Digital BW, The Print

Mark, thanks for the post.  At this point I am not washing my Arches prints.  I've heard other opinions by chemists that also make me question whether there is a net benefit to the procedure.  At this point I'm more inclined to think Arches' tolerance of water is mostly important for things such as combining it with water colors (we'll have a sample in the Jan-Feb Gallery Los Olivos Featured show -- see http://www.gallerylosolivos.com/), tinting, and washing -- by knowledgeable people -- if and only if it really needs it in the future. 

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com 

Mark MacKenzie <mjmackenzie22@...> wrote:
>
> ...
> Paper is a relatively complex material ...
> Long bath or washing times using pure water (which is really 
> quite aggressive in leaching the good with
> the bad) can result in a paper which is less stable than 
> it was prior to the bath.
> 
> Paper conservators will often post treat a work of art on 
> paper (if it can stand the wetting) with a fresh water 
> bath prepared by pure water which has been standing for 
> some days (at least the night before) in a
> container with dolomite stone chips.  The formerly aggressive
> pure water preferentially leaches several minerals (Calcium 
> being the predominant one).  This good mineral rich water 
> is used to complete the washing process and to return the
> mineral balance of the paper.  There are other
> stabilizing post treatment regimes but you get the picture.
> 
> I am not suggesting that you should follow this procedure. 
> However, I am suggesting that long bath or wash immersion 
> times can in some cases lead to reduced longevity.