On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Manuel Estébanez wrote:
I'm not a Daguerreotypist. My experience has only been to watch someone
else make a Daguerreotype, and to read about the chemistry. So, for what
it's worth I'll offer the following observations.
> What's the ideal look of a plate silvered for daguerreotype?.
It should ideally be a mirror finish.
> and the ideal silver thickness?
It has to be thick enough to allow you to make a silver mirror, and not so
thick that you spend all your money on silver <grin>. Basically the
Daguerreotype process works only on the top few molecular layers of the
silver surface so at a minimum you'd need the film to be a couple silver
molecules thick. Practically, you will get a bit more than this since the
most common way of making these plates today is by electroplating.
> Any formula for calculate/control
> this ideal silver thickness?
The old plates were silver clad. I'm not too certain what process was
used to do that, but most plates today are silver plated. The control is
whatever you can achieve in your plating process, and what you can afford
as far as the amount of silver you want to plate. This is something you'd
need to work out with your plater. There may be an issue of solid
solubility and diffusion between the copper/silver interface too, but this
is outside my realm of expertise. Again it is something you'd need to
discuss with your plater.
I'd suggest that you contact the Daguerrian Society
<http://www.daguerre.org/> and get a copy of their guide to contemporary
Daguerreotypy (Don't remember the title exactly). They have a listing of
material sources in this publication that includes several platers who are
setup to make Dag plates. Some excellent discussion on safe handling of
mercury too, pretty much a "must read" if you are planning to work with
this process.
- Wayde
([EMAIL PROTECTED])
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