Talk about blast from the past! I set up my first darkroom around 1958; I think I was in the 8th grade. Then, home darkroom work was 99.5% B&W. Most folks dropped their film at the drugstore and got back 3x5" prints, B&W, glossy. Very glossy, so that was the standard. So, one of my first purchases was a set of two ferrotype plates and a bottle of Kodak ferrotype polish. You used the polish to clean the plate and fill any little scratches which would otherwise show in the finish of the prints. I did some photos for local commercial needs and for the local newspaper, which required the high gloss finish. The ferrotype materials and info on how to use them were common then, but the process was still a tricky, hit-and-miss as to results. I regularly got flaws, and I became an early adopter of the unferrotyped glossy surface for my fiber prints. (Way before RC!) Having paid my dues at the age of 13, I'd never, ever bother using this procedure again, because you wait up to a day, then get a print with surface flaws, which are super apparent against the otherwise high gloss of the print surface. Tips from the past: (1) Always polish the plate. (2) Never use a hardening fixer on the print. The process is dependent a relatively soft surface to the emulsion gelatin, not just being wet. Plain "Kodak Fixer" (if still sold) is fine and cheap. (3) Most plates are sold in a size about 13' x 18". Reason: They just fit into those horrible old two-sided, heated print dryers with the canvas covers which always got contaminated with fixer by the class idiot. B&H seems to set new ferrotype plates once in a while. Never bother to buy the chrome steel ones used 100% of them will be damaged and useless.

I wish you had been my teacher of every school subject. I would certainly have been a better man!

I gave up on this process as I tried it with glass! Just ordered a sheet of #8 from an online source! Thank you so much, man!

Even back in the 1970s, I don't recall ever seeing (in person) good results from the heated drum ferrotype driers. I've seen them with pieces of print emulsion stuck on them, rust spots that had gone through the chrome, brown fixer stains on the canvas cover cloth. I even owned one once, a two-sided non-rolling affair, and only tried to use it a couple times. Your video here is the first I've ever heard of ferrotyping at room temperature. I may have to try to get a plate and try it; I like the super-gloss look for some prints, though these days I almost always print on RC paper -- but a ferrotype surface, to my eye, is glossier than even a high gloss RC print.

Brilliant! I had no idea you could do this without those dreaded drum dryers. Just clean, wet, squeegee and let air dry. What could be simpler!

I bought an old print dryer that came with several ferrotyping sheets. My experiment with them revealed that the best way to ruin prints is to let them air-dry, cold. This resulted in prints that were stuck edge to edge for me. Using the sheets with the print dryer resulted in prints that released from the sheets every time. In fact, prints which had stuck fast to sheets when I tried to let them dry cold, were re-wetted and put on the dryer, and this caused them to release from the sheets completely (they were however badly "ringed"). The sheets only need to be cleaned with a soft sponge, soap and water. Even a scrubby sponge caused buffing marks on the sheets. I found that when the sheets rinse clean, without water droplets clinging to the surface, you can expect the prints to release easily when dried and without blemishes. I have heard several old timers say adding photoflo to the print wash water helps get an even finish when ferrotyping, but I have not yet experiment with this yet. Getting the temperature right seems to make the biggest difference in quality.

I think this is the only video on YT covering this technique, so thanks !

Wow thanks for sharing this! I got an old electric drying press with these mirror finished chrome plates and never (!) got a proper result using this thing. Of course it flattens the prints during drying nearly perfect, but I failed in producing a high gloss finish. Seems to be related to the fast drying and the hard water here where I live. So, I tried this "cold dry" method you've shown here and -> a wonderful glossy finish at the first time! Though now as I can examine it, I'm not sure if I prefer the "natural glossy" surface of the FB prints ;)

So easy! Man, thanks for this info. Cheers

Muy bien me preguntó si hiciste pruebas con grasa sobre el cristal ?

Great video thank you!

Your dedication is absolutely inspiring. Thank you so much for all your content!

Wow I want to try this! I live in super humid region and hopefully this would be an advantage

Never heard this called Ferrotype - I know it as glazing, the Ferrotype being the chrome plate or drum in the dryer. I have it in mind that it works best without hardner in the fix. Prints were dry in about 10 mins but always had a slight curl.

