Tech Notes

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Coating the Paper

I coat in my darkroom with a 75 watt bulb about 6 feet away from the coating surface.

So how to get it onto the paper. Again there are as many ways to coat paper as there are people coating paper. I only use high quality brushes, with no metal. My brushes of choice are made by Yasutomo 4 3/4 INCH # BF300 for prints bigger than 8X10 and 2 ½ INCH BRUSH BF 216 for smaller prints. I pour the emulsion on the paper top to bottom then spread it out left to right as I work I turn the paper and continue to brush left to right as the emulsion soaks in. I coat so heavy that sometimes I have to wipe off excess emulsion (from the brush) onto a paper towel. After I feel the paper is full coated I use a dry brush to help smooth out and remove any excess emulsion. This also adds to your brush strokes around the outer edge of the print. If you listen your paper will talk to you and tell you when your done coating it.

Many people are having great success with a tool called "The Puddle Pusher" a glass rod with a handle used for coating. Me, I can't make it work to save my life. Some use combinations of both Puddle Pusher and a brush. Others use foam brushes, I believe they tear up the surface of the paper too much.