Removing ink from zinc drypoint plate

Bill Low <wlow [at] bates__edu> writes

>I am seeking help/suggestions for removing dried ink from zinc
>printing (drypoint) plates. Plates are small. They have been soaked
>in mineral spirits with no effect. I have not tried long-term
>soaking in turpentine or other, weaker solution.

A few years ago I did a workshop on non-toxic printmaking with Keith
Howard and instead of turps as the solvent for cleanup he introduced
us to canola oil as the cleanup solvent. It worked really well on
the fresh ink and sometime later I had occasion to use it on a dried
oil--it does need to be soaked but after a couple of hours it
started to shift. Personally I find the oil does stay on the plate
so I would then wash the plate in water and a small amount of
detergent. You will obviously have to be careful of the burr on the
drypoints but a soft brush will probably be your best bet for
mechanical agitation. I would be interested to hear how you do this.

Robin Tait
Acting Deputy Manager
Conservation
National Museum of Australia
GPO Box 1901
Canberra ACT 2601
Australia
+61 2 6208 5170
Fax: +61 2 6208 5167


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 20:43
                  Distributed: Tuesday, March 6, 2007
                       Message Id: cdl-20-43-008
                                  ***