Day off?

As you may already know, I am working at trying to devote Fridays to photography, and for the most part I have been successful the past few weeks. It is hard for me not to pop in to my other work space at the market, and perhaps bake a few dozen cookies, a pie, and some bread before continuing on with the day, and today was just that.

Back home now, and rather than head out with the camera today, I have decided to devote the morning to organizing, cleaning, and cataloging. I also need to make a new focusing glass for the 5×7 back. It worked its way loose last weekend, and fell to the pavement.

Oddly, it was not at all upsetting. I figured it would break at some point in my travels, so this is an opportunity to see how easy, or challenging a replacement is.

I first tried sand blasting a piece of glass, and had the grit been finer I think it would have been ok, but the surface ended up a little pitted.

I did some research, and decided to try acid etching next. Easy enough. Brush the acid paste on. Let it do it’s work for a few minutes, then wash it off. How hard could that be?

Though not difficult, it did require a few attempts. Getting the paste spread out quickly, and evenly is key. My first attempt shows a pour mark in the center, not unlike a mark left on a tintype when the developer is poured in one spot.

The next attempt was better, but I’d like to now mixing up some rotten stone paste, and working the two surfaces against each other.

I have a collection of both aluminium, and glass plates, failed tintypes/ambrotypes that need to be cleaned. The glass is easy enough, the tintype requires a bit more elbow grease. I’ll also try my hand at coating the aluminium plates with asphalt varnish.

If a get enough of my projects done, I’ll try and get out with one of me cameras too.

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