Properly equipped and with a trained crew, one tremendous lot of prints can be put on tins with muslin and hinges in a short space of time, but if every thing is not arranged conveniently and there is not enough help, it is a tedious job.
Many prints are wanted these days in sepia. Of course, there is a variety of formulx for sepias, but the old, straight hypo alum is still about the most reliable for getting results easily and conveniently.
The tone of the print is good and the bath can be used hot or cold.
Another thing used in the printing-room a great deal is a cutting bleach. There will be many enlargements and occasionally prints with dark edges or portions of an edge which should be eliminated, background that tint through, etc., which can be bleached out with the following formula: To one dram of saturated solution of potassium cyanide (be sure to mark the bottle "deadly poison"), add two ounces of water. To this add about 25 to 30 drops of iodine solution, such as obtainable from the drug store and you have a very fast and effective cutting bleach which, when applied to your print, will bleach out to a pure white any portion it touches. This was mentioned in one of the previous
chapters in connection with bleaching out a photograph under a drawing.
Prints, with a gloss surface, often show abrasion marks, which many find troublesome to remove. A piece of cotton dampened with alcohol and rubbed on a cake of Bon Anti, such as used in cleaning windows, and then applied to the print, will quickly and easily remove such marks without, in any way, damaging the print.
When wanted for salesmen's sample books, especially when without hinges, the prints should have the corners rounded. There are several machines on the market for this purpose, any one of which will be found a good invest ment for a studio turning out large quantities of prints and the appearance of the print is greatly- improved, there being no corners to become broken and ragged.