleaving should not feel wet. Remember, your prints are in the drier for only a few hours, at most.
My blotters are (I'm guesing) about 10 years old, and have dried (I'm guessing) about 300 prints. The blotters are still in good shape, no stains (except a few drops where I first discovered the necessity of removing all surface water). The corrugated looks about the same as when I started, no water marks, no puckering, just the typical "old corrugated carton" look. I know that some folks might be nervous about using such unrefined stuff, so I included a link to Conservation grade acid free board for their benefit.
Dan; your comments...?
Cheers
Reinhold
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Reinhold - thanks for your last post. My workflow when using either blotters or screens, many years ago, was to hang them back to back first, until they were nearing the point of beginning to dry (how do I describe that - still moist but not dripping), then put them into the screens or blotters. This is what I would do if going back to blotters. I'll have to think about this. Last night I found that I actually still have an unopened, virgin set of Kodak blotters big enough for 16x20 that I may use.
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Originally Posted by George Collier Dan and Reinhold - thanks for your most helpful responses.
One more question: if you are using a good facing material
(as you describe) do you have to worry about the acid
content of the corrugated material? By "facing material" you mean the polyester separator
sheets? I can't see that an issue. Pre dried by sponge or
squeegee and placed upon those non-wetting separators
precludes contact with the corrugated board. No more
than water vapor transfers from the prints, through
the boards facing's, and out of the stack. A print
layer with top and bottom separators. Dan
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Originally Posted by Reinhold "I use paper blotters, and Dan uses a synthetic non-woven,
but we both remove all standing water off of the print before
putting them into the drier. I'll let Dan chime in, but I'm totally
confident that acid bleed is not a problem if your prints are truly
free of surface water. The interleaving should not feel wet.
Remember, your prints are in the drier for only a few
hours, at most. A comment:
I can believe that there is some bleed from print to paper.
The stack is weighted on top and contact is intimate. Perhaps
that is as it should be. Paper separators as with many other
materials used in darkroom work date from ages ago. The
paper in direct contact and under pressure will absorb
moisture and direct it to the two face sheets of the
bottom and top corrugated boards.
I couldn't say how much of the very little chemistry
left in the paper is transferred. Cellulose is hydrophilic
so making it more believable that some transfer occurs.
So much for transfer from paper to separator. The print
is cleaner for the transfer and if there is no reversal of
transfer, as may be the case, then no problem.
There is another matter to be considered in the choice
of separator material and that is permeability. Will the
material allow for the free passage of water vapor? As
I see it the corrugated board's facing sheets present
the greatest barrier. All of the non-woven very
hydrophobic separator materials I've tested
are extremely permeable. Dan
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I tried the method of laying the print on a piece of glass and taping the edges down. I used two prints I didn't care for, taking them out of the water I didn't squeegee them but just taped them to the glass and let them dry 5 hours or so. They looked great, flat, just like they were dry mounted; that is until I cut them loose, I couldn't get them off the glass. Both prints were ruined. I'm trying one now that I squeegeed before taping to the glass.
If I can't get this method to work I think I'll adopt it when it comes time to mount the print but instead of tape I'll just use photo corners.
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