Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/22

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Darkroom Equipment-Drymount press
From: Mark Rabiner <mrabiner@concentric.net>
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 12:09:58 -0700

Ken Iisaka wrote:
> 
> From: Paul Klingaman <pklingaman@hotmail.com>
> > 2. Another worthwhile investment is a dry mount press.
> 
> While I wholeheartedly agree, I have not yet taken the leap to buy one yet.
> 
> I place my fibre prints on a smooth plastic board, and squeeze dry.  I leave
> the prints on the board for 12 hours in my bathroom.  The slow drying
> allows the print to stay flat.
> 
> So, how do you dry your prints with a press?  Do you place the print on a
> ferrotype?

A dry mounted print is no longer considered Archival. You are finding in serious
galleries now prints which are air dried and flattened and attached by inert
corner things to Museum board in a window mount and then put behind glass. The
paper can be lifted out at any time should some discoloring start to occur and
steps are needing to be taken as in refixing and washing.
A dry mounted print can be taken apart again with some heat and difficulty but
neither the heat nor the difficulty is now thought highly of. 
The slightest contamination from your dry mount beds (and there is bound to be
some) gets baked into every print.
Mark Rabiner