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InPrint Article
Read this article, or see other newsletter articles. September, 2006 by John Murray Ferric chloride has proven to be a far less harmful alternative etchant than traditional nitric acid. For one thing, ferric chloride is a corrosive, rather than an acid. This means it will not penetrate and burn your skin when you come in contact with it. It will, however, turn your skin a bright yellow and will also stain your clothing—or anything else it touches—with that same color. Always use eye protection when handling this chemical; it is also a good idea to have an eyewash station nearby or running water to flush the eyes. Ferric chloride works best with copper plates to give a nice etched line. Copper plates must be etched in a specially made vertical tank in order to allow oxidized residues to slough off and fall away from the line work when using straight ferric chloride. Copper plate etching became radically better with the introduction of the Edinburgh etch, which combines anhydrous citric acid powder with ferric chloride. Edinburgh etch cuts etching times by almost one half, and gives a razor-sharp and nearly surgically clean line, all without having to use a vertical etching tank. Because the Edinburgh etch solution consumes the material oxidized from the line work on the plate with no accumulating residue, the plate can be etched horizontally in a tray oriented face up. Additionally, unlike etching zinc plates in nitric acid there are no bubbles to "feather" away because none are produced. Other than normal ambient circulating room air, no additional venting is needed because there are almost no fumes or odors when etching. Copper plates have been shown to etch more cleanly than zinc using the Edinburgh etch and are also more durable, holding up to the considerable pressures of the intaglio press bed. For drypoint work, copper is a clear winner because it is a more uniform and ductile metal, allowing the stylus to incise and move across the plate more smoothly and freely than does zinc. While copper may be an expensive metal, I have found that using roofing copper is satisfactory for all types of intaglio work, including mezzotint. Roofing copper is softer than commercially available engravers copper, but experience has shown it to be sufficiently strong to allow editions of more than twenty drypoint or even mezzotint prints and fifty or more traditionally etched prints. Roofing copper is thinner than engravers plates, and this may limit the plate size to less than 11 x 14 inches. With these limitations in mind, the price offset for using roofing copper places this alternative material at less than the cost of zinc plates. I buy flat, pre-cut 5 x 7 inch copper step-flashing from a local roofing supply company, and each piece (plate) costs me about $1.40. Now, go look up what the going rate for the same size plate in thicker engravers copper is from your friendly graphic supply source, and you will see why I am so excited about using roofing copper. My goal is to "sell out" my editions. With this goal in mind, I keep my editions small, typically less than 20 prints. I found that earlier in my printmaking career, I was impressed with how many images could be printed from a plate and tended to make large editions. This quickly turned my studio into a storage facility, and I was straddled with the care and maintenance of an ever-expanding inventory of unsold prints, not quite what I had in mind as a printmaker. It looks so much better to have sold-out editions, and besides that—it forces me to continue working at what this is all about: printmaking. |
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