The rain started yesterday evening, and when I awoke this morning it was still coming down. I poured myself another cup of coffee, solved today’s Worldle, and crossword puzzle’s, then got to work.
I have about a dozen tintypes of various size’s that have been waiting to be varnished. I have been putting this off, but have no excuses today.
In theory varnishing the plates is rather simple. Sandarac varnish if used for this. The resin is collected from trees in Northwest Africa, most notably in the Atlas Mountains near Morocco.
The resin is mixed with linseed oil, and in the use of coating tintypes oil of lavender is also added. Rather a pleasant smell during the whole process.
First the plate is warmed. In the field an alcohol lamp is used, but when possible I like to used a standard hair dryer. Open flames, and varnish can have some rather sad results.
The varnish also gets warmed a little, and then it is poured onto the plate in much the same way as the colloidian. Poured off into the bottle. Then the plate is warmed again to aid drying. At this point the varnish surface is extremely tacky, and a magnet for dust. Into the rack it goes to finish curing.
Webster’s Wet Plate 
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