For the rest, nothing is left but to experiment according to the hints given in the text by M. Lalanne.
(p. 59.) If you can, buy your ink of a plate-printer or of a lithographer. That used by book-printers will not do! The trouble is that the ink used by ordinary plate-printers is of a disagreeably cold cast, as it is mixed with blue. Etchings ought to be printed with a warm black, and sometimes, especially in the case of somewhat over-bitten plates, with an ink of a decidedly brownish hue. Inks are made of linseed-oil varnish (i. e. linseed oil that has been boiled down or burned), and the blacks mentioned in the text. There are various qualities of varnish according to its consistency, varying from thin through medium to stiff. If you wish to mix your own ink, you must try to procure the materials of some plate-printer or lithographer. For varnish use the medium, for black the Francfort. The burnt Sienna (which you can buy at any paint-shop) is used only to warm up the black. Lay some of the dry color on your ink-slab, add a very little of the varnish, and mix with the muller. Then add more varnish until the ink forms a tolerably stiff paste. The grinding must be carefully done, so as to avoid grittiness. Besides, if the color is not thoroughly well incorporated with the varnish, the ink will not stand. To preserve the ink for future use, put it into some vessel with a cover, and pour water over it. The water standing on top of the ink keeps it soft. Otherwise the varnish would harden.
(p. 60.) The heavy Dutch hand-made papers are still preferred by most people for etchings; but it is very difficult, if not impossible, to procure them in this country. The paper known as Lalanne charcoal paper, which is likewise a hand-made paper, can be bought at the artist's material stores. Good drawing-paper will also answer. The worst, because most inartistic, of all, is the plain white plate paper. The paper used for the etchings in the American Art Review, first made especially for this journal according to my suggestions, has excellent printing qualities, although, being a machine-made, unglued paper, it lacks some of the characteristics of the Dutch hand-made paper. But its texture is very good, and it takes up the ink even better than the Dutch papers.
Japanese paper can be procured of the firms named on page xiii.
Dry paper will not take a decent impression, and the sheets to be used for printing must therefore be moistened. To prepare the ordinary paper, take three or four sheets at a time, and pass them slowly through clean water contained in a pail or other vessel. Wet as many sheets as you may need, lay them on top of one another, place the pile between two boards, and allow them to lie thus under tolerably heavy pressure for at least twelve, or, better still, for twenty-four hours. The paper will then be ready for use.
To prepare Japanese paper, lay each sheet between two wet sheets of ordinary paper, and let it lie as before.
(p. 60.) Épreuves de remarque. The remarque usually consists in leaving unfinished some little detail in an out-of-the-way corner of the plate. After the épreuves de remarque have been printed, this detail is finished. A person who cannot tell a good impression from a bad one, or does not know whether a plate is spoiled or still in good condition, without some such extraneous sign, has slight claim to be considered a connoisseur.