I love Canson Baryta Photographic but...

[Butch Welch]

I am new to this forum so I will start with a bit about me.  I am a former commercial photographer and art director in Seattle and Los Angeles, I recently retired early (August 2012) and relocated to SW Michigan to pursue fine art photography along the Great Lakes.  My website is here if you would like to see what I do:

http://www.pbase.com/butchwelch/butch_welch

For the past 2 years I have been preparing for a large gallery show (70 pieces) here in Michigan.  I make all my own prints on an Epson 4900 on Canson Baryta Photographique roll paper and send them to Reed Art and Imaging in Denver to be made into Gallery Boxes.   I have had no problems until recently when the last two batches I have sent arrived (after unpacking) with multiple white spots.  I replaced 5 prints from the first batch making sure there were no spots before carefully placing them individually in clear bags and loosely rolling and placing in boxes.  The five replacement also arrived with spots.  They graciously spotted them for free and moved on with the job.  I sent the second batch recently and after carefully inspecting them, placed them in clear bags as before and sent them flat, no rolling, thinking the rolling could have (it never had previously) caused the problem.  Again arrived with spots.  I contacted Canson and they replaced one of the rolls and sent an envelope for samples.  This new roll also has spots.  I vacuum the inside of the printer to eliminate any residue from the cutter before each print session, and even ran a 17x22 sheet through before starting the roll, no spots on the sheet many spots on the roll.  So I am looking for another paper to use in place of the Canson, as I no longer can trust the results.

I have tried many baryta papers:

Museo Silver Rag is nice but expensive, and has too much surface texture

Harmon Gloss Baryta prints nicely but the paper color is too cold for my taste, also kind of curly

I narrowed it down to two nearly identical (to the Canson) papers:

Ilford Gold Fiber Silk - 21% more expensive than Canson and only 39 foot rolls, probably to make it look price competitive

Hahnemuhle Photo Silk Baryta - 28% less expensive than Canson and is in 50 foot rolls

It looks like the Hahnemuhle is the winner, but before I take the plunge, does anyone have experience with this paper in rolls?  or know of any problems?

Gallery Box attached.

[nairb]

I would run into this problem often with Gold Fibre Silk as well as the Canson Baryta on my 4880 and 9880. What works for me is, like you to vacuum out the insides regularly, pulling out all removable parts and getting into the nooks and cranny's, but what is most effective is that after a cut/print is finished, I advance the paper out of the machine by 10-12 inches and kind of squeege the fresh cut by pinching the edge between my thumb and index finger and running the length of the fresh cut. I do this twice usually and always end up with a fair amount of the white speck dust. I then use a feather duster to do one swipe on the 6-8 inches above the fresh cut as static can pull bits that far in from the cut. This method which I've been doing for years has really helped in preventing the dust from getting into the machine in the first place.

I always do this to the fresh print as well. Including very lightly using my "print paper only" ostritch feather duster to loosen any dust particles that may have been inked over. This will often loosen any and I can then touch things up. I've been using the same feather duster for years now and it's one I tested well to make certain it was leaving no scratches. I can lightly swath a fresh off the machine print and leave no trace I did so, apart from the damn occasional white speck. The duster is sold at Canadian Tire for about $10. Just run it over your skin before buying to make sure there are no sharply cut feathers which occasionally there are in some of them. These can be plucked out easily as well if one is found.

The dust is always worst (ie most visible) for me on flat grey tones, which happens to be the sky on my best selling large panorama image.

The other problem I've always run into with these Baryta roll papers is the very fine hairline scratches that tend to come out in sections of the paper. It never shows in the cut sheet paper, but is ever present on roll paper and seems to always come in sections or groupings, then disappear. I've torn up so many 12x48 prints because of these scratches in the sky of my images.

These methods make most prints usable, but I do still end up destroying some due to hairline scratches or excessive dust specs. I'd like to find an non-rc paper that looks as nice but is way less a pain to handle and deal with, but haven't taken the time or had the funds to do much testing yet.

Hope this helps

[John_Black]

but what is most effective is that after a cut/print is finished, I advance the paper out of the machine by 10-12 inches and kind of squeege the fresh cut by pinching the edge between my thumb and index finger and running the length of the fresh cut. I do this twice usually and always end up with a fair amount of the white speck dust.

Yep - the paper cutter makes a mess of things.  I have the same "issue" with the Canon IPF6400.  I follow a similar process - regimented cleaning the paper path, before printing the next print, eject ~12" paper and clean with a Swiffer pad (they work great).  Suck the paper back in and print.  I leave an added 3" leading and trailing edge to reduce the change of paper particle being inked over too.  I've had similar "issues" with GFS and Hahnemuhle Baryta's too.  It's the nature of the coating - which tends to fleck when cut.  Alittle extra prep work to make sure the paper is clean before printing and all goes well.