Dry mount tissure for fiber based prints

[JBrunner]

I just 'cut & pasted' this from www.dickblick.com ;

Buffermount Plus — This archival quality dry mounting tissue is for paper, delicate materials, and photographs. A removable adhesive, it activates at 175°F. It features acid-free tissue, buffered to prevent acidic migration on the substrate. It is also breathable. Use it for preservation applications, thin papers, rice paper, tissue paper, parchment, watercolors, silks, and other fabrics.

Colormount — This permanent dry mounting tissue is especially formulated for photographs. It activates at 175-200°F. It is a porous tissue, versatile and breathable, which mounts to both non-porous and porous surfaces. Use if for color photos and slick posters.

Fusion 4000 Plus — General purpose, solid form dry mounting adhesive, useful for fabrics and textured materials as well as paper. A removable adhesive, it activates at 170°F to form a solid adhesive. Buffermount Plus melts during heating and bonds during cooling. Use it for fabrics, textured materials, paper artwork, canvas, and puzzles.

Are these descriptions accurate? I've used Colormount for some time now, but there's a big difference between, "This archival quality dry mounting tissue..." (Buffermount), "This permanent dry mounting tissue..."(Colormount), and "General purpose, solid form dry mounting adhesive..."(Fusion 4000).

I've been using Colormount for a while now because I figured at larger print sizes (11x14 to 16x20), it would hold better than Buffermount which has a lower melting point. After reading, "This archival quality..." as opposed to, "This permanent..." I'm wondering if I made the right choice.

Will Buffermount work on larger prints?

Murray

I use buffermount on 8x10 and 11x14 prints. It behaves as you would expect any drymount tissue to behave, and I believe it would adhere any size print you would care to mount. I use it because it is reversible, and archival.

I like to drymount, because it gives the best presentation for fiber prints, but I would not do so, if I could not use buffermount, as regular drymount would likely impare the collectability of my prints with some collectors.

[MurrayMinchin]

Thanks

Murray

[MMfoto]

Buffermount will absolutely work on large prints. I've never once had an adhesion issue with it. If you're concerned about it adhering as it cools I would say two things: Quite a bit of adhesion occures in the press, and you'd be hard press to lift a print off of it straight out of the press; Secondly, if you did have a problem, or wanted to prevent any potential problems then all you need is a clean sheet of glass to weight the print with as it cools.

BTW, there is also this new(ish) product called Artcare Restore that is an acid free foamboard with an "archival" heat activated heat releasing adhesive. It's a little finicky, but you dry mount at a fairly low temp, for a fairly short time. It's the slide film of drymounting: It get's more adhesive as it's heated till a point than it get's less adhesive. So you press it within a certain window and it sticks, then to remove it you heat it again. It's not perfect, and with heavy fiber prints you pretty much have to weight them with glass after pressing, but if you want a nice presentation but don't want a permanant bond, than I would suggest this. Might be hard to get for some people, ask a frame shop. It may only come in 32X40" sheets too, by the box, I'm not sure. Buffermount is also removable, but have you ever done it? It sucks, and it's easy to damage the print in the process. Not something to plan on doing.

Color mount is not remotely archival, BTW

[JBrunner]

Buffermount is also removable, but have you ever done it? It sucks, and it's easy to damage the print in the process. Not something to plan on doing.

Color mount is not remotely archival, BTW

Yes, I have. It wasn't hard, more tedious than anything, requiring only a sealing iron and patience. The few prints I have unmounted suffered no damage.

[StigHagen]

Buffermount is the ONLY mounting tissue I would recommend. Acid free and reversible (at great pains) and uses wax as the adhesive not glue or polymer.

How big an issue is it that it is acid free? Will the other types of mounting tissues affect the image over time? Is buffermount the only archival tissue?

Maybe the others are acid free as well, maybe they just don´t write about it?