STEAM , STEAM , STEAM

[Robert Hall]

What do you use for steaming Bob?

[sly]

FWIW - FB prints I've flattened (in a sketch pad under books) so they'd be easier to spot, I steam after spotting. They curl backwards a bit in the steam, them curl the other way once dry. I always need to re-flatten tham before matting. I image it would work to flatten them straight after steaming, but I'm hesitant to to put any print between the pages if it has any moisture - I've wrecked prints in the past by flattening them and having them stick to the page.

[Bob Carnie]

Well in the past and for small prints I have considered and used a kettle,
for the larger prints, my business partner is a commercial photographer and has a large steaming unit for clothes and such for shoots.
I think that this will be the way to go but I have to try murals to see if this works, now that Ian G has given me the dope about the look keeping its property's even in super dry conditions I am going to give this a go,.

What do you use for steaming Bob?

[Michael R 1974]

I haven't noticed a grand "glossifying" of the print surface
Sim2.

At least as described by John Sexton, it is not intended to dramatically increase gloss. The effect is supposed to be more subtle, often used more as a corrective measure to compensate for things like occasional batch to batch variations in paper sheen on whatever paper you're using. Sometimes a paper might dry to a flatter sheen than usual. That type of thing.

[PVia]

A tip with knifing is to get a gummed envelope (not the self sealing type) and spot a bit of dissolved gum into the knifed area.

Ian

Brilliant...I wonder if a dab of clear gum arabic would work as well? Diluted, of course...

[michaelbsc]

I understand spotting somewhat.

How does knifing work?

[Ian Grant]

I understand spotting somewhat.

How does knifing work?

Knifing" is where an area of emulsion is scraped away using a retouching knife. It can be just a slight touch to remove a black spot, right through to quite extensive cross hatched retouching to lighten a specific area. It can be done on prints or for the very skilled negatives as well.

I use a surgical scalpel or a needle and these days just to remove clack spots or thin black lines but I used the technique more extensively in the past. It was one of the main methods of retouching in the printing trade before that went digital.

Ian