Vandyke printing problems

[Deniz]

Well today i was in the darkroom printing and everything was going smoothly until the prints came out of the UV box.
They were really grainy and looked like there were white speckles on the dark areas.

I double coated some of the paper but didnt seem to change much.

The room was rather warm today and i was wondering if the paper didnt absorb enough sentisizer and the white paper was showing through as grain.

should i humidify the paper before coating?

any suggestions?

[donbga]

any suggestions?

Use a brush instead of a coating rod. Also leave your paper in a humidified environment for several hours to allow the papers RH to adjust to ambient RH.

[Jim Noel]

Sometimes problems such as these arise from too little sensitizer. Even double-coating with too small a quantity can be the culprit.

A brush or rod makes little difference if the rod is used correctly. I coat with both and find no difference. When using the rod, absolutlely no pressure should be applied to the rod, just push or pull it along. I find students have more success eliminating the pressure by pushing.

[donbga]

Sometimes problems such as these arise from too little sensitizer. Even double-coating with too small a quantity can be the culprit.

A brush or rod makes little difference if the rod is used correctly. I coat with both and find no difference. When using the rod, absolutlely no pressure should be applied to the rod, just push or pull it along. I find students have more success eliminating the pressure by pushing.

Well I'll have to disagree about the rod being mightier than the brush.

With a "magic brush" there will be no "knaping" of the paper. But I think dry paper is the real culprit here coupled with too little sensitiser as you suggest.

[Deniz]

I really did push on the rod. didnt mean to but the masking tape on the ends of the rod to raise it off th paper a little was not cooperating.

next time i will throw the paper in the humidifier first for 30mins. and be more careful with the coating.

Should i use the Hake(sp?) brush or a foam brush or stick with the rod?

[philldresser]

I really did push on the rod. didnt mean to but the masking tape on the ends of the rod to raise it off th paper a little was not cooperating.

Deniz, why do you need to raise the rod off the paper? The more contact (not pressure) it makes, the smoother the coating in my experience.
Phill

[sanking]

Deniz, why do you need to raise the rod off the paper? The more contact (not pressure) it makes, the smoother the coating in my experience.
Phill

Same here. Putting masking tape on the rod to raise it off the paper is not good practice IMO. The rod should me pushed or pulled over the paper in direct contact with the paper.

I have used both rod and the Richeson 9010 "Magic" brush and much prefer coating with the latter. To each his own, but I find the brush much easier to use, and especially if one double coats. Putting a second coat on with a rod is virtually impossible because the first coat causes the paper to assume an irregular shape that is impossible to coat over. In theory one may save a bit on chemistry with the rod, but that seems a small price to pay for the much greater convenience of the brush.

Sandy

[Deniz]

Im not really experienced with the rod coating so i was just listeing to my instructor. I will remove the masking tape next time.

Doesn't the metal on the "magic" brush react with the chemistry of the sentisizer?

[sanfrancisconudes]

Im not really experienced with the rod coating so i was just listeing to my instructor. I will remove the masking tape next time.

Doesn't the metal on the "magic" brush react with the chemistry of the sentisizer?

I agree with removing the tape. FYI I use a bit of pressure for the first pass or two and then lighten up to nothing on later passes.

The conventional wisdom was to avoid the metal just in case, but the feeling now is that this particular brush is so much better than the other options that it's worth risking it.

I use both. I prefer the rod on smooth paper and the brush on anything with a really strong texture.

[sanking]

Doesn't the metal on the "magic" brush react with the chemistry of the sentisizer?

No, the notion that the metal of a brush will react with the sensitizer is something of a myth. I have never had any reaction with the metal of the Richeson 9010 brush, or for that matter with the metal of any other brush.

Sandy