A Treatise on Etching Part 10

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.

Still, as I am not a scientific chemist, and my knowledge is entirely empiric, I am prepared to believe any chemist who may tell me that I might do as well, or better, with more water.

"Generally I do not get all the color I wish by the first process, as I can see without removing the ground; so, when my etching is finished, I reverse the engine and begin stopping out and biting upon the original ground, as it is ordinarily done. I do not use the black asphaltum varnish for stopping out, but a transparent varnish that is simply white resin dissolved in alcohol. If applied very carefully, and allowed time to dry, it is perfectly clear and transparent, and the relations of all parts of the plate can be seen,--the stopped out as well as the bitten lines,--but to a careless worker it presents many troubles. It is so transparent that it is hard to see what is stopped out and what is not, and if washed with very warm water, or before it is thoroughly dry, it turns cloudy and semi-opaque. I have no trouble with it, and could not get along without it. I make it myself,--have no formula,--adding alcohol until it is thin enough to flow readily from the brush. It has a great advantage over asphaltum varnish, as it does not flow along a line. It is viscid enough to remain just where it is put, and is as perfect a protection as any asphaltum varnish."

Mr. Smillie heats his bath on the plate-warmer, but not to exceed 80, or at most 90. Such a bath of hot mordant acts much more quickly than a cold acid bath, less than two minutes being sufficient for the lightest lines.

[17] (p. 50.) Gravers are of different shapes, according to the nature of the line which they are intended to produce. They are sometimes kept at the hardware-stores, as, for instance, by A. J. Wilkinson & Co., 184 Was.h.i.+ngton St., Boston. This house also issues an ill.u.s.trated catalogue of engravers' tools.

[18] (p. 52.) M. Lalanne, it seems to me, does not do full justice to zinc plates. Very delicate lines can be bitten on zinc if the acid is sufficiently weakened. I have found that one part of nitric acid to eight parts of water, used on zinc, is about equal to one-half acid and one-half water, used on copper for about the same length of time. Zinc plates can also be bought of Mr. Geo. B. Sharp, 45 Gold St., New York.

As to the length of edition that can be printed from a zinc plate, see Note 27.

[19] (p. 52.) This is not strictly correct. The "maniere de crayon," as practised by Demarteau and others, differs materially from soft-ground etching. A ground was laid and smoked as usual, and on it the drawing was produced, by a variety of instruments, such as points, some of them multiple, the roulette, the mattoir, etc.

[20] (p. 55.) There is another method of getting what may be called a proof, i. e. by taking a cast in plaster. Ink your plate and wipe it clean, as described in Note 22, and then pour over it plaster-of-Paris mixed with water. When the plaster has hardened it can easily be separated from the plate, and the ink in the lines will adhere to it. To make such a cast you must manage a rim around your plate, or you may lay it into a paper box, face upward. Mix about half a tumbler full of water (or more, according to the size of the plate) with double the quant.i.ty of plaster, adding the plaster, little by little, and stirring continually. When the mixture begins to thicken pour it on the plate, and if necessary spread it over the whole of the surface by means of a piece of wood or anything else that will answer. Then allow it to harden.

[21] (p. 55.) The chafing-dish and the ball (or dabber) are now replaced by the gas flame and the inking-roller in most printing establishments.

But if you desire to do your own proving, you will have to use a dabber, the manner of making which is described in the next note.

[22] (p. 59.) If there is no plate-printer near you, but you have access to a lithographic printing establishment, you can have your proofs taken there. "Lithographic presses," says A. Potemont, "give perfectly good and satisfactory proofs of etchings."

Not every printer can print an etching as it ought to be printed. A man may be an excellent printer of line engravings and mezzotints, and yet may be totally unfit to print an etching. I would recommend the following printing establishments:--

New York: Kimmel & Voigt, 242 Ca.n.a.l Street. Boston: J. H. Daniels, 223 Was.h.i.+ngton Street.

If you desire to establish an amateur printing-office of your own you will need, in addition to the tools and materials already in your possession:--

A press, A plate-warmer, An ink-slab, A muller, A dabber or ball, Rags for wiping, Printing-ink, Paper.

_The press._ The presses used by professional plate-printers will be thought too large and too costly by most etchers. There is a small press sold by Madame Ve. A. Cadart, 56 Boulevard Haussmann, Paris, of which a representation is given on the next page.

This press, accompanied by all the necessary accessories,--rags, ink, paper, plate-warmer, dabber, etc.,--sells in Paris at the price of 150 francs (about $30). There is an extra charge for boxing; and freight, duties, etc., must also be paid for, extra, on presses imported to this country. The publishers of this book are ready to take orders for these presses, but I cannot inform the reader what the charges will amount to, as no importations have yet been made by Messrs. Estes & Lauriat.

There is also a small press invented by Mr. Hamerton and made in London by Mr. Charles Roberson, 99 Long Acre, which sells on the other side, for the press only, at two guineas for the smallest, and four guineas for a larger size. These presses are smaller than the Cadart presses, and, according to Mr. Hamerton, are "very portable affairs, which an etcher might put in his box when travelling, and use anywhere, in an inn, in a friend's house, or even out of doors when etching from nature."

A small press has also quite lately been introduced by Messrs. Janentzky & Co., of Philadelphia, which costs only $16.50 (without accessories), and is well recommended by those who have used it.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The press is not complete without the flannels spoken of in the text (p.

56, -- 87). There is a kind of very thick flannel specially made for printers' use. But if this cannot be had (of some plate-printer) any good flannel with a piece of thick soft cloth over it will do well enough.

In adjusting the press care must be taken that the pressure is neither too great nor too small. This is a matter of experience.

_The plate-warmer_ is a box made of strong sheet-iron, into which either a gas-jet or a small kerosene lamp can be introduced. If you happen to have a gas-stove, and can get an iron plate of some kind to lay across the top, you will have an excellent plate-warmer.

_The ink-slab._ Any _smooth_ slab of marble, slate, or lithographic stone, about a foot square, will do.

_A muller._ This is a pestle of stone, flat at the bottom, used for grinding colors or ink.

_A dabber or ball._ Take strips of thick cloth or flannel, about four or five inches wide; roll them together as tightly as possible, until you have a cylinder of two or three inches in diameter; bind firmly by strong twine wound all around the cylinder; then cut one end with a large sharp knife, so as to get a smooth surface. After the dabber has been used for some time, and the ink has hardened in it, cut off another slice so as to get a fresh surface.