Slate with marks on it.

[harlequeen]

I bought a number of slates of various sizes a little while back, and have used 3 or 4 of them over the weeks. Yesterday, I was doing a black and white image and as usual, checked the surface of the slate for marks and blemishes before using it.

After the pressing, there was paper stuck to the slate, this always happens even though I pre-press for moisture. I spent a little while rubbing the water soaked paper gently to remove it. The image was a little lighter than I wanted, but was OK, but there were marks which you could see at certain angles, and one of them looks like a ring from a mug being placed on it! This slate hasn't been out of the box, unitl I used it, and I didn't mark it. I haven't been able to remove it and I'm really peeved by this!

It was the only one of the particular size I had and I can't get it done now for my customer. Has anyone else found these 'phantom' marks on their slates?

Suggestions anyone for the mark removal.

Cheers

Harlequeen

[Paul]

When you rubbing it with sope water you will getrid of the paper. If you still can see coating marks try to ise aceton free polish remover. It helps.
Iam not sure what tem you used and if you used silicon or not but to reduce paper sticking simply lower your temp down.

[Dave271069]

I have the same problem, it's got so bad I've decided to stop doing slates as I find they just don't come out as good as I would like them to be if selling to regular customers. The rings is something I find on the slate a lot, tried everything to get rid of them but they seem to be permanent. They look like the rings if you cut a log in half.

[Paul]

Any of you use silicon?? If so whats your times and temp and pressure???

[harlequeen]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for replying. I have viewed your video of the slate on many an occasion and I follow your instructions to the letter; I view you as the expert on it, and I posted a pic of my very first slate result on this forum because I was so pleased with it.

I've done a different photo slate today and redone the first one as I found I did have the required size. I found that the faulty one is a matt finish stright out of the box and the other one I did today had a high gloss finish. They are both rock slate ones as you used in the video, and the glossy one has come out so well. I'm wondering if I have had a faulty batch as a number of them are not glossy at all. Do you know if you can buy both matt and gloss finish. If so, the matt ones are really poor quality. I will try to publish photos of both matt and gloss to show what I mean.

The one below is my first ever attempt, all the ones since have not been as good.
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[Renniwano]

It might be down to the coating.. I have only ever received glossy ones.. could it be the coating hasn't been cured correctly maybe..

Might be worth mentioning to the supplier ?

[harlequeen]

That's what I'm wondering really. I don't want to make a fuss if I should have known that I should order glossy. But if they should be glossy and they aren't I will contact the suppliers and ask them to replace the ones I have because I'm not happy with the quality. I hope it is that because otherwise I have slates here which I will not use.

[Paul]

mate and gloss both fine. i just found that matte need bit less of a temp.
I think i had matte from coralgraph and glossy ons from longforte.
both of them print lovely.
i just found one think about them. if there is two coatings types why suppliers don't include this in description info?? :/

[JMugs]

I have just sent a batch back, they produced a matt finish and the colour rendition was not vivid. Bar codes identical to ones with gloss finish and sharp colours. Finish not acceptable. I do a lot of.these from various suppliers, and put it down as a duff consignment.
I work with a number of photographers, this was a professional model's wedding. The photos were of the ceremony, emailed to me, to be delivered as the presents for the parents and grandparents at the end of the wedding breakfast. I charge a serious premium for this work, and had major problems!
As it is I carry reserve stock, but being the first time I had encountered this, I had to establish the cause, so I started at the beginning, image, printer, paper, press, slate..... ahh the slate. No rings though.
Was a tad frustrating, but hey that is commercial work.
Janners.

[harlequeen]

The matt ones I had were from Coralgraph, not happy with them at all. Will have to go through them and separate the duff ones.
As you can see on the first photo, there is a circular mark which wasn't obvious before printing. But when the light is on it, it's very obvious. The second photo is with a glossy slate from an old photo, so pleased with that one. The 3rd photo shows another slate I printed trying to get the blacks dark and resulted in areas of overcooking in the ladies' hair.

Any comments?
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