Re: Regular Paper Archival Treatment

Hi John,

At 08:15 AM 7/16/06 -0400, John Cremati wrote:
> I do some work for a printing outfit , therefore I have access to a large
>quantity of various papers they have used and is left over from different
>jobs. Some of it is rather nice in the 80 pound to 100 pound called "
>cover " but no mention is made of archival properties on the boxes .....
>They are not 100 percent rag and most is hot pressed I am sure.
> The question is has anyone tried using regular non coated papers ?
>Would gelatin sizing it increase the archival property of that paper ..?
>Is there anything I can add to the sizing to increase the life span of the
>paper?
>John Cremati

I also work in a printshop, and just happen to have the paper price book
home this weekend, redoing our price lists.

The majority of the readily available uncoated cover stocks are acid-free
and free of elemental chlorine. Some are partly recycled content, but still
meet the above criteria. The majority are wood pulp fibre, but a few have
some cotton content.

The main exception I see in the book is Royal Fiber, Royal Linen, etc, from
Wausau. Those ones have no specifications about the archivability of their
content, so I don't think they'd be acid-free, etc.

If you know the names of specific papers, I can look them up in the book
for you.

As to your other question - no, I haven't tried using them for any alt
processes yet, but now that you mention it, I might have to test some of
them. I'd suspect these commercial printing papers to need sizing before
anything else, as they don't have anything like the wet strength they'd
need for alt (or any photo) processes.

Feel free to be the first to experiment with the printing papers, and do
let us know how it works out, please.

So far, I'm just using 140 lb. Arches hot-pressed watercolour paper for
cyanotype and will use this for gum printing as well ( educatedly winging
it, with note-taking, for anyone who cares 8^D ) when I have time for that.

Hope this is of some use to you.

Take care,
Randi

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                                      Ms Randi DeLisle
               bookbinder, publisher, printmaker & photographer
                          pulp fictions & pulp fictions press
         Grand Forks BC  Canada    pulpfic@sunshinecable.com
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