Part 10 (1/2)
Melt together and then form into strips.
[7] (p. 21.) Etching is the most individual of the reproductive arts (or rather of the _multiplying_ arts, the German _vervielfaltigende Kunste_), even in its technical processes. Therefore nearly every etcher has his own ways of doing, and few agree on all points. Many etchers do not think it necessary to weaken the acid as described in the text. But be sure to let it _cool_ after it has been mixed with water, before you immerse your plate!
[8] (p. 22.) It would take altogether too long to wait for the _perfect_ drying of the asphaltum varnish, nor is it necessary. Fan it, as described in Note 4, and as soon as it ceases to stick you can again immerse your plate.
[9] (p. 25.) I have never been able to notice this turning dark of the lines, although I have had plates in the bath for several hours, and some of my artist acquaintances whom I have consulted on the point, have confirmed my experience. Possibly the phenomenon described by M. Lalanne may be caused by impurities in the acid.
[10] (p. 27.) If the reader will make use of the device for lifting the plate into and out of the bath, which I have described on p. xvii, there will be no necessity of burning his fingers. With a little precaution, and a plentiful use of benzine for was.h.i.+ng and cleaning, the daintiest lady's hand need not suffer from etching.
[11] (p. 29.) For directions for making this ground see Note 3.
[12] (p. 38.) To make the varnish, or rather etching-paste, recommended in the text, a warm-water bath is not absolutely necessary.
Take any small porcelain or earthenware vessel (a small gallipot is very convenient, because the etching-paste can be kept in it for use), and set it upon a metal frame, easily made of wire, so that you can introduce a spirit lamp under it. Break up a ball, or part of a ball, of ordinary etching-ground, and throw it into the pot. Heat the pot carefully, so as just to allow the ground to melt. When it has melted, add oil of lavender (worth thirty-five cents an ounce at the druggist's), drop by drop, and keep stirring the mixture with a clean gla.s.s rod. From time to time allow a drop of the mixture to fall on a cold gla.s.s or metal plate. If, on cooling, it a.s.sumes the consistency of pomatum, the paste is finished.
As I have said before, this paste cannot be used with the India-rubber rollers recommended in Note 5. With these rollers the regrounding must be done with the ordinary etching-ground with the aid of heat. Warm your plate so that you can just bear to touch it with the hand, and allow some of the ground to melt on a second, unused copper plate. Also warm the roller slightly. Then proceed as M. Lalanne directs in his fifty-seventh paragraph. The slight changes in the proceeding, which grow out of the differences between cold and warm ground, are self-evident.
It is hardly necessary to say that the roller can also be used for laying the first ground. _But it is of no use on any but perfectly smooth, straight plates, as it cannot penetrate into hollows._ When it is not available the dabber must be employed in the old manner.
[13] (p. 39.) Some engravers prefer the dabber to the roller even for regrounding entire plates. In that case the ground is spread on the margin of the plate, if that be wide enough, or on a separate plate, and is taken up by the dabber. The plate to be regrounded must of course be warmed as for laying a ground with the roller, and care must be taken not to have the dabber overcharged with ground.
[14] (p. 40.) In default of the charcoal-paste, rubbing with the finest emery-paper will do to remove the polish.
[15] (p. 40.) I cannot direct the reader to a copper-planer, and therefore it will be best to give some directions for removing faulty pa.s.sages. The following paragraphs are copied bodily from Mr.
Hamerton:--
”The most rapid way is to use sandpapers of different degrees of coa.r.s.eness, the coa.r.s.est first, and then the sc.r.a.per, and, finally, willow charcoal with olive oil. The charcoal will leave the surface in a fit state to etch upon.
”This sc.r.a.ping and rubbing hollows out the surface of the copper, and if it hollows it too much the printing will not be quite satisfactory in that part of the plate. In that case you have nothing to do but mark the spot on the back of the plate with a pair of calipers, then lay the plate on its face upon a block of polished steel, and give it two or three blows with a hammer (mind that the hammer is rounded so as not to indent the copper).”
[16] (p. 48.) The process here alluded to is the one used by Mr. Haden.
The mordant is the so-called Dutch mordant, and the manner of making it is thus described by Mr. Hamerton:--
”First heat the water by putting the bottle containing it into a pan also containing water, and keep it on the fire till that in the pan boils. Now add the chlorate of potash, and see that every crystal of it is dissolved. Shake the bottle to help the solution. When no more crystals are to be seen, you may add the hydrochloric acid. Make a good quant.i.ty of this mordant at once, so as always to have a plentiful supply by you.”
For a full account of the Haden process see Mr. Hamerton's ”Etcher's Handbook,” or the second edition of his ”Etching and Etchers.”
This Dutch mordant is preferred to nitric acid by many etchers,--even when working, not in the bath, but in the ordinary way, as taught by M.
Lalanne,--because it bites down into the copper, and hardly widens the lines. ”From my experience,” writes Mr. Jas. D. Smillie, in a letter now before me, ”I unhesitatingly prefer the Dutch mordant for copper; it bites a very fine black line, it is not so severe a trial to the ground, and it does not need constant watching.”
Mr. Smillie, however, uses the mordant much stronger than Mr. Haden. He has, in fact, invented a process of his own, which, in a letter to me, he describes as follows:--
”I draw and bite as I progress; that is, I draw in the darkest parts first, give them a good nip with the mordant, wash the plate and dry it, and then draw the next stage. I can thus, by drawing lines over a part that has already been exposed to the mordant, interlace heavy and light lines in a way that I could not by any other process. I etch upon an unsmoked ground, and as the Dutch mordant bites a _black_ line, I see my etching clearly as it advances, By holding the head well over the plate, the lines can be very distinctly seen as they are drawn. After a little experimenting, the etcher will find the angle at which he can see his unbitten work upon an unsmoked ground without trouble. Mr. Hamerton's formula seemed to me too weak, so I am experimenting with
Muriatic acid, 1 ounce.
Chlorate of potash, 1-5 ”
Water, 5 ounces.
”This is the mordant I am now using, and I have found it to work well.