Digital BW, The Print

I will clarify one thing: our cotton base sheets do not have OBA's added to
them. I have examined our papers many times over the years with a black
light and I have occasionally seen tiny specks of OBA in the base sheets
because some of our papers are made from textile cuttings which may contain
OBAs. Our base sheets are white - we require a brightness of 91+ from the
paper mill. So while the coating will become less bright as the OBAs "burn
off" over time, it does not turn yellow and the base paper is not yellow.
When I have seen true yellowing it has been caused by chemical reactions
(one time we had a print hanging around the corner from our booth at a trade
show, right next to a laminating machine, and the non printed areas turned
yellow, but returned to white after we returned home) such as exposure to
improper framing and matting materials or chemicals in the environment such
as solvents. Our newest coatings (the non OBA on Osprey, Condor and Kestrel
Natural and the OBA coating on Merlin, Condor, and Kestrel) will be
submitted to Wilhelm with UC inks soon. We continue to offer both coatings
because some people prefer a very white paper for printing.
Diana York ~ Hawk Mountain Papers
toll-free 888-807-2248
www.hawkmtnartpapers.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <sandersm@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2004 9:11 AM
Subject: [Digital BW] Hawk Mountain paper longevity


While we're on the subject of papers, has anyone taken the time to do a fade
test of the Hawk Mountain paper line?   And, in particular, their Condor BW,
Merlin and Nighthawk papers?   The first two papers have OBAs in the
coatings,
but the owner of the company says that the issue is not OBAs per se, but
their
interaction with the media applied to them, and that OBA fading is much more
of an issue with dye-based inks than with pigments such as the UC inkset.
She also said that she has UC prints hanging unprotected in her shop that
are
4-5 years old on these papers, and that they show no sign of yellowing or
fading.

Does anyone have any experiences or observations to share on these papers?

Sanders McNew
www.mcnew.net