Oh nice. I always loved the look of old ferrotype press photos on fiber from the ~40s that I found but always assumed you needed one of those machines to pull it off. Might have to try this if I ever work in a darkroom again.

I think that you are, in some mysterious way, able to read my mind. I been reading things about salt and albumen printing all this afternoon!

Thanks for a great video on an interesting topic. What I don't like about glossy RC (and the reason I switched to pearl finish) is the veiling (at some angles of reflection the blacks appear lighter than surrounding grays). My dislike for that effect is so strong that it probably has a name in the DSM V. But, there is no doubt that a high gloss surface makes a print appear to have higher contrast and a deeper Dmax. But, of course, there are cons to glossy prints as well. As for the drying time being a factor in the "oyster shelling", I'm not so sure. When I was in high school, almost 60 years ago) we dried prints in a large drum dryer with a chrome drum, emulsion toward the drum to get a glossy surface, and don't remember ever seeing the oyster shell effect even though the prints dried in a matter of minutes. So, I wonder if the oyster shelling might be occurring because the print is not being pressed against the ferrotyping plate for the entire drying time as it would be with a drum dryer. Anyway, just a thought. Glad to see I'm not the only one who's found it impossible to use glass without problems with sticking.

i actually got one of those drum dryers, i didnt even consider you could do this process on those. the instructions on mine say to place glossy prints face down but mine just stuck to and it was ruined, i was using harman direct positive 4x5 pictures, you should really make a video about harman direct positive i dont think its gets enough attention. love the channel man

A new technique to me, thanks for the informative lesson. Back when I ran polyacrylamide DNA sequencing gels, we would wash the glass plates and then lightly silanize them so we could pull them apart later without tearing the very thin gel. I don't know if the silanizing reagent is commercially available, but if so it might be worth trying.

you have to use mirror glass, not the ordinary glass. clean with sulfur acid, use talc for finish glossing the surface. A lot of work, instead I use also plexi. And faced the same problems. I figure out, that a solution is to lay on photo just piece of fabric textile, on the ends of plexi use some clamps, so it stays strained. prints came out straight, glossy and undamaged

My goodness, this is good timing, as I came into a ferrotyping machine in a pile of photographic stuff recently and was wondering whether to bother with it.

If I dust off some 76-year-old brain cells, I seem to remember that the folks who made ferrotype prints used to buy a special cream to apply to the plates. I wonder if that is true and if anyone can figure out what the cream formula was. That might help when using a sheet of glass. BTW, I still have a brand new large ferrotype tin still in the manufacturer's packaging. Terry Thomas... the photographer Atlanta, Georgia USA

Question, are you moderating the temp of the glass during the entire process? it's been a very long time but i seem to remember that the temp of the glass does play a part on whether you get a print free

thank you for the video .Just a question about water to have a wet print : do you use tape water or real distiled water ? .thank you

Howdy. Good video. Have you been able to ferrotype a small section within a larger sized piece of paper? Do you think that simply placing a small piece of acrylic/metal would work, or would it dry out too quickly and not have time to transfer the gloss?

Can you use Beeswax on the Plexiglass or even actual glass?

drying/glossing machines do it faster by heating the plate and pressing paper against it. and notice that almost all dryers have some amount of curvature to the plate. maybe you should try to do the same things.

When I was ferrotyping way back when the fixer had hardeners in it. Have you experimented with hardened prints versus unhardened?

Wow nice! I always thought, it's more difficult. Is there a way to achieve a flat ferrotyped photograph? Can I put them into water afterwards, so I can dry them to be perfectly flat, or will it remove the gloss?

If the Pharaoh type conforms to the surface of the plate you use, then why not just use glass, let it optically stick to the plate, and then simply frame the glass?

I have tried time and time again and no matter the surface I try to ferrotype with the print end up peppered with flakes , wich I believe are caused by water being trapped between the print and the glass/plexiglass ... does anybody have a solution this problem ?

This has " jaclose.... Ja-really-close" vibes