I couldn't find my 150 watt halogen bulbs and reflectors so I was left
with the heating pad. I can report that it works very well in helping
release photos stuck to the waxed paper. My heating pad is about 15x15
and has 3 power levels. After setting it on the highest heat setting
and giving it several minutes to reach temperature I put 2-3 prints on
the pad and folded it over to enclose them. A minute or two at high
heat allows peeling the waxed paper off. In most cases it's still stuck
on fairly hard but it will peel off without taking the emulsion with it.
In some cases (different papers) it just falls off by itself.
But except for matte B&W papers the waxed paper has left a thin film of
wax on some parts of the print. Viewed straight on it's not very
noticeable but at an angle it's very evident. My friends are unlikely
to care very much given that their most important photos have been
recovered in some state even if it's not the best. I, on the other
hand, am a bit distressed that I didn't do a better job on all the prints.
I'm very disappointed in the waxed paper for most prints and am
surprised that this method was recommended by a conservator's web page.
My friend who owns the prints discovered a few more that we hadn't
found before and tried to imitate my process. But she didn't have any
waxed paper in the house and used paper towels on both sides of the
print. I assumed that paper towels would stick very hard to a softened
emulsion and that was the reason for the waxed paper. But she had no
such problem and the ones she did look better than mine. However, the
prints she was working on were quite recent (not 40-50 years old) and
seemed to have a very high gloss finish. A protective coat over the
emulsion perhaps?
Before discarding some of the #4 stuff still in the refrigerator I'm
going to do some experiments with prints on different papers and use
only paper towels. We'll see if the paper towel is better or worse than
the waxed paper.
Chuck Norcutt
On 9/15/2011 1:32 PM, Chuck Norcutt wrote:
> My thought was for drying since I've been disappointed in the waxed
> paper sticking to some of the color prints. That suggestion came from a
> conservator's web site in the Boston area and I didn't expect the sticking.
>
> Thanks for the offer of the ferrotype but I think it would be too late.
> According to everything I've read I've already well exceeded the time
> for successful recovery. I'm hoping the decision is to trash the rank 4
> prints. Also, thanks for the RC warning. I've never used RC paper and
> wouldn't recognize it if it bit me. But did commercial printers use RC
> paper in the 60s, 70s and 80s? Or was RC paper for the low volume
> processor?
>
> No, I don't have a heat lamp but I do have some 150 watt halogen bulbs
> and large reflectors which can probably produce a lot of heat relatively
> close up. I've also thought of placing them inside a folded heating pad
> although that may not be warm enough.
>
> I'm open to other suggestions. I think my only remaining problem is
> those color prints which want to stick to the waxed paper. I think it
> must be paper specific since not all of them stick very hard. Some
> almost fall off and need just a little help.
>
> Chuck Norcutt
>
>
> On 9/15/2011 12:10 PM, Ken Norton wrote:
>> Chuck, I'm not quite sure I follow how you wanted to use the ferrotype
>> dryer, but I've got a couple of them. One of which might be about
>> right for this job as long as you're trying to use it from the
>> perspective of drying, not reglossing. Any RC paper is sure to be a
>> disaster in one.
>>
>> Instead of the toaster oven, have you tried a heat lamp?
>>
>> AG
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