Digital BW, The Print

Mitch, I have been using EEM, whose box lists it as a 10 mil paper.  I 
know it is not "archival" but when I go through 800 sheets at a time I 
am not really prepared to pay what the truly archival papers cost.  
These prints end up being looked at on Christmas day and perhaps once or 
twice more, and then they get put on shelves for the duration.  Any 
deterioration will be due almost entirely to the nature of the inks and 
the paper, as environmental causes will only be able to affect the page 
edges.  For what these books are, that's good enough.

For binding I use the GBC plastic combs, the ones that need a line of 
rectangular holes on the edge of the paper.  I use mat board, cut about 
1/2 inch larger than the pages, for covers.  I started this process 
about 20 years ago, and that was the binding system that my law firm 
used for office purposes, and I just used it because it was available.  
After a number of years when I spent Christmas morning down at the 
office binding up books to be given away at family celebrations that 
evening, I finally bought a punch and binding machine for home, and have 
just kept using it.  It does not make a particularly elegant book, and 
if the books get too thick (which mine do, at least for the 
grandparents) the combs can want to stretch a bit.  But it is an easy 
and effective system that I can use in my (old) darkroom to organize and 
maintain a large number of photos each year for different family members.

Cheers,
Kip

mkirschner wrote:

>Kip,
>
>What thickness paper are you using? My C86 gets fussy or downright 
>uncooperative with papers much thicker than 11 mil or so. I've had 
>damaged paper/ink "spatter" but not in the exact way you described. 
>The symptoms developed after several sheets of Hanhnemuhle Photo Rag 
>fed/printed just fine. Going to a somewhat reduced thickness paper 
>helped but still led to damaged paper. So now I stick to 11mil or so 
>papers, for the sake of the print as well as printer longevity (I do 
>miss using the thicker papers though).
>
>On a separate tangent: How are you binding the photo books? I've 
>been wanting to get into this. Any references/tips for getting 
>started? Are you using all archival materials?
>
>Mitch
>  
>