Printing with Charbonnel Aqua Wash Inks
Hello all,
I was wondering if anyone had tried printing with the new Charbonnel aqua wash etching inks. Surprisingly found an excellent selection at a local shop and was wondering if anyone had tried them out. Have had good experience with other Charbonnel inks, but wanted to check and see if anyone had any experience printing runs with them. They are an oil emulsion based printing ink that is washable with soap and water. Any advice will be much appreciated.
Thank you!
Personally I don’t want water anywhere near my press— rust is the enemy!
Daniel Morris
The Arm Letterpress
Brooklyn, NY
How long does it take to dry?
Why the need to re invent the wheel.?
Support the few places who still make Letterpress ink. Tye etc.
I tried some Charbonnel inks a few years ago, after the lady in the Charbonnel shop here in Paris assured me that the etching ink would also do well for letterpress. I have quickly returned to traditional inks, as I found them too liquid. And drying took a long time.
Thank you all for your responses. Sorry it took forever to post back… I was considering doing a workshop in a space without ventilation, and looking for a temporary alternative to rubber based or oil based inks that need solvents. Decided against it, thanks to your advice, and the extra wear the workshop and travel would have had on the press. Thank you again for your excellent advice!
I have been using Charbonnel Etching inks for over 25 years now….for Etching.
It would be an expensive way to print letterpress as those inks are not cheap. I would probably only use these for high end, Fine Art editioning of Letterpress Artwork. Charbonnel has beautifully fine ground colours and they are mostly lightfast too. still the best Etching ink available.
A lot of these new “environmental” inks like Charbonnel Aqua and Graphic Chemicals W/S (water soluable) are still,in principal, old fashioned oil based inks.However they contain an emulsifier that is activated with water on wash up.
The Charbonnel aqua inks also come with its own range of modifiers to make the ink either more runny or to make it thicker and add tack.
Any oil based ink can be modified. It just takes a bit experimenting. Various grades of plate oil to make it more runny and/or transperant, Magneseum Carbonate to thicken it, Graphic Chemicals “easy Wipe” if it’s too tacky etc…….like cooking in the kitchen.