Paper for Kallitype or Pd/Pt print

[Loris Medici]

Mark, I'm glad that you made the paper(s) work. Have you used citric acid?

P.S. IME, exposing Vandyke when it's relatively "damp" (a la Ziatype. IMPORTANT: I put 2mils polyester between the negative and paper in order to protect the negative. It also helps in masking the inherent grain you may get with the non-mentionable workflow...), you get a much colder untoned image, and slightly greater dmax. (The latter for both the plain and toned image.)

[Mark Fisher]

Thanks Loris, your advice has helped me get off center. VD is certainly a simpler process to deal for me.....and citric acid was unnecessary for me. I'll try the damp version when I do my next round.

[Loris Medici]

Mark, it's not damp in the literal sense; observe the paper after coating, and see how much time it takes the surface to become matte, then wait further by a factor of 1-2 (test!). In my conditions, it's usually 10 minutes after finishing coating.

Regards,
Loris.

[Loris Medici]

Just for the records, one can mix a sodium citrate based kallitype developer buffered at pH levels 6 or 7.

See below:

• pH 6: 200g trisodium citrate dihydrate + 20g citric acid monohydrate
• pH 7: 200g trisodium citrate dihydrate + 2.6g citric acid monohydrate

(Amounts for 1000ml developer...)

Worked it out using this site.

Regards,
Loris.

[CraigK]

I've used Masa and it works great. But I now mainly use fixed-out barya paper (Ilford FB seems to work best, but most any brand of fb paper can work too). Fixed-out Baryta paper works well for Van Dyke prints. In fact, I recommend starting with VDB solutions to learn the tricks of coating baryta paper before moving on to plat/palladium on the same paper. It is much, much cheaper and a bit easier to do and, to be honest, a well done VDB print on fixed out baryta looks almost exactly the same as a pt/pd print.

[dpurdy]

I just picked up a few sheets of the Masa and it is very textured on one side and very slick and smooth on the other. Which side did you use?
Dennis

[Jim Noel]

I'd encourage you to take a look at Ruscombe Mill's "Herschel". It quickly became my favorite for kallitypes (primarily palladium-toned). http://www.ruscombepaper.com/

Do you have an American dealer for this paper?
Thanks,
Jim

[Loris Medici]

Dennis, both sides work. I personally prefer the smooth side...

[jorj]

Jim, I've only ordered it directly from Ruscombe. They shipped quicker than I expected; no worse than coming from the other side of North America.

[Davec101]

Mark, you may also try Masa paper; works great with every iron / iron-silver processes I know. (Even Argyrotype!) Beware: It's a thin paper (something around 90 g/sqm), therefore, if you print large (> 11x14") you will have to be careful when handling; may tear and/or crease easily. (Don't be intimidated; it's much stronger than it sounds...) And, as a last note: Try Vandyke w/o citric acid first, use it only if it doesn't work otherwise.

Regards,
Loris.

Are you ordering your Masa paper in Europe Loris or the US? Would like to try a sample.