MorseBlog

Yet more Soviet paper to try on the heels of some success. This was a pack of 13x18cm RC paper. Referred to a No-2 on the label. An opened pack pack of paper from the 1980s. No watermark on the back as I have seen with other Soviet paper. I suppose in a communist system there is no need for branding.  I normally have some trepidation about old paper being fogged or in other ways unusable. I have had some good luck which I suppose encourages me. This time I was bound for disappointment. Package the paper came in. With safelight on in my darkroom, I opened the seal on the package and slid out the black envelop from inside and opened the flap. Inside was a tight stack of single weight paper and on top in the center was a smaller stack of say a half dozen smaller rectangle of paper. I took one out to cut into test strips. I developed straight away without exposure and if showed a light gray color so there was to be some fogging in the batch. No sign of a light leak though. Next...

This past week my son came out from New Jersey for Spring Break for a visit. I fixed up a project for us to work on. Vicki and I had been planning pergola and this seemed like an ideal project to work on together. I bought a load of oak timbers for the project. I also opted for steel spikes as easier than digging 3 foot deep holes which is how I used to set fence posts on my farm in Oregon. I dislike the spikes as they have a steel box around the bottom of the post which I think detracts from their look. So I decided to set them in holes (6 inches deep) to hide the steel boxes. Since the spikes themselves are in the ground normally the risk of rust doesn't change. The choice of oak should mitigate rotting for 20 years or more. Here is what it looks like. It was all built from green oak and Redington and I cut and fit all the joints. The joints are simple traditional joinery. The first thing we had to do was make a template to cut the curved cross sections. We would use a rou...

I bought some more German photo paper. This time Agfa Lupex and Argenta. They both appear to be made around WWII. There is some debate about the age of paper watermarked Agfa Lupex with some stating the two words indicate wartime or pre-war. However the watermark has a double-line over the logo and some contend this means it is post-war. Much less is available on Argenta, but one war time watermark looks much different than the ones on mine. Lets start with the Agfa Lupex Agfa Lupex This paper is 7.4x10.5 cm in size and is described as soft, cream, and glossy. It comes in this familiar looking packaging. It was in an unopened box. Agfa-Lupex Box Here is the watermark on the back of the paper. It appears to be a Chloride emulsion from some research on the web. The paper is cream colored so it will be somewhat warm. First I cut some test strips and exposed and developed one.  Test strip 8" to 64" at f5.6  I then ran another one as the paper was quite...