Re: Gum hardening -- top down?

> It does sound though as if you are using too much gum.
> Terry

Terry,
I think after doing (by a crass calculation) 1000 gum prints in the last
several years, that if I were using too much gum, the other problems that
crop up from using too much gum would have occurred in spades. And they
haven't.

Are you suggesting that too much gum creates a situation wherein the
dichromate will plummet to the surface of the paper and fall out of
solution, or separate somehow from the pigment in suspension? Tell me why
you may suggest this as a reason? What am I missing here?

If it is that you are thinking my solution doesn't have enough fluid in it
to keep the ammonium dichromate suspended, because there is too much gum
solid, mind you I am only using 15% am di which then in my mix becomes a 7%
solution, far below the 30% saturation point.

I don't extrapolate any meaning whatsoever out of the fact that I see a
distinct separation, when coating paper, between a layer of yellow
dichromate under the swathe of pigmented gum. I find it merely an odd
observation with no explanation. Nor do I care whether gum hardens top down
or bottom up. I care about practice of gum, practical not theoretical
considerations, really.

 I think that a lot of the theories we're bandying about here this week are
going to take a lot more science than speculation to prove one way or
another. And I don't see any scientist with heavy machinery deciding to
take up the gum cause any time soon.

Suffice it to say...too much gum....nix on that one..

My practical 2 cents.
Chris
Received on Wed Apr 5 20:07:05 2006