Re: Newbie in lith print
Formaldehyde is used in classic hydroquinone-only lith developer as a part of sulfite buffering system. It is not an essential part of lith developer but it is used to ensure good tray life of the developer. In lith printing, since the developer is further diluted, this formaldehyde-sulfite buffering system is ineffective and the developer dies rather fast with or without such dilute sulfite buffer. I have proposed to make a lith printing developer that omits such useless additions, but made to work actively when mixed freshly (eliminating old brown ritual), so that there is no hesitation in replacing the developer bath as needed. I posted it to the original (and the real) pure-silver several years ago. It was also discussed again on 21 June 2006 between Chris and me on alt-photo. I encourage you to try this route. In my experience, the given formulae work well with most lithable papers but it is also easily tweakable for your taste and for your paper stock, by adjusting the pH and/or KBr concentration. From: pslaviero@alice.it Subject: Newbie in lith print Date: Thu, 07 Dec 2006 11:30:55 +0100 > Hello everybody, I'm a newbie in lith printing. I've bought > the wonderful Tim Rudman's book to start to learn about > this. In Italy it is very difficult to find specific > developers, so being me a chemist, I would like to prepare > them by myself. I've visited unblinkingeye.com site where > few of them are present. I do not want to use formaldehyde > or paraformaldehyde. Who can help me please? Normally I work > with RC Ilford multigrade paper and this should be my > starting point. Thanks in advance to all of you.
